Things Could Be Worse
Just as in The Scorch Trials, we seem to have a lighter tone coming from our author than we'd normally expect.
What do we mean by that? Well, for starters, let's take a look at the laundry list of hardships our heroes have endured.
- They are all, as kids, put in a giant Maze where they are forced to fend for themselves against creepy monsters.
- Their memories are taken away.
- They know some group of people is looking over them. It's a lot worse to know that you have no control over your situation.
- Uhh, a lot of their friends die in the Maze.
- They finally get out, only to be given another ridiculous task: the Scorch Trials.
- The Scorch Trials are, well, not fun. At all. More kids die, and the kids have to betray each other in order to survive.
- Some of the kids have the Flare, the disease that slowly eats away at your brain and makes you go insane.
- WICKED's been manipulating them the whole time.
- The world is coming to an end because of the Flare.
- Life stinks.
Okay, so things are bad. But surprisingly, it's not the case that every line of the book is dark and full of terrors. Things aren't all good in the neighborhood, but believe it or not, Dashner's tone seems to suggest that things could actually be worse. That's one way to cope with the horror, we guess.