Book Review : 'The Death Cure’ The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Maze Runner ‘The Death Cure’ is the third series of The Maze Runner trilogy written by famous American writer, James Dashner. This novel has young adult, dystopia, and science fiction genre with 325 pages which was first published in America in 2011 after The Trial Scorch novel in 2010. The Death Cure is a continuation or result of the story of how WICKED tried to find a cure for Flare - a disease which was caused of the solar energy explosion that causes the sufferers to turn into zombies - by doing some inhuman trials on children who are immune to Flare or they often call them ‘Munies’.

The Death Cure begins with the isolation of Thomas from his friends, after The Scorch Trial, for three weeks in a white room. Janson ‘Rat Man’ convinced him to work with WICKED to find the cure by mapping the blueprint of their minds with a series of various stress and decision-making scenarios. Yet, Thomas refused and began to plan his escape with his Munies friend after he was reunited with them. Inside the hall, Janson announced that WICKED would give their memories back and say that this was close to the end of the trials. But Thomas, Minho, and Newt refuse to get their memories back after all of their memories had been wiped away before they entered the Maze. Janson forced them and dragged Thomas into the operating room. In the operating room, Thomas sees Brenda who had previously devised a plan to help his escape from WICKED with Jorge - another friend from the Scorch - using his Berg, an airship.

The groups decide to fly to Denver which one of the few cities left that has not been overrun by the Flare. They try to find Hans the one who can get the devices out of their brains. When they arrive, Newt insists on staying aboard the Berg while the others hunt for Hans because he has been infected. In the middle of his journey, Thomas had given a note by a guy. Its note contains the address and is signed by Gally, the old friend and enemy of Thomas in the Maze. Thomas insists them to find Gally first before finding Hans because Gally is a member of the Right Arm. The Right Arm offers help to fight WICKED and get all the Munies back and try to find the cure.

In the next day, they meet Hans and start to get the devices out of their brain. But, Thomas was undercontrolled by WICKED and attacked anyone to not get the devices out of his brain. Later, as Thomas and his friends get something to eat in a coffee shop, infected man is arrested. Thomas is caught because he stays while the others manage to escape. When he says that he is a Munie, the authority decides to sell him to the people collecting Munies. Yet Thomas was rescued by Rat Man through the local police and insists him to come back to WICKED and continue the trials.

When the groups return to the Berg, they discover that Newt is missing. They found a note says that Newt had been taken to the Crank Palace. They decide to find Newt before they join the Right Arm. After going around the Crank Palace, the groups finally find Newt in the bowling place with the other Cranks. But Newt points his weapon at his friends and refuses to go with them because the Flare is a little control over his actions and he changes all the time.

On their way back to the Berg, they are shocked by the guards who run up and warn them to run to avoid the Cranks who have gone insane. After they reach the Berg, Thomas remember Newt’s letter and reads it. Newts note makes him surprise. The note begs Thomas to kill Newt, but Thomas regrets that he failed his friend's last request. When they arrive back in the city, they are caught by the guards and take them to some place where Thomas meet the other groups from the other Maze. Minho tries to attack the guards and insists them to tell to whom they work for. One guard explains that they're not working for WICKED but for the Right Arm. Thomas and Brenda force them to take them to the resistance headquarters. While on the way to the place where headquarters placed, they have to fight an army of Cranks. When he finally meets the leader of the Right Arm, Vince, he explains that he wants the Munies to help them break into and take down WICKED. Thomas and Brenda agree to help. Thomas will be dropped off first and will place a device that can disable WICKED's weapons.

On his way to the Berg that will take him to WICKED, Thomas recognizes Newt among the Cranks. Newt is not the boy he knows all this time, he went crazy so fast. Newt begs Thomas to kill him as the note he has written down. To fulfill his promise, Thomas shots Newts head and refuses to tell anyone about the accident. 

The journey to WICKED begins. Arriving at WICKED, Thomas is dropped off in a forest just outside of WICKED headquarters. Rat Man welcomes him back. Thomas pretends to have to use the restroom so he can plant the weapon-disabling device. WICKED decides to dissect Thomas' brain while he is still alive to get the information they need to create a cure. WICKED doesn't care whether it would kill Thomas or not. They force Thomas to the operating room and start to anesthetize him.

