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The Death Cure - James Dashner

That’s right, I’m starting my blog reviews with the third in a series. Oooops. Anyway you can buy it here (Amazon) or (as I would prefer) you can swing in to your local book store and pick it up there :)
You can also find this review on my goodreads along with my reviews of the first two. 
As much as I wanted to like this series, I just couldn’t get behind it. The final book in the trilogy The Death Cure didn’t make it any better for me. I’m hoping that The Kill Order will make me a little happier, but I don’t have a whole lot of optimism about it.

Major spoilers ahead, so readers beware. 

Oh James, why don’t you like women? Like it drives me crazy. I want to not care and just like the story, but every single second I’m hoping for a better woman character. Or hell, A woman character, she doesn’t have to be super great. But so far there’s been Teresa who acts as a romantic interest/impetus for the group. Then in the Scorch Trials she becomes a total traitor asshole. Now in this book it’s like do we trust her, do we not trust her? Oh god the girl germs! It’s okay, you’ll just kill her off. After all, Thomas is much too busy loving his new lady friend Brenda to really care about ANOTHER WOMAN. Like one woman is enough, gosh. Then there’s the mysterious Chancellor Paige who is a woman (and theoretically the savior, I guess) but we never see her! We have no vested interest in her as a character.
I know, I know
But I guess I just expect more from writers these days. Especially those who are writing for youth. Sigh.

Also, why does Thomas have to experience so much pain? Like how many friends does he have to watch die before you’re content? I know it’s important to have characters experience loss, but once wasn’t enough? 

And I’m just not sure that I believe that the world will be okay after all. Dashner makes sure to state that it will be. He also tells us how horrible the world is. How terrible people are. But, except for the last bit, he doesn’t really show us it. And maybe that’s why I don’t really enjoy these books. He tells us what happens, but he doesn’t really show it. 

I’m actually really excited for the movies. I think this may be one of the rare cases where the movies might do a better job telling the story than the books do.

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