Book Review - Death Cure

Title: The Death Cure
Author: James Dashner
Series: The Maze Runner (Book 3)
Publisher: Chicken House
Release Date: October 2011
ISBN13: 9781909489424

Synopsis
The Trials are over. WICKED have collected all the information they can. Now it's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test. But something has happened that no-one at WICKED has foreseen: Thomas has remembered more than they think. And he knows WICKED can't be trusted ... The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than anyone could have imagined. With the Gladers divided, can they all make it?

My Review
I haven't been wowed by the series as a whole but they are addictive enough that I want to know how it all ends and I can't walk away from the series, so that has to be a positive, right?
This book carries on right from where book 2 finished, Thomas and his friends are fighting back against WICKED and manage to break out on their own. They decide to head to Denver to find some old allies and work out where to go from there. 
I actually read this book quicker than the other two but I'm not sure if that is just because I had a day of work and so could set aside time to read, or if it was just easier to get through. This book has a lot of action and fight scenes in it and this is padded with slower more descriptive passages, The fight scenes did get a bit repetitive after a while and I found myself skimming through. I could see where Dashner was headed and there were quite a few twists and turns to keep you wondering, but there was also a lot of predictable bits that I had figured out long before I was 'supposed' to. 
Thomas continues to be himself and does grow a bit as a character, but I was expecting more from him. He faces some pretty horrendous things in this book and even has to make some horrible decisions, but he doesn't appear to be all that changed by them. He has some internal monologue along the lines of 'what have I done' and 'i can still see his face as he looked at me...' but considering how he acted when Chuck died, I expected more. Instead it felt a bit rushed and skimmed over, like Dashner was desperate to just get to the end. 
My other quibble with the book was that Teresa has all but disappeared in this book, apart from the odd fleeting moment or snide comment she isn't really in the picture, but in book 1 she was built up to be this all important girl who would change the very foundations of everything, now it seems like she has just faded away. And its not even like she was replaced by Brenda, don't get me wrong, Brenda appears a lot more in this book but she seems to be more like a narrator, guiding the story into a certain direction then fading into the background again, I had hopes for her to grow as a character and for her relationship with Thomas to develop and whilst there are hints of this, nothing is really concrete. 
As for the storyline of WICKED and the Right Arm, it wasn't a bad idea and it was executed fairly well, but there are still a lot more questions that needed to be answered and the whole 'we need your brain' thing just made me roll my eyes. 
I was hoping for some epic conclusion and on the surface you would think you had it - deaths, fights, betrayals, mad scientists, explosions, rebels and friendships breaking and reforming. But it all just felt a bit flat to me. 
I am still going to go on and read the 'Prequel' - 'KIll Order' as I am still curious and hope it will answer some of the left over questions, but I have been left feeling a little bit deflated. 
If you have enjoyed the rest of the series, then I would recommend you read this one to complete the story and find out how it ends, it's a fairly easy read - i did it in about 4 hours.

My Rating