The Scorch Trials

Just finished The Scorch Trials, book 2 of James Dashner's series.  I thought the first book was good...with the plot twists and character development in the second book, I can only imagine how good book 3 will be!  Just when you thought you knew who were the enemies, Dashner surprises you.  Who is the good guy?  Who is the bad guy?  And how in the world did this book end up scaring me as much as the movie, I Am Legend?  I didn't know there would be zombies...I hate zombies.  YUK!  (And these zombies want to eat your noses!  That is so sick!)  Dashner sure knows how to write detail!  I could almost smell the rot...

This is a fan-made poster which shows Thomas, Brenda and one of the Cranks who chased them in The Underneath.  Dashner wrote this scene well.  Thomas and Brenda hid in a wall while the Crank waited patiently for them to reveal themselves.  Yes, you guessed it.  He reaches into the wall for them...I screamed out loud when I read that scene!

After all the characters endure, it wouldn't surprise me if the main character woke up in a mental institution and was declared a schizophrenic!  That's how wild this book is!  I mean, in the last chapter, the characters are chased by faceless, hairless, pock-marked, lightbulb-covered giants!  How much weirder can it get?

Here's the synopsis just in case you're interested: 
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?

Have you ever read a book that kept throwing you a curve ball?  If so, share. 

Books like this really keep me on my toes.

I stand behind my original statement in The Maze Runner post that this is a book for boys.  
Now on to something a little less vomit-inducing.  LOL
Happy Reading!
RC