The Death Cure by James Dashner

324 pages

"Thomas knows that WICKED can't be trusted. They stole his memories and locked him inside the Maze. They forced him to the brink of death by dropping him in the wilds of the Scorch. And they took the Gladers, his only friends, from him.

Now WICKED says that the time for lies is over. That they've collected all the data they can from the Trials and will rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission: to complete the blueprint for the cure for the Flare. But Thomas must undergo one final test.

What WICKED doesn't know, however, is that Thomas has already remembered far more than they think. And it's enough to prove that he can't believe a word of what WICKED says.

The time for lies is over. And the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever have imagined." -Dust Jacket

I've sort of started to describe this series as Lost meets The Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies. It's confusing, violent, and dystopian. Overall, I liked this series. It would definitely be better to read it now, when all the books are finished, than one each year. Without re-reading the other books I found that I'd forgotten some of the characters and some of the things that had happened to them. I'm sure some day I'll go back and read the series again to see if it makes any more sense the second time around.

{MAJOR SPOILERS}

The first two books are very much like a Lost ride. Some things seem to make sense but then there's a figurative smoke monster thrown in and you realize that you have no idea what's really going on, but the ride's still fun and you stick with it in the hopes that you'll be able to figure it out. Thomas and his friends are part of some "clinical" trial to find a cure for the Flare, a manmade virus, released after the catastrophic sun flare in the hopes of controlling the population, that then becomes out of control and incurable. Thomas has played a major part in the planning of those trials and seems to have done some repulsive things but he can't remember. In the first book he survives and escapes the Maze. In the second book he survives and escapes the Scorch and now in the third book he survives and escapes WICKED.

Most of the story takes place in Denver. I liked this more realistic element. Thomas, Minho, Newt, Brenda and Jorge go to Denver to find Teresa and the others who've escaped, and to find a man who can take the tracking device out of Thomas's head and make it so that he can't be controlled by WICKED. While there they meet up with Gally, who survived Thomas's beating, and is now part of a Right Arm resistance group. They have plans to take down WICKED. Mixed in to all of that is the Cranks. They are scary, but this book really puts into perspective exactly what they are. They are monsters yes, but they are also people infected with a virus that destroys their brain, yet sometimes they have moments of clarity, making the disease that much nastier. They have their own plan to take over Denver. Denver has tried to weed out those infected with the Flare, but they've been unsuccessful and more and more people are getting sick. They are relocated as they are discovered to the "Crank Palace," a city of sorts where the infected are housed and kept until they are past the Gone. Thomas and his friends are immune to the virus and therefore highly valuable to "Munie" traders. They play cat and mouse with the traders and with the Cranks until a plan is formed to infiltrate WICKED and destroy them once and for all.

Thomas volunteers to return to WICKED and plant a device that shuts down all of WICKED's weapons, thereby equalizing the field for when the Right Arm's people arrive. After that they have their own plans. Thomas knows that he is the Final Candidate for the cure but he doesn't know what that means...until he returns and is told that his brain is the final piece missing from developing the cure. He's supposed to sacrifice his brain to science, but his friends arrive in the knick of time and he gets away. He finds an envelope with instructions for escape and then leads his friends and other immune people to a safe haven.

Overall, I'm still confused. Over and over certain characters remind Thomas (and the reader) that "WICKED is good." I guess the ambiguity of that statement is the purpose of the book. How can they possibly be good after everything they've done throughout the series? They've killed so many people and done such nasty things. One of the disappointments for me of this series is that more isn't explained. Thomas doesn't want to have his memories restored and so you never get to find out what he did to help WICKED before he was sent into the Maze. You get bits and pieces of his memory but not everything. You don't really get to find out the results of the Trials, to see how the ends justified the means either. How did the Grievers mutilating kids in the maze help contribute to a cure? How does traumatizing Thomas and his friends over and over possibly contribute to preventing people from going crazy? And...how does studying their brains to see how they react, but putting something in those brains to make it so their actions can be controlled, make it a valid trial? Chancellor Paige says in the epilogue that WICKED has failed but ultimately succeeded because they sent a couple hundred immunes to a place where the human race can avoid extinction, i.e. the beautiful place Thomas and his friends wind up in. The rest of the world is left to go crazy and destroy itself.

There are some very sad elements to this story. Like The Hunger Games, these characters are kids being put into traumatizing situations over and over again. They lose friends in horrific ways. Newt's story in this book is absolutely heartbreaking. The Crank Palace shows the reader just how hopeless the disease is. Teresa and Thomas's relationship is also never fully disclosed despite the fact that Teresa opted to have her memory restored.

I guess the bottom line of this series for me is this: It was a fun ride. I couldn't put it down. I'm also just a little disappointed.