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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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The Death Cure by James Dashner - review

Thomas and the Gladers have finished the trials, or so WICKED say, but now they have to experience the real world. Learn about everything that’s happening and everything that happened as a result of the flare. Can they defeat WICKED, stop the trials and find some form of peace after the hell they’ve suffered? And will they all survive this deadly fight against WICKED or will someone sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others?

After The Scorch Trials where everything is quite slow with a few very dramatic scenes mixed in, this book is so fast-paced and exciting. From the first page until the last it’s drama, after drama, after drama. It is never-ending excitement and thrills. It was so much better than I remember it being the first time I read it and so much more eventful. There is never a dull moment, and I know lots of people say there is never a dull moment when surely there must have been, but not in this book.

All of the characters develop really strongly and they form new and stronger relationships which is really nice. We get to see the further development of the new characters that were introduced in The Scorch Trials which is really exciting! I also feel like you get to see the true colours of some characters and understand them in a way you never had before. You realise that some people were really different to who you thought they were, in both positive and negative ways.

The Death Cure

There are moments when James Dashner brings things back from previous books in a really interesting and exciting way and it just really adds something to the final battle against WICKED. Usually I hate final battles because they’re so cheesy and it’s all been done before but it was not like that with The Death Cure. I loved every single second of it. The final battle was done so well and was really unique and really eventful. It has you on the edge of your seat the entire time because anyone could die at any second.

It’s really good so see some of the ends meet and have the whole story make a bit more sense, and learn about the job of WICKED. There were still some things that I felel have been left unsaid, presumably we’ll find out about them in the prequel in September, which is really exciting!

As I got close to the end of The Death Cure I knew I didn’t want it to end, not ever, because it’s such a good trilogy with such good characters and ideas.

I admire James Dashner’s courage and ruthlessness when it comes to what happens with the characters. I don’t want to give anything away but there are a few deaths and they’re so unexpected. I have never cried at a book – I don’t know if that means I have a heart made of stone or something – but there is a storyline in this book that honestly broke my heart into tiny little pieces. It happens gradually and slowly and is possibly the worst thing I have ever read happening in a book ever (and I’ve read a lot of books!). I never expected someone to be capable of writing such a traumatic and depressing story. Although I didn’t cry when it happened I did sit there, in absolute shock, for about five minutes and couldn’t go back to the book for the entire rest of the day because it upset me so much. They had better do that whole scene justice in the film (it had better actually happen in the film) because if they don’t I am going to be really sad.

This book is exciting, thrilling and interesting. It has you on the edge of your seat and is so heart-breaking but it was absolutely amazing and really showed how talented James Dashner is a writer!

5 out of 5 stars.

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