My Pre-Reading
The Maze Runner series is probably one of my favorite dystopian YA series out there. Everything about it was just fantastic, and I was so excited to find out that Dashner had written a prequel novel for the series. I had so many questions about the world, and the Flare, and WICKED that were still unanswered by the end of The Death Cure, and I was hoping that The Kill Order would be able to answer most if not all of them.
I really was no disappointed. Although The Kill Order has a completely new cast of characters, and the world is a little different (people are still trying to figure out what in the world has happened rather than trying to figure out how to cure it or how to live with it), but it still managed to give insight into the world of The Maze Runner. The characters are still just as interesting, and my heart still broke for them whenever something didn't go their way or something went wrong within their little group.
I really enjoyed that the story was presented almost like a flashback - you start out meeting Thomas, and you end with Thomas and Teresa, but neither Thomas nor Teresa are anywhere to be found within the bulk of the story. This time, we're focused on Mark and Trina and Deedee and all of their friends, in their attempt to find out what is happening with this disease is that's been shot down on them and why anyone would want to infect other people with it.
Although there were times when I didn't really like Mark (the story pretty much follows him and his thoughts), I thought it was really interesting the way we were able to see into his dreams/memories of when the sun flares first destroyed the Earth, and to take this journey with him to locate his friends and try to save them. Dashner did an excellent job portraying Mark's emotions, as well as creating dynamic, round supporting characters.
The plot was fast-paced and very much like that in the other Maze Runner books, so it was nice to have that consistency even though we had to become adjusted to characters we had never seen before. Most of my questions were answered over the course of the book, although some were still left open-ended and The Kill Order raised even more. But it was still a very satisfying read.
I would definitely recommend this book to any fans of the Maze Runner trilogy, as well as to fans of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and other dystopian YA series. 4/5 to The Kill Order, and I hope you go pick up this series soon if you haven't already!
--Ashley
My Pre-Reading
I read this book so long ago, I'm not really sure what to write about it. So probably not very many spoilers, although I'm sure I'll ruin some part of the book for anyone who hasn't read it yet.
I thought that The Death Cure was a very nice conclusion to the trilogy. The ending was a little far-fetched (hey, here's some land that we cut off from ALL CIVILIZATION where you can live free of Cranks and the Flare because nobody knows it exists!), but it seemed almost plausible that there was an emergency back-up plan in case WICKED's plot to fix overpopulation backfired and killed everyone.
I was a little sad about Teresa dying, but she's kind of been on the fence for me since the second novel. I mean, I know she was being controlled by WICKED and all, but come on. Tom is your best friend. Give the kid a break. Speaking of which, he can never catch one. Oh hey, you're immune! But your best friend Newt isn't. So he's going to die. And you're going to be the one to kill him. Hey, you can get your memories back! But wait no, nevermind, that means WICKED just gets to play in your head some more, and you will remember every bad thing that you helped WICKED do. Oh, and by the way, you can't have both Brenda and Teresa, because right as you're about to think about making up with Teresa, she's going to die!
Poor kid, I don't even remember every other awful thing that happened to him because of WICKED.
Although all of the characters were pretty well developed from the first two novels, I think Minho and Tom have continued to grow. And characters like Brenda and Jorge who were introduced in The Scorch Trials were also given more depth and had more of an active role. Who would have guessed that they were agents of WICKED? Well, probably everyone but me, but that's besides the point. Everything is WICKED's fault and doing. They're worse than Big Brother.
Overall, I would definitely give this book a 4/5. I would, and have, recommend this series to any fans of dystopian YA novels, and I'm actually looking forward to the prequel coming out within the next year or so. I'm also pretty sure these books would make an epic movie series.
--Ashley
I still have so many blogs to write... I hate when I get ahead in reading and forget to do them.
Title: The Death Cure
Author: James Dashner
Year Published: 2011
Synopsis: Thomas knows that Wicked can't be trusted, but they say the time for lies is over, that they've collected all they can from the Trials and now must rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission. It's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test.
What Wicked doesn't know is that something's happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can't believe a word of what Wicked says.
The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine.Will anyone survive the Death Cure?
Why?: I read the first two books in the trilogy, and they were fantastic. Paul bought this one so we could finish up the series. (Except now there's going to be a prequel to The Maze Runner, so we aren't really done yet)
Expectations: I kind of expect a lot out of this book. I expect lingering questions to be answered, and I expect Thomas to have to deal with a lot of issues dealing with his past, present and future.
Judging a book by its cover: From the cover, it looks like it will be snowy outside. Which doesn't really make sense since the world was destroyed by sun flares, but who knows. Also, it seems like huge buildings will be abandoned and left to the forces of nature because people have migrated away or been consumed by the Flare. (Ok, so not all of that came from the cover, but most of it did. With a little background information from the last two books).
Here's to trying to finish all these blogs by 2012! (Although I really doubt that will happen).
--Ashley
