Thomas’s life hasn’t been easy. Facing flesh-eating Grievers and half-crazed and vengeful peers doesn’t exactly sound like a cup of tea, especially when you’re trapped in a gigantic concrete maze with dozens of other boys.
At the end of The Maze Runner, readers learn that the Earth has been scorched by sun flares and left the world full of desperation and a disease that causes people to slowly become insane. WICKED’s mission is to save the world by using Thomas and his friends, but the reason is definitely not clear to Thomas.
Picking up right where The Maze Runner left off, readers find Thomas and his friends stuck once again: not in a maze but in the room where their rescuers left them. The escape from the Maze was not real but only meant to play with their reactions.
After nearly perishing of starvation from being trapped in the space with no food for so long, the Gladers get a surprise: a rat-looking man with shocking news. They are all under an operation of WICKED, a company who plans to save the world by testing their brains under a certain set of criteria. And on top of that, they are all infected with the mysterious virus that has taken the globe by storm. The only cure waits at the end of their next venture.
However, there is another test for them to survive before they are allowed to have it.
This time, they find themselves in the middle of an endless desert, called the Scorch by people from the outside, struggling against all odds to survive.
The only question is: Will they survive?
Riveting and intense, The Scorch Trials sweeps readers off their feet with its shocking secrets and revelations. Much more emotionally attached than The Maze Runner, the physical and emotional pain that the characters experience in their journey of endurance becomes very real to the reader. All of the characters show extraordinary development and readers can really get a good feel of their characteristics and why they act the way they do.
The Scorch Trials leaves readers begging for answers with its unpredictability and the destruction that follows the Gladers will leave readers biting their nails until the very end.
If The Maze Runner leaves a hint of curiosity at the world behind the book, The Scorch Trials leaves a gaping hole in everything readers thought they knew. So many questions are answered and even more are formed.
If you’re willing to continue following Thomas on his journey to safety, The Scorch Trials makes you grateful for the things you take for granted. There is action at every turn; you won’t get bored, and you won’t be able to put it down.