The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner Series #2) by James Dashner

Overview

The Scorch Trials picks up where The Maze Runner left off. The Gladers have escaped the Maze, but now they face an even more treacherous challenge on the open roads of a devastated planet.

And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Can Thomas survive in such a violent world?
 
My thoughts:
This was last weeks audio book in the car.  Thomas and his friends discover that although they escaped the maze, they have not escaped the trials and are still being used and watched.  This time they are dumped out into the world and need to travel 100 miles in two weeks to be given the cure for the virus they all have.  They must go through deserts, tunnels and deals with Cranks.  Cranks are people who are infected with the virus and have gone crazy, or past the gone, and do violent and random things.
 
Each of the boys has awoken in what they thought was a safe house with a  tattoo on the back of their necks with a number.  In some cases they also have a word.  Ming ho is the leader, Newt is the glue, Thomas is something much worse.  They have to work as a team and get through this task and then they will all be saved.
 
The violence in this one is worse than the first one.  Seeing people who are crazy and want to kill them is worse to me than the mechanical monsters in the maze.  It is like the Cranks have lost their humanity to the virus.  It was a darker read.  At times it was hard to remember that the characters are all, for the most part, teenagers as they are dealing with situations involvingg life and death.
 
I know a lot of people have compared this series to The Hunger Games, but as I said in my last review, I still prefer The Hunger Games.
 
 
Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780385738767
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Publication date: 9/13/2011
Pages: 384
Age range: 12 - 17 Years
Series: Maze Runner Series, #2