Book Review: The Death Cure (The Maze Runner, #3) by James Dashner

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BOOK review

Started on: 12.May.2014
Finished on: 16.May.2014

The Death Cure (The Maze Runner, #3) by James Dashner

Title : The Death Cure (The Maze Runner, #3)

Author : James Dashner

Publisher : Delacorte Press
Pages : 325 Pages
Year of Publication : 2011

Price : $ 10.83 (www.bookdepository.com/)

Rating: 4.5/5
*for those who haven't read the second book, this review may contain spoiler.
Review for The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1) here.
Review for The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, #2) here.  
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"He couldn't help but think that from here on things would improve. That he was going to take control of his own life now. If only the mirror hadn't reminded him of his tattoo - the one given to him before the Scorch. It was a permanent symbol of what he'd been through, and he wished he could forget it all."

After surviving the Scorch, Thomas was taken into a white room with nothing but a useless desk and a stainless-steel toilet. He was left in the room for three weeks, which almost made him go crazy. When the door of the white room is finally opened, Thomas saw Rat Man - or later known as Janson. After Thomas is reunited with his friends, Janson revealed that there is no cure yet for The Flare - so what he said before the Scorch Trials is all a lie. The truth is, WICKED is currently working to find the cure as the Gladers went through a series of trials and experiments. Janson also said that most of the Gladers are immune to The Flare, but some are not - and may have already caught the virus. Lastly, Janson offered them to get their memories back. All of them agreed to it; except Thomas, Minho, and Newt - who plans to escape the WICKED complex.

"The man is saying that Thomas is immune. Others are immune. Less than one percent of the population, most of them under the age of twenty. And the world is dangerous for them. They're hated for their immunity to the terrible virus, are mockingly called Munies."

"Survival, Thomas.... You don't know how good you had it growing up under WICKED's wing. Out in the real world, most people will do anything to survive one more day. Cranks and Immunes have different problems, yeah, but it's still about surviving. Everybody wants to live."

It turns out, even though they rejected Janson's offer to bring back their memories, Janson decided to force them to do it. Thankfully, Brenda, who actually worked for WICKED, was able to help them at the last minute. Brenda led the three boys around WICKED to find Jorge - who would be able to help them escape because he's a pilot. But of course it wasn't easy because they had WICKED guards chasing them everywhere. And when they finally found Jorge, he wasn't in his best condition. It turns out, the other Gladers also managed to escape WICKED, led by Teresa.

Once Thomas, Minho, Newt, Brenda, and Jorge are aboard the Berg, they decided to go to Denver - where they can find a man named Hans, who will be able to remove WICKED's system from their brains. However, Newt had to stay behind because he wasn't immune and already suffers from The Flare. While in Denver, they suddenly received a note delivered by a mysterious man. The note came from Gally, a Glader who they thought was dead. And he mentioned a group named The Right Arm - a group of people who're planning to take WICKED down.

"Look, we know a lot of things about WICKED's headquarters and how things work there. And we have some in our group who've had their memories returned. But the most important thing is that WICKED wants me to come back. And I think we can use that to our advantage somehow."

Despite the fact they finally found allies, obstacles kept coming their way. Thomas was controlled once again by WICKED, Janson appeared and told him that Thomas is the Final Candidate for finding the cure, and Thomas was also captured by bounty hunters - who will get a lot money for selling Immunes to WICKED. In the end, Thomas is again faced with choices: to sacrifice himself for the sake of finding cure for The Flare, or to save himself and the lives of the Immunes.

"A little birdie told me that they're being gathered and sold to WICKED so they can continue the Trials. Start all over if they have to. Whether that's true or not, the population of immune people in this city and others has been halved in the last six months, and most of them are disappearing without a trace."

image source: here. edited by me.

This is the last book of the trilogy, and I'm still not sure what to think about it - because there's definitely a lot of things to take in. I feel like the first-half of the book feels a bit slow; not because there wasn't any conflict - the story is still action-packed from start to finish - but probably because there's a lot of confusion happening and Thomas goes simultaneously from one goal to another. As for the second-half of the book everything goes really fast, making my heart thumps as I read it towards the end. In the previous two book reviews, I said I really hoped to find answers in this book. Well, I do get some of the answers I needed; but at the same time this book also throws new questions into my head. So I had tons of fun reading this book, but at the same time not fully satisfied with it.

This book is still written using the same point of view as the two previous books. The story started at WICKED complex, when Thomas was released and was exposed to the lies that WICKED told them. There's a lot of action happening as they tried to escape; and things got a little bit emotional (and tense) as they found out Newt got The Flare. After they arrived in Denver, the story serves a different conflicts; one is about The Right Arm, and also their urgency to meet Hans - who can remove WICKED's system from their brains. And then Rat Man (a.k.a Janson) appeared in this cop-machine thing, saying that Thomas is the Final Candidate to help them find the cure, and the fact that Newt was taken away to a place where Cranks are kept. Well, that's just half of the story - there are a lot more conflicts involved after that, but I'll just stop there so I won't spoil much. This book definitely portrays the horror of Cranks, and how the world is literally messed up. The Maze sounds like a much better place than this one - I kind of understand now why Alby decided to stay in The Glade rather than escape, even though it means dying. But I'm still curious about who caused The Flare, because this book mentioned that the virus was man-made (I think I'll find out about this one in the prequel). As I read this story, I was never sure who's the good guys or the bad guys; everything seems blurred and conflicting. In the end, a lot of people died. And even though I wasn't fully satisfied, the ending gives a pretty good solution to the story :)

There are some characters I wanted to talk about because a LOT has happened. Firstly, Newt. Oh, boy, my heart goes out to you :') When Newt gave Thomas a note, I KNEW what it's going to say - judging from Newt's character thus far. And it was heartbreaking; but of course I wouldn't spoil it here. In this book we also found out why Newt had a limp; never expected that to ever happen to Newt ㅠ__ㅠ. Next one will be Teresa. I couldn't trust her anymore since The Scorch Trials, and I still feel that way even until the end. In the beginning of this book, Teresa emphasized to Thomas that 'WICKED is good' - so I thought she was on the enemy's side. I was always suspicious of her every move, just like Minho did ㅋㅋ Because I'm on Minho's side, always ♥♥. Another character I'm curious about is Chancellor Paige; she's a character that gives a lot of impact in the story (not to mention her name also popped up in the epilogue of the previous two books), but there seems to be lack of explanation about her. Will there be an explanation about her character in the prequel? Anyway, lastly my favorite character still goes to Minho - because I'm biased like that. Even if what he said can be hurtful sometimes, I know deep down he really cared for his best friends; especially Thomas and Newt.

"Dude, you tried to slice my you-know-whats off!"
Thomas laughed, something he hadn't done in a long time. He welcomed it happily. "Too bad I didn't. Could've saved the world from future little Minhos."

Overall, as I've said I thoroughly enjoyed this book but had several dissatisfaction about it as well. But still, I can't deny I really enjoyed the trilogy as whole - even though there are some things I still don't understand and things are very complicated in this literary world. I absolutely enjoyed the action sequence, the thrill and suspense of the plot, and it was an exciting read. I've got only one book left, which is The Kill Order - a prequel to the trilogy that explains what happened before The Maze. It was definitely a great experience reading this trilogy, thanks James Dashner :)

by.stefaniesugia♥ .