The Death Cure (Maze Runner, #3)

by James Dashner

[Berls]

This review appeared first at Fantasy is More Fun.

2.5 stars

On it's own, The Death Cure would probably get a higher rating from me. Its exciting and fast paced. And I was on my toes the whole time, just waiting for the giant curve ball - like the one I got in The Maze Runner - to take it from good to great. I'm still waiting. And that's besides the fact as the ENDING of a trilogy it left way too many unanswered questions.

A quick note - I'm going to address some if the questions that came up in the previous two books, so there will be some series spoilers from them in this review.

So here begins my rant...

In The Maze Runner we find out that Thomas and Teresa were somehow part of building this huge, multi-tiered experiment. The big questions- for me at least - were WHY? HOW EXACTLY? WHY? ok I asked why twice because seriously that's such an important question. I'll give you two guesses... Which question did The Death Cure answer?

If you guessed NEITHER, you'd be correct. This is all the more frustrating because the opportunity to answer both questions comes up over and over and over again. Thomas avoids getting the answer in such ridiculous ways that I'm not convinced even THE AUTHOR knows. Its like he built in this fabulous plot twist and didn't know how to resolve it, so he didn't. Not cool!

And I still don't understand the point of the experiments. Okay, yeah, science isn't my strong point but I just don't get how all the things they put these kids through has ANY connection to a cure. It just doesn't make sense.

And, after reading The Death Cure, I understand The Scorch Trials even less. What was that book's purpose in the trilogy? As far as I can tell it did three things - (1) undermined Teresa (which she could have easily done herself in The Death Cure...), (2) introduced some new characters (who could have easily introduced in The Death Cure), and (3) introduced the flare, cranks, etc. The flare actually never should have been introduced since it's this huge environmental factor that goes largely unaddressed and the cranks get more than enough time in The Death Cure.

Okay, here endeth the rant...

Here's the thing about The Death Cure. Despite being incredibly unsatisfying as the conclusion of the trilogy, its actually a very fun, fast, and pretty exciting read. A lot happens super fast and it did remind me of the intensity of reading The Maze Runner. Too bad it just couldn't live up to all the promises The Maze Runner hinted at for the trilogy. :(