THE DEATH CURE by James Dashner
THE DEATH CURE
(THE MAZE RUNNER, #3)
by James Dashner
published by Ember
I don't know what Dashner was thinking here. I have no clue.
The first two books promised answers. Good ones. Answers that made suffering through two books worth of questions worth it.
Those promises were not fulfilled. The answers we got were shitty. They didn't make sense. They didn't line up, didn't conclude things properly.
THIS BOOK! Gah. I'm pretty pissed right now.
I totally expected to see something like "APRIL FOOLS the actual last installment is coming soon. Thank you for participating in this frustrating prank!" on the last page. However, no such message was there, confirming my worst fear: this shit show is the real conclusion to the trilogy.
Like usual, let's start with what I liked:
What I Liked
Dashner's writing was as strong as ever here. Two scenes in this book were visceral and engaging, really proving Dashner's writing ability. Unfortunately, the rest of the book failed to live up to the challenge. Those scenes warranted this book half a star.
(That's all I liked.)
What I Didn't Like
This book really drove something home for me: there is very little internal dialogue, very little speech within Thomas's head. This is one of the primary reasons, I think, that Thomas's character development wasn't quite there. So little is said inside that when traumatic things happen and when revelations are made, we never really see him grow; we just get to witness the effect it has on the group. Some of the reactions were implausible, the recoveries too quick. Dammit, Thomas. I wanted to like you. I identified with your ugliness. I hoped we'd get along.
In addition, the plot was all the fuck over the place. I feel like Dashner's trilogy pitch to his editors read, "Book 1: inside the Maze. Book 2: the Scorch. Book 3: ??? TBD LOL." That's sure what this book felt like--Dashner needed to write a conclusion, so he strung a bunch of random shit together and tried to pass it off as a "conclusion." You may have fooled some people, Jimmy, but I am not one of them.
This next section is very spoiler-y but must be addressed. Viewer discretion is advised. Highlight for spoilers. I don't know, how about the fact that THE ENTIRE FUCKING TRILOGY COULD'VE BEEN AVOIDED HAD AVA REALIZED HER MISTAKE A SECOND EARLIER???In the epilogue, she basically says "The whole trial shit failed, but that's okay (!!!), because I had this other cool plan where none of it actually fucking mattered and the immune people can go off and recreate civilization and guarantee a happy future for humanity!!!" Okay, that makes sense: so basically, what you're trying to say is the thousand fucking pages I just read were unnecessary had you just realized your whole agency was just a bag of dicks??? That's perfectly fucking plausible.
In other, less spoilery, words: the shitty ending.
Another thing that made me feel manipulated was the fact that the entire love triangle was unnecessary. Nothing came out of it, and no character development occurred because of it (shit, one of the girls died). It could've been erased. It served no purpose, it was contrived, it was stupid and the drama was unnecessary and AGH.
The first two books promised answers. Good ones. Answers that made suffering through two books worth of questions worth it.
Those promises were not fulfilled. The answers we got were shitty. They didn't make sense. They didn't line up, didn't conclude things properly.
THIS BOOK! Gah. I'm pretty pissed right now.
I totally expected to see something like "APRIL FOOLS the actual last installment is coming soon. Thank you for participating in this frustrating prank!" on the last page. However, no such message was there, confirming my worst fear: this shit show is the real conclusion to the trilogy.
Like usual, let's start with what I liked:
What I Liked
Dashner's writing was as strong as ever here. Two scenes in this book were visceral and engaging, really proving Dashner's writing ability. Unfortunately, the rest of the book failed to live up to the challenge. Those scenes warranted this book half a star.
(That's all I liked.)
What I Didn't Like
This book really drove something home for me: there is very little internal dialogue, very little speech within Thomas's head. This is one of the primary reasons, I think, that Thomas's character development wasn't quite there. So little is said inside that when traumatic things happen and when revelations are made, we never really see him grow; we just get to witness the effect it has on the group. Some of the reactions were implausible, the recoveries too quick. Dammit, Thomas. I wanted to like you. I identified with your ugliness. I hoped we'd get along.
In addition, the plot was all the fuck over the place. I feel like Dashner's trilogy pitch to his editors read, "Book 1: inside the Maze. Book 2: the Scorch. Book 3: ??? TBD LOL." That's sure what this book felt like--Dashner needed to write a conclusion, so he strung a bunch of random shit together and tried to pass it off as a "conclusion." You may have fooled some people, Jimmy, but I am not one of them.
This next section is very spoiler-y but must be addressed. Viewer discretion is advised. Highlight for spoilers. I don't know, how about the fact that THE ENTIRE FUCKING TRILOGY COULD'VE BEEN AVOIDED HAD AVA REALIZED HER MISTAKE A SECOND EARLIER???In the epilogue, she basically says "The whole trial shit failed, but that's okay (!!!), because I had this other cool plan where none of it actually fucking mattered and the immune people can go off and recreate civilization and guarantee a happy future for humanity!!!" Okay, that makes sense: so basically, what you're trying to say is the thousand fucking pages I just read were unnecessary had you just realized your whole agency was just a bag of dicks??? That's perfectly fucking plausible.
In other, less spoilery, words: the shitty ending.
Another thing that made me feel manipulated was the fact that the entire love triangle was unnecessary. Nothing came out of it, and no character development occurred because of it (shit, one of the girls died). It could've been erased. It served no purpose, it was contrived, it was stupid and the drama was unnecessary and AGH.
The villains were cardboard. The hero was cardboard. ALL THE CHARACTERS WERE SO CARDBOARD. Although, somehow, the deaths were affecting, so something right must've happened. Can't figure out what.
This book was action-packed. (Isn't that normally a good thing?) Although that is true, it was also incredibly boring. How? The action was boring. Why? I really didn't care what happened to anybody. (Level of attachment: when Thomas was going to die, I got really excited.) Why? Dashner never gave me any reasons to.
Ugh. Writing reviews about painful books is exhausting.
Verdict: This is the Mockingjay of the Maze Runner series. But worse. I think that says enough.
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