"And with every passing day came an increasing anger so intense that Thomas sometimes caught himself shaking uncontrollably before he reeled the fury back in and pocketed it."
I'm disappointed in this series! I just... Urgh! Such a waste of my time. The Death Cure is a fast-paced action-packed book to read, but it has no substance.
This book has action. LOTS OF ACTION! But, the action was mind-less and was disconnected from the plot. I am immune to the action in The Death Cure. My adrenaline wasn't pumping and my heart wasn't racing. The action scenes are also written in a way that they are difficult to visualise. The action also hides a ton of things that this book doesn't have, such as a plot, character development and answers.
The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials made me ask a mountain load of questions. What's up with Thomas's past at WICKED? How do the variables work? What the hell does dumping a bunch of kids in a maze and a desert achieve when trying to find a cure? None of these questions are answered. Thomas doesn't get his memory back so we don't find out about his involvement in WICKED or his relationship with Theresa and how his telepathic bond with her and Aris came about. I wanted answers and I didn't get them. What makes it worse is that this last book, hints at answers that are supposed to come, but aren't delivered. The plot that The Death Cure follows doesn't make any sense, or maybe I'm just too stupid to get it. I also found the story line to be extremely predictable and boring.
There is absolutely no character development and this makes me mad! After spending two or three books with these characters, I'm supposed to know who they are, how they respond to situations and see how they grow and develop along the way, but if the characters aren't Thomas, they are tossed to the side and become stereotypes with the same personality as everyone else in this book. Don't even get me started on Thomas! Everything that was done in this book was meant to make Thomas seem like a hero, a character that we should feel sympathy towards and root for, but honestly, I don't like it when an author manipulates me into feeling a certain way about characters and I rebel against it.
My favourite characters in this book are Minho and Newt and they didn't get the attention that they deserve. Minho has lost all of his sarcastic quips and is now a temperamental character that's meant to make Thomas look better and is just like every other male character in this series. The only minor character development in this book came from Newt and his character arc had so much of potential that wasn't tapped into. It's Newt's character arc that gave this book a star because it was the only thing in this book that made me feel something.
There are a few character deaths in this book, just like there are in the previous book. However, the deaths in this book did not have emotional impact, nor are they used to further the plot. When important character deaths happen that should affect Thomas, he brushes it off and moves on to the next thing that he's supposed to do. If Thomas doesn't care as much as he's supposed to when characters die, why should we care at all. The aim of the character deaths are to make Thomas, the good guy, the hero and the sympathetic character and to emotionally manipulate the readers into liking Thomas.
In the previous book there was the beginning of a love triangle and in this book it continues. I didn't ship Thomas with Theresa, nor did I ship him with Brenda. I don't care who Thomas wants to spend the rest of his life with. I do care that Theresa and Brenda, who should have been two of the strongest female protagonists, end up being the same character with the same personality. They are there to make Thomas look good and be his romantic love interest. Theresa isn't even a part of this book. Due to the actions in the previous book, she becomes such an irredeemable character, until she saves Thomas's life. I felt like Theresa's character had more potential that Newt's did and if the author could have expanded on her life, her involvement in WICKED, her change of attitude when it comes to the trials, her motives and her actions then her presence in this book wouldn't have been pointless.
There's a theme in The Death Cure that I usually enjoy reading about, but it failed to seep through and become coherent. There's this whole idea that WICKED isn't black or white and that the ends justify the means. This theme doesn't work because the characters in the book don't carry it through. Thomas's makes WICKED seem irredeemable to such an extent that the "good" parts of WICKED doesn't shine through and I couldn't draw conclusions for myself. Instead, who WICKED is, what their motive are and what their action are is spoon fed into our mouths so we can believe what Thomas wants us to believe or what makes him seem like the better guy.
The Death Cure is supposed to be an epic finale that redeems The Scorch Trials and answer all the questions that I have, but instead there's no plot or character development, which means no emotions or attachments. This book is literally all about Thomas and no one else matters. The Maze Runner shouldn't have been a series at all. One book was enough!