The Death Curse (The Maze Runner, book 3) by James Dasher

"Thomas beat the Maze. He survived the Scorch. He’ll risk anything to save his friends. But the truth might be what ends it all." Thomas is faced with more challenges and the truth of Wicked. Lives will be lost, bonds of friendship tightened in the compelling race for freedom.

Fast paced, intense, action packed. I was engrossed from the start. Overall I found The Death Cure enjoyable and highly recommend to those who enjoy sci-fi action/thrillers. ( )

The most frustrating thing about finishing this book is the giant lettering on the back of my edition says "THE TIME FOR LIES IS OVER." (Yes, all caps.) Having just finished it, I feel as if I have just as many or more questions than I did at the beginning of the book.

As with the previous two novels, the action definitely delivers, and there is a strong driving plot. It's pretty scary at some points, fairly violent, and also very exhilarating. It's most definitely a page turner – you won't have to worry about getting stuck reading the same paragraph over and over due to the content being boring. You still, however, do have to trudge through the same stupid repertoire of made-up swear words, (think A Clockwork Orange... but stupid/childish), but luckily that aspect has been toned down a lot since The Maze Runner.

Much like how The Scorch Trials picked up EXACTLY where The Maze Runner ended, The Death Cure picks up where The Scorch Trials ended. If all three books were in one volume, you could turn the page and wouldn't be the wiser. When the book starts, it seems like WICKED is finally done lying to Thomas & Co., and they even promise to give them their memories back and take away the controlling device that was installed in all their brains before the Maze. At first everything seems legit... BUT IS IT REALLY? Thomas, Minho & Newt specifically decide that WICKED cannot be trusted, even when taking away their control of them and giving back their memories. They all refuse to get their memories back. Thomas continually insists throughout the story that he doesn't want to know about his past life. Even if knowing a piece of information about the past would benefit him, (at least that's how it seemed in my eyes). He even interrupts the other characters with memories who want to tell him something, preventing them from giving him (seemingly) valuable information. So with Thomas (from whom we get the point of view of the story), refusing to learn about his past, or the truth about WICKED, there are tons of questions left unanswered, even though the point of the last book seems to be to reveal the truth. What??? Teresa and Brenda specifically to me, seem to become completely two-dimensional characters because of this aspect of the novel. Both of them CLEARLY had some kind of strong, important relationship to Thomas pre-Maze... but because Thomas refuses to listen to either of their explanations, we just have these two women who are basically just there to help out. ??? Why?? All these hints and foreshadowings about Teresa and Brenda's importance, and I really really felt like I was left hanging. When you use foreshadowing, there's supposed to be something that comes of that... right??
In the end, Thomas & Co. must decide whether to trust WICKED and help them see out their goal of curing the Flare, or defy them to escape more death and lies, even though that compromises the rest of humanity. We see also get to see a lot of different settings around Earth/America(?) than the previous two books.

The plot and concept of The Maze Runner trilogy have interested me from the beginning. All the cliffhangers and foreshadowing throughout the series was what kept me interested and wanting to finish it. But don't expect an entirely satisfying ending. The people who I cared about survived, which in itself is always satisfying, but I really hate being left with unanswered questions. If you finish off this series, be prepared for desolate searchings of Wikia pages looking for answers that you won't get. As for reading The Kill Order, I'm still undecided. If it somehow answers some questions of the rest of the series, then I will probably read it. ( )

I'm just gonna say it. I believe that the ending of the Maze Runner franchise is one of the worst endings to any story I've ever encountered in my life. I honestly couldn't believe it the first time I read the series. It is absolutely atrocious. This book, in general, is pretty freaking bad, but the ending is downright abysmal.

As I've mentioned a couple times, Minho and Newt are the only two characters in the entire franchise whom I remotely give a crap about. One thing I like about this book is that we finally get to see some humanity from Minho. In the previous entries, it seemed like all Minho did in life was crack jokes and do his job. Here, however, a bit of his human side is seen after Newt gets the Flare. That brings me to my favorite part about this book: Newt. I love how they ended his story. It is tragic and well-written. Newt is practically the only good constant throughout this whole series. Consequently, his death is the only moment in the whole series that brings a tear to my eye. Couldn't give two shits about any other deaths, sorry.

Besides that, this book freaking sucks, dude. Unlike the first two entries, the plot isn't even that great. The story is unbelievably boring and uneventful for the most part. Despite this being the shortest book in the trilogy, it somehow feels more sluggish than the first two. Not much happens until the last hundred pages, then it's revealed that the Right Arm is planning to take WICKED down, so that happens, the protagonists go back to the Maze and fight some Grievers again for nostalgia bai-, I mean, rescuing some Immunes, and a couple hundred people make it to paradise on the other side of a Flat Trans. The end.

Actually, you know what? I'm not gonna go that easy. Let's look at this ending more closely. The entire point of this whole trilogy is finding a cure for the Flare virus, right? The first and second book are dedicated ENTIRELY to Phases 1 and 2 of the Trials, respectively. Thomas is the final piece to the puzzle of designing this cure, and it almost happens. However, we can't have satisfying conclusions. We can't have something that was built up for an entire fucking trilogy actually get resolved. Instead, at the very last motherfucking second, Chancellor Paige comes out of nowhere and instructs Thomas to take all the remaining Immunes to paradise in order to begin civilization again while the rest of the world drives itself to extinction. Are you fucking kidding me, dude? After all that set up, we're just going to resort to a hastily prepared Plan B and leave the rest of the world to rot? How am I supposed to root for these protagonists? How am I supposed to feel satisfied with this ending? It's fucking insulting, man.

Add to that the fact that the ending in paradise lasts all of 3 pages, and you have one of the worst endings ever written in fiction. We aren't even told which of the Gladers from Group A and Group B survived. We don't even get to see this new civilization flourish. The whole fucking story just... ends. Are you serious?

For the last time, I'll mention that I don't like Dashner's writing style. The dialogue sucks, and the characters couldn't be any shallower. New characters are introduced left and right, but tons of them feel like the exact same person. It's clear Dashner didn't put an ounce of effort into making them remotely unique or interesting, so he settled instead for having them be just some extremely flat, one-dimensional puppets who do nothing more than drive the plot forward.

Sigh... I don't really have much else to say. I felt a ton of emotion at Newt's death, and I had the slightest sense of nostalgia seeing the protagonists back in the Maze, but, other than that, this has got to be one of the worst endings I've ever read in my life. I don't want to think about it ever again. ( )

Wow. This was really dark and violent and just an awful story to get through.

Overall I was not a fan of this trilogy. I didn't care enough about the characters, I was never really sure who I should be rooting for, and the final resolution was unsatisfying after all of the buildup. It felt mostly like I was reading about a violent video game.

There is a slight twist -- one sentence really -- in the epilogue that makes the whole thing even MORE bleak. The flare release on purpose? Really?

I know that there is a new book out and I'm wondering if it explains what was up with Thomas and Teresa before The Maze Runner. ( )

The first book was good. The second one wasn’t good, but I was still curious. The third book was rotten and hard to finish and I’m disappointed I wasted my time. ( )