The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials

    I remember when this book came out as a movie. I knew next to nothing about it but it caught my interest but I didn't ever get to see it. A few years latter I found this copy of The Maze Runner at a sale on books at Goodwill. I had found with The Hunger Games that picking up a book that you don't know much about but it was popular can pay off! The same day they had a hardback set of Divergent which I also bought. Also picked up a bunch of Star Wars novels that day as well! Lol, that was a good haul!

    I've been looking forward to reading this one for a while now but just haven't been in the mood to getting into it yet. I realized after buying it that is was actually a three book set (now 5 as two were published after this copy was printed) and I wished I had known that when I bought it and had looked for the other books. But as with The Hunger Games I knew if I liked it I would be able to find it somewhere, though it was a struggle with Catching Fire and Mockingjay at the time. Those did eventually end up in thrift stores where I picked up nicer hardbacks of. (The Hunger Games are still on the top of my most favorite books) I have been unable to find a hardback of the first book of The Hunger Games... did they not print many?

But back to The Maze Runner...
    Some books you can tell you are going to like it buy just reading the first page or two, some can take a little longer... this was a first pager. I went through book one pretty fast. It was pretty interesting. Good enough to prompt me to buy the other books. So I hit Ebay and they were pretty reasonable, about $9 - $14 for a set of 4 of the 5... but if you added that last book the price rose... but after a little waiting and a couple bought out from under me I found a 4 box set with the fifth book at the side for around the price of just the 4 book set. I knew this would save me undue stress in the future of having to look for that book when I got to it! (The reason when I bought Divergent I bought all three of the books, didn't want to read the first one and find I liked it and have to go finding the other two in hardback to match the first one when I could just take the chance and spend a little more and buy all of them at once)

    So, while I liked The Maze Runner Book #1 enough to buy the rest I still wasn't sure I was completely sold on it. Book #2 did it though! Wow, this author is good! I didn't do a review of The Divergent series, maybe at some point I should but there was a major flaw in it that really bugged me and that was the author. I have nothing against young authors but there is a fact that the younger you are the less you understand relationships and human behavior. The story of Divergent was very good but I feel if the author had waited to write it when she was older it could have been much better. It lacked maturity. In The Maze Runner the maturity is there and I love it!

    But that brings me to another issue I have with all of these books. These books are being sold as "Young Adult" novels... what??? With The Maze Runner when trying to buy the rest of the book I kept seeing this was for kids like in their young teens! No, I think NOT! These books are quite violent and scary and for the most part written on an adult level of understanding of the world. Not that there aren't kids on a level that could appreciate these books but labeling them for children is off. Please read what you give your kids before you let them read something. These books could give kids nightmares! I mean, The Hunger Games is basically a bunch of suicidal emotionally mess up kids running around in a war. Divergent is about a 16 year old in love with an 18 year old... which is a dangerous example for younger teenagers. I don't understand why they didn't just up the age to 18 and a 20 year old. Would not have hurt the story at all. This is a sensitive age group where a lot of mistakes are made. This book is not what they need to be reading.

    Now I get some parents will let their kids play insanity violent video games way worse then what is in these books. My opinion on this probably sounds way conservative to many but... this is my oppion and I have the right to think and say it. I think this is an issue that people really need to think about. What is this doing to kids at such a confusing time in many of their lives. An age where idolizing the wrong influence is an easy mistake to make.

With that said, lets look at the story...

    What is this book/s about? Well, that's what it is about! This boy Thomas finds himself in a world that doesn't make since. I was going to do a quick blog about book #1 before reading on to The Scorch Trials but I just couldn't think of much to say. this book is one in which you are not given much more info then the main character which is Thomas who has had his memory swiped thus remember nothing of where he comes from. Slowly things come back at times sometimes only confusing matters more.

If you have not read The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trails stop reading here, you want to read these without spoilers, I feel part of the beauty of books like these are how the author reveals things to you at just the right times.

   Things I took notice of: (sorry, a little disjointed)

Spoiler Alert

At first the character of Chuck annoyed me but by the time they killed him off I didn't want to see him go. I'm curious if he was related to Chuck in some way in the days before the maze. I feel there must have been some importance to that but wow, this book jumps around.

The whole thing with Theresa during the Scorch Trails was as mind tangling for the reader as it was for Thomas! I love how Aris is hinting around to Thomas that he might not die and it is only another test. Theresa however is completely set on making him feel betrayed. I think they both did it to save him. I'm liking this Aris guy. Im sure we will be learning more about him.

    There was something satisfying about Thomas finally having enough of Theresa. But, I get what she did. It's an interesting situation. Doing something bad to someone because it is the best thing you can do for them. What would you have done? How would you have felt if you'd been Thomas? I like when books make you think like that cause this isn't just a scenario in a book. We have things like this happen in real life as well. I know I have. Not that someone tried to kill me or the other way around but to realize that something you did or they did though it felt like someone was greatly wrong was really done in the best interest... 

    One thing I noticed was when Thomas was taken by Group B he seems to think he has no way to find out how his group is doing. But he did. He never reached out to Aris because as far as Thomas knew Aris was still with the boys group. Of course we find out that Aris left Group A but Thomas didn't know that, so why didn't he try to contact him? Is this just an over sight of the author or did I miss something. When Thomas wakes in the white room he does attempt to contact Aris.

    The way the second book ends we do get an insight that Thomas does not. We get to read a letter written by the head of WICKED. It kind of hints at what I was wondering. Where these kids put through all this because in some way they are immune to the Flare or does it make them immune? Are they going to use them to create a cure? Are they going to just keep man kind going by repopulating the earth with those immune. This is about saving man kind as a whole? That letter seemed to hint at something like that. But these books tend to throw you in all kinds of directions... is WICKED really GOOD?