Week 40: The Scorch Trials

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The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner

This sequel to the dystopian YA novel The Maze Runner ups the ante quite a bit. The Gladers are saved from the Maze, only to be dumped into the real world, which they don't remember, and which is much more dangerous. Violent sun flares have scorched a large part of the Earth--everyone who can lives in what used to be arctic zones--and humanity is slowly succumbing to the pandemic Flare disease, which (of course) essentially turns people into insane zombies before they die. The characters find bits and pieces of information about the organization behind all this and why it is putting them through all this trauma, but by the end there's still a lot we don't know.

The story is well-written and fast-moving, and the characters have personality. I'm looking forward to the third book, The Death Cure, which will be released in about a month.

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