The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (audio book)

The Scorch Trials pick up where The Maze Runner ended. Thomas, Teresa, Minho, Newt and about twenty other Gladers finally escape the Maze, but they came face to face with the people they call the Creators. They believe it is time for answers, except that almost immediately they are rescued by another group of people who transport them to another location and claim that the Gladers are now safe – the horrors experienced in the Maze are over. Unbeknownst to the Gladers, but written as Epilogue to the reader, the reader is informed that the Maze was only one trial brought to completion. It is time to begin the second trial. Oh, and the Gladers are Group A, there is also Group B.

The first night out of the Maze, the Gladers gluttonously devour pizza and get their first night’s well-deserved rest outside of the Glade. The boys have a dorm and Teresa has a separate dorm. In the morning, Thomas wakes up to a nightmare. The boys open their dorm room door and find that their rescuers are all hung from the ceiling of the common room, dead, bloated and rancid. Thomas makes his way across the common area to Teresa’s door. There is a plaque with her name on it and a descriptor – Betrayer – on her door. Teresa doesn’t answer his call. The boys break in to an empty room. But someone is in the bathroom.

It’s not Teresa. It is a boy named Aris who is equally surprised by the intrusion. The Gladers quickly discover a tattoo on the boy’s neck. It says, “Property of WICKED. Group B, Subject B1. The Partner.” But Aris isn’t the only one with a tattoo. And Thomas’s tattoo states, “Property of WICKED. Group A, Subject A2. To be killed by Group B.”

In The Maze Runner, Thomas wanted answers. It took most of the book for him to realize that the reason the Gladers wouldn’t give him answers was because they didn’t have the answers. Their own questions remained unanswered. The Scorch Trials appears to give some answers, but really it opens a whole new series of questions. This is equally true for the readers. There is some great secret involving WICKED, (World In Catastrophe—Killzone Experiment Department,) and the reader is not in on the secret except through the brief Epilogues to both books.

I can only hope that the SECRET is incredibly fabulous and jaw-dropping and track-stopping and worth all of the efforts to keep it secret. Think, “No, I am your father.” from Star Wars. Because, if it isn’t, it will be a monumental disappointment. I am already frustrated much as Thomas is frustrated. Nothing is as it seems. “All I will say is that sometimes what you see is not real, and sometimes what you do not see is real.”

“WICKED is good” is a statement one is expected to believe despite the horrors of the trials that the teenagers are forced to endure. We are supposed to accept that the terrors of the trials are worth the accomplishment of the intended outcome. I begin to wonder if this is in any way related to the theory that a good God would not allow suffering. Or that a good God would allow suffering to accomplish the greater good… So curious.

I can still readily recommend this series to junior high and high school kids. Only a very little, slightly more graphic… the hanging bodies were a tad colorful…