Book Review :: The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
Series: The Maze Runner #2
Also in this series: The Maze Runner, The Death Cure
Published by Chicken House
on 2013
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult
Pages: 359
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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 finished with 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?

Last updated on 5 April 2022

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What is The Scorch Trials about?

The Scorch Trials continues the story of Thomas, a boy who has just escaped with about 20 other boys from the maze where they were for trapped, forced to make their own order and mini-society. Now out of the maze, Thomas and his friends think it’s finally over. The trials that they were put through in the maze are done and dusted and they are finally free. But things are not all that they seem and only moments after they are comfortable and disillusioned into thinking they are out, things go very quickly downhill.

“The betrayal meant he couldn’t trust her anymore, and his heart told him he couldn’t forgive her.”

Thrown back into being test subjects for the organisation called WICKED, Thomas and his friends much reach the other side of the Scorch, a vast desert-like place with the sun blazing down on them at every moment, freak lightning storms, and the knowledge that there’s another group just like theirs out there somewhere.

My thoughts on The Scorch Trials

Last year I read The Maze Runner, and I really really enjoyed it. If I can recall correctly, I think I gave it 4 stars. My friend Roz bought the series the other week, and read the first two super-duper fast. I asked if I could borrow the second one, and I can see why she read them so quickly. I started this book on a Monday night and was finished by Thursday. If it weren’t for work, it would have been a 2 day read. Or a one day read if I did nothing else. So. Good.

Another great story from James Dashner, The Scorch Trials is a fast-paced book with action, suspense, love, friendship, betrayal, loss, new friends and old friends…and the ever-present force that is WICKED. I loved this book just as much as the first one, and I can’t wait to read the next one. At the end, we were left with so many questions, just like we were in the first one, so it’s very much a cliffhanger. Thomas as a character is awesome. I really like him, and the other minor characters are also great, with their own quirks and characteristics.

It’s very easy to read and doesn’t take long because you can’t put it. I really do recommend this series if you’re a fan of the YA books, or if you want to read The Maze Runner before you see the movie adaptation. I hope the movie does the first book justice.

What did you think of The Scorch Trials?