The Death Cure

The Death Cure by James Dashner
Published: 10-11-2011 by Delacorte

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?

My opinion of this series is a little strange. I thought the 1st book, The Maze Runner, was just ok. The 2nd book, The Scorch Trials, was action packed and awesome. This book was a big letdown for me, which sucks, but that's just my opinion.

• Cranks - The scenes with Cranks in the deteriorating city were intense. These scenes were probably my favorite parts of the book. The subplot of one of the group being infected and slowly going insane was, to me, more interesting than what was going on with WICKED. It was also an emotional punch in the gut.
• Brenda - I love how Brenda, and really most of the girls in these books, are not afraid to embrace the butt-kicking that comes with being somehow connected to WICKED. Brenda is not the most fleshed-out character, but I like her. She's smart and not dead weight in the face of danger. I can't remember much of what went on in the Scorch Trials with Brenda, so maybe she is more of a developed character and I just don't remember the details.

• short chapters - The chapters in this book are way too short. They average about 5 pages each, although I am completely guessing - this isn't mathematical at all. It was horribly distracting for there to be a new chapter so often. There are 73 chapters in this book! I just...why? In most books I read, I barely notice the chapters because they are normal length, and I like not noticing the chapters.
• epic conclusion? - I thought this book was a big step down action-wise from The Scorch Trials. There's a lot of description of people being shot with weapons, and other action-y things, but it doesn't feel like action. There's not a lot of dialogue either. Thomas does a lot of thinking and warring with himself.
• indecision - Is WICKED bad? Is WICKED good? What do we do in either of these situations? It's still unclear if the villain is really the villain. This doesn't bother me, but Thomas thinking about it constantly was annoying after awhile. Stop thinking and do something! Also, there was very minimal recap from the 2nd book, which I read a long time ago, so I would have liked a refresher on what happened.
• the group - In The Maze Runner there was clearly a tight-knit group. They had to work together to survive and to escape. In The Scorch Trials, the group expanded a bit, but was also called into question. In this book, Thomas and a few others were separated from everyone else. Basically, the core group was really small and I forgot where some of those characters came from, and I missed some of the other characters I was familiar with.

2 robots

Not the action-packed satisfyingly epic conclusion that I was looking forward to

Acquired: bought