When Thomas wakes, he finds he's alone. He finds a letter and a map from Chancellor Paige, the leader of WICKED, explains that she feels Thomas and the other Munies have suffered enough and have done all they can. She says that she saved him from surgery because WICKED has enough patterns and can figure out a cure from them. She leaves him a map that shows the location of captive Munies and a secret exit. The exit is a Flat Trans, which will transport them to safety.

Thomas runs and meets his friend included Gally and ask them to help him get other Munies out from the Maze. Thomas is shocked to find Munies varying in age from children to adults. Thomas organizes them, but the Right Arm begins to detonate their explosives. The building begins to disintegrate around them. WICKED sends Grievers half-machine, half-animal creatures to stop them, but Thomas and Teresa destroy them. About 200 Munies survive and make it to the Flat Trans, but they're still not safe. As many leave through the Trans Flat, Rat Man and several WICKED soldiers arrive to stop them. Thomas and his friends fight them as other Munies continue to transport to safety. As they run toward the Flat Trans, more explosions rock the building. Teresa saves Thomas by pushing Thomas out of the way, and she dies. Minho and Brenda Drag Thomas through the Flat Trans, and then Brenda Destroys the Flat Trans so no one can follow them. Thomas marvels at the natural beauty of their new home. He and Brenda contemplate their new life as the sun sets.

In the end of part, Chancellor Paige explains how WICKED always acted for good, but she realized that their plans had not always been the best. She explains that though WICKED's initial plan to find a cure has failed, they still succeeded in saving humankind by sending the Munies to a place of safety where they can live while the rest of humankind destroys itself.

In the end of part, Chancellor Paige explains how WICKED is always acted for good, but she realized that their plans have not always been the best. She explained that although WICKED's initial plan to find a cure has failed, they still succeeded in saving humankind by sending the Munies to a place of safety where they can live while the rest of humankind destroys itself.

The Death Cure, the third novel from The Maze Runner series really shows the tension in almost throughout the story. As usual, James Dashner, the author of the novel, was able to create a story that surprised people and wondered what the next part of the story was like. And most importantly, he delivered his story in simple language, despite the many scientific terms in this science fiction novel. The reader can take a break from the tension, because James Dashner fills each chapter with a very short story, not long-winded, and only takes about 4-6 pages. With this style of storytelling, it is only natural that the literary work of the author from the United States is easily digested by readers, in various age ranges.

This novel is success to make me have to pause for a while to breathe fresh air, because Dashner always displays a tense scene from a very detailed description. The scene when Cranks start attacking blindly or even scenes when Thomas and his friends fought with WICKED guards. Dashner did not forget to put some romance between Thomas and Brenda on several parts, so that the reader forgets all sorts of tense scenes that Dashner will present in the next part. Reading this novel also drained my emotions when Newt slowly turned into Cranks and asked his friend, Thomas, to shoot him before he turned.

This novel can mixed the reader feelings when diving the plot which presented by Dashner. James Dashner always displays a very epic plot, with a very detailed description. Feelings of anger, sadness, fear, happiness and tense turn around as I read this novel to completion. Although the description that Dashner provides is very detailed, but it does not rule out the possibility for me or other readers to have difficulty for understanding some scenes. This is caused by several things explained by Dashner are not exist in daily life. For example a description of a creature called ‘Griever’ composed of meat and metal tools created by WICKED to prevent Gladers from coming out of the Maze. For readers who have no wild imagination it will be difficult to describe the shape of this creature in their imagination.

Because this novel is the last part of James Dashner's The Maze Runner trilogy, the storyline that James Dashner presents in this third book will be difficult to understand if you don't read the first two books of The Maze Runner's trilogy. Need extra understanding in analyzing each character that appears in this third part of the book because everything that happens to the characters in this part of the book is related to the previous book. I am an example of a reader who immediately reads this third part of the book without reading the two previous books. As a result, I needed several time and repeated several parts to understand each character and plot presented by Dashner. But this book still provides a tense sensation from Thomas's spirit of rebellion and his friends from beginning to end.