The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Title: The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2)
Author: James Dashner
Published: August 1, 2011
Publisher: Chicken House
Genre: YA Dystopian
Buy: The Book Depository

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escaping meant he would get his life back. But no one knew what sort of life they were going back to..

Burned and baked, the earth is a wasteland, it's people driven mad by an infection known as the Flare.

Instead of freedom, Thomas must fact another trial. He must cross the Scorch to once again save himself and his friends.

I don't like being frustrated; I'm pretty sure that's something we all share. And sadly, frustration is all I felt while reading this book.

I honestly cannot believe that I'm 360 pages further into this story, 360 pages passed the point I was dropped off at the end of the first book, and I still don't know anymore about what's actually going on. Well, maybe random little bits and bobs, here and there, but definitely not enough to justify a whole book!

I started reading this book, quite eager to find out the whole point of the maze, the whole point of the first book, excited even. But the more I read, the more I realised 'The Scorch Trials' is literally just a bridge between The Maze Runner and The Death Cure. I mean, obviously a connection is always needed between books, continuation links from one book to the next, but that's just the problem. I didn't feel like this book actually had its own story, that was connected both ways to the first and the third books. I felt like it was the continuation link, something that could've been accomplished by a novella; much shorter and more direct. 

I am so deflated right now. Because this book felt like the the link between two train carriages, the bridge between two actual stories, a lot the book bored me. There were parts I thought were good, but they were so disperse throughout, that reading the fillers in-between almost didn't feel worth it, and even at that, 
most of said parts came at the very end. 

I thought the pacing was incredibly slow. Clearly. I thought the characters could have done with a lot more development. I thought the book could have been improved with alternating points of view. And I thought Dashner kept us confused for far too long, without rewarding us with enough new material.

I do, however, know that I'll read the third book in the trilogy. So fair play to Dashner for achieving that, anyway.