The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials

by James Dashner

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.  No more puzzles.  No more variables.  And no more running.  Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back.  But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy.  They had food, and shelter, and safety...until Teresa triggered the end.  In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland.  Government has disintegrated-and with it, order-and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim...and meal.

The Gladers are far from done running.  Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial.  They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks.  And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder-does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind?  Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?
From the book jacket

Review:  I really enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed the first book.  We get answers to questions and we start to understand a bit more about the society who created these trials and why these children are participating.  But you won't have all your questions answered-there are plenty of unanswered questions and I have been told that most are answered in the third book.  This book is full of action, suspense and drama and is quite the page turner.  There are some disturbing events as the story is fantasy and set in a futuristic world where terrible things have happened.  You have to be prepared for that going into the book.  There was a twist that I wasn't expecting and I didn't like because it changed my opinion of one of the characters whom I had previously really liked.  I am looking forward to seeing where the series goes next.

Rating: 4 stars

To see my review of The Maze Runner, click here.