A review by loiereads
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

adventurous tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I was pretty disappointed with this one, not gonna lie. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did with the first one. 
Still, I gave it 3 stars because of the last 20%. It was very tense and had me second guessing everything. It did become a tad bit repetitive at times, but I feel as though it was the strongest part of the book. 
I didn’t like that Thomas and the rest of the Gladers got split up so much. I feel like the other characters didn’t get enough limelight and it just made everything feel a bit disjointed. Actually, a lot of the characters became very annoying in this book and I found myself rolling my eyes at them several times. 
I did feel like the writing had improved the first book though. Whereas I felt like the first book had a pretty childish tone, the second felt way more grown up, which I appreciated. There were actually quite a few very brutal descriptions in there (the first lightning storm, that’s all I’ll say, iykyk 😬). 
I was also surprised at just how different the second book is to the film. From what I remember of the film, barely anything is the same, which is very interesting indeed. 
Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the third book though! Bring it on!