The book I read was The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. This book is 360 pages long. Another book by James Dashner is The Journal of Curious Letters in the 13th Reality series. Another one is A Mutiny in Time, part of the Infinity Ring series. If you liked the first book in this giant series, you have to read this book. I love how sometimes, because of the character they chose as the person we are in the shoes of knows nothing and continuous blackouts everywhere.
<SPOILER ALERT!> Do not read this summary unless you read the 1st book!
Have you ever seen a storm, but no rain? Weird crazy people who want your nose? If you said yes, either you live in a very strange neighborhood, or you are a very, very sick person. Anyway, Thomas has seen all this, and way more, so don’t go complaining how your life sucks, because his is even worse, times 1000. He almost dies, and his “so-called” best friend tries to kill him, but more on that later. First off, we find Thomas just waking up from his weird coma. Right after that, he gets up, finds a bunch of weirdo Cranks with slashes on their faces, trying to get people to kill them, while also weirding out the Gladers. They break the knob to their door and burst out into the kitchen. They turn on the lights, and there are, like, 50 dead bodies hung to the ceiling, with purple faces and stuff. They rush to Teresa’s room, find a plaque that says “Teresa A# The Betrayer” (I forgot the number, probably 1 or 2) They bust the door again, worry that Teresa disappeared, but hear the toilet flush. They awkwardly wait until the door opens, and expect to see Teresa, but get a kid named Aris instead. Aris is a member of Group B who WICKED sent there. He is labeled as “The Partner” They look at the door again, but it switches and now says “Aris B1: The Partner”. (It might not be B1 but something else, I can’t remember) Anyway, the dead bodies somehow disappear and everyone is puzzled. About 1 week later, after laying down and drinking water from the toilet, a shipment comes and a guy they call Rat Man is in an invisible force field. Thomas wakes up to Minho handing him an apple. He savors every bit of juiciness from the apple and after he eats the thing to the core, he greedily snatched another one. In between bites, he asks Minho where the food came from and he points to the Rat Man. (BATMAN!!!) He first walks into the force field, falls on the floor, and bangs on the field until the Rat Man gets up and actually talks to him. (You ever think of yourself at a young age?) He says, “I told you to wait until it’s time!” Then, like a smart-aleck, he sits down and continues reading. Then, once it’s time the (dun-un-un-un-un) Rat Man tells them that this is just the beginning, it would get harder, they have to traverse (FANCY) the Scorch, and this project will be called the Scorch Trials (hence the name). Also, a weird Flat Trans-majiggy is going to become one of the walls (TRUMP) and they have a 5 minute period to go through this Flat Trans-majiggy. The next day, they wake up at 6:00 in the morning (not for me) and jump through the portal with their food/water in bags. They end up in a weird chamber that’s dark and they can barely see each other. They count and Minho says “good that,” which he says, like, 500 times throughout this book. (Good That) GET OUT OF HERE MINHO!! Anyway, they leave, a creepy old guy starts whispering like a stalker “Go back now, you won’t get pierced.” The whole team is like “We don’t care!” and leave. Then, a weird ball thingy engulfs a Glader and cuts through his neck and eats his head. (Anybody else feel sick?) 1 more ball gets somebody, they scream, they don’t turn back, and they rest because Minho almost broke his shins on stairs. Another death ball gets Winston and Thomas peels off and his scalp is a bloody mess. Minho, Newt, and Thomas go out into the blinding light with sheets on when Minho finds the door and opens it. It is very hot, but they got used to it and stuff half of the food and water into packs and group each other together with sheets covering them. Cranks come, look at them, run off to the city, and don’t help at all. Thomas goes to a tower he finds, sees Teresa, gets kissed by Teresa, (UGHH 🙁 ) and then Teresa tells him to run away, which he does. He runs until dawn breaks, which was like 2 hours away, and tells the Gladers about what happened once he runs out of breath. He says he saw Teresa, they run to the city, meet Jorge and Brenda, reason with Jorge to help them, and get ambushed while eating. Thomas and Brenda get split up with the others and that’s where weird nose people try to steal their noses. (Yayyyhh) They kill the guy, run around, and then exit the tunnels. They sleep in a truck, Thomas finds that signs are everywhere in the city saying “Thomas, you’re the real leader.” They get forced into a bar, get forced to dance and drink a sleep-inducing drug, and pass out. Minho comes to help them by barging the whole team out into the bar and fighting those guys. Thomas gets shot in the shoulder and WICKED steps in and helps him. He gets amazingly healed, except for a slight pain in his shoulder that eventually goes away. He gets kidnapped by Group B and gets dragged into a cave. They tie him to a tree, Thomas reasons with them, and they decide not to kill him. When Teresa hears this, she stomps off in anger. They walk through a canyon, Teresa grabs Thomas, and makes him travel (with Aris) to his death point. Thomas fights back, Teresa hits Thomas with the back of her spear several times, and they drag him into the room. Will Thomas die after everything he’s been through? Or will he survive and come back with a vengeance? To find out, read The Scorch Trials by James Dashner!
