I really liked the ending sequence there... felt like so much was happening with dire consequences, I wish the entire book had that find of adrenalin.
After going in blind to this book, having never seen the movies or know anything about it, I still have lots of questions but I am still satisfied with the ending, just enough mystery to keep you wanting to keep reading the series!
I knew that the books would be different from the movies, but I dont think i ever realized just how different. I remember in the movie, they hid Alby behind some of the vines in a thick spot, and I dont think The Cliff was in there at all. Iirc, Thomas killed just 1 griever, and that was by squishing it in a moving wall. Some of the characters look super different too, which I wasnt expecting. Also, poor Chuck! He is treated like a nuisance so much, i wanna give him a hug. Everyone being annoyed at Thomas's questions is soo annoying too, like c'mon, he has been there for less than half a week with no memories other than the basics and his name, of course hes gonna have a million questions that sound obvious to yall. Also, Gally claiming he saw Thomas in the changing, and Ben trying to kill him saying that he is bad over and over makes me wonder if Thomas did something messed up in their past life.
I didn't find most of the book very engaging and kept going back to my other Sci-Fi book but was still interested enough that I wanted to find out some answers. No one wanting to answer any of Thomas' questions at the start was quite annoying and then no one pushing Alby for answers on the Changing. Everyone just kinda accepting the status quo was a bit odd... and I found the relationships between the boys wasn't really my vibe but I don't think that's any critique to the author/book, just not something for me personally.
The majority of the time, I wasn't a fan of the characters.
Characters like Minho and Newt became more likable but Thomas kind of annoyed me. Thomas is a Gary Stu. Dashner makes him conveniently remember things in order to solve the problems quick. Teresa just exists to tell Thomas stuff through telepathy, all it is a quick way to sort things out. A lot of methods used felt like a lazy way out. I will probably read the rest of the series anyway, but that's it. I do not get why this gets compared to The Hunger Games. THG has better written characters and is more intense in my opinion.
Overall I would give it 3/5 :star: as I didn't love it nor hate it.
