Kirkus Review of The Death Cure

Wow, we are very excited to announce that Kirkus has given THE DEATH CURE an extremely positive review!!! (And yes, I'm aware that I've now blogged twice this week. Booyah.)

I can't tell you how happy this makes me. I've been so scared at how this book would be received since the last in a series is always held up to huge standards with lots of expectations. But this is the strongest validation we could've hoped for at this early stage.

Non-spoiler line: "Dashner again displays his mastery of the action sequence, making readers turn pages even as they become further invested in the well-developed characters.‬ ‪Heart pounding to the very last moment."

The full review is below, but I'm giving you a major warning. This review is FULL of spoilers. Full of them. Big ones. So if you don't like to know that kind of stuff, please don't read it.

SPOILER ALERT

Full Kirkus Review:

An explosive ending to The Maze Runner trilogy.‬

‪Thomas and the rest of the survivors of the Maze and the Scorch Trials are being held at WICKED (World in Catastrophe, Killzone Experiment Department) headquarters. Subjected to even more tests, they’ve learned enough to know that they’re all part of a massive experiment to find a cure for the pandemic Flare disease. But does any cure justify what they’ve been put through? Or the engineered deaths of their friends? It’s hard to believe that “WICKED is good,” even though that’s the message they’re bombarded with.

Discouraged, rebellious and definitely not trusting, Thomas, Newt, Minho, Brenda and Jorge break out and escape to Denver, now a walled city meant to be reserved for the uninfected and the immune. But it’s all too clear that Newt has already been infected and is teetering on the verge of madness. It’s equally clear that WICKED has put a bounty on their heads and won’t rest until they have these survivors back in hand—especially Thomas, who may have been part of all the experiments from the very beginning and is now the Final Candidate. Dashner again displays his mastery of the action sequence, making readers turn pages even as they become further invested in the well-developed characters.‬

‪Heart pounding to the very last moment.

(Science fiction/thriller. 12 and up)‬

Fall Approaches

Hey everybody! I know it's been a long time since I last blogged. I blame it on a tough, crazy summer. But the best time of the year is approaching, and I can already smell autumn in the air...

Over on twitter (follow me! CLICK HERE), I promised I'd blog today, so here I am. Keeping my promise. The only problem is I have no idea what to talk about. Hmmm...

1. First, I've never really officially announced this, but many of you have asked about the fourth (and last) book in my series, The 13th Reality. Right now it's planned to come out next spring or early summer. I would've really had to rush it to come out this year, and I didn't want to do that. Hopefully, the wait will be worth it. The series is going to have quite an ending, I promise.

2. Lots of people have also asked about what comes after the Maze Runner trilogy is done. Well, for some reason, no one ever lets me talk about anything. But I'll just say this: we have a couple of big announcements coming soon. Really big. You guys aren't getting rid of me yet. Ever, actually.

3. The Death Cure is coming out on October 11th. In case you're calendarly challenged, that's really soon. I'll be touring for three weeks, and I now know which cities: Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Billings, Austin, Chicago, Milwaukee, Vancouver (Yay Canada!), Lexington, Atlanta, and Las Vegas.

4. Until then, I'm just at home, working hard, writing. For my breaks, I've been watching the show called Breaking Bad, now up to Season 2. Holy crap. I love this show. My favorite since Lost.

5. The paperback for The Scorch Trials comes out three weeks from tomorrow, on Sept. 13. Random House has started a new imprint called Ember, and this will be one of the first releases under that imprint. Why? I honestly don't know.

6. How would one or two of you like to read The Death Cure early? Really? Okay, I'll ask my publisher if we can do a contest and send a couple out for the blog. Stay tuned...

7. My eleven year old son is playing quarterback. How cool is that?

8. I thought it was really cool that Elizabeth Banks, who will be playing Effie in the upcoming Hunger Games movie, mentioned my book in her interview for New York Magazine. If you want to read it, CLICK HERE.

9. We also got our first "official" review for Death Cure, by Jason Kennedy from the Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee. It made my day, and they said I could share it with you guys. Slight spoiler warning:

"I was hesitant to start The Death Cure, what more could WICKED put Thomas through? What horrible, what torturous, what painful journey would Thomas have to complete? Would it be enough? In the clutches of WICKED and infected with the Flare, the outlook does not look promising. James Dashner does not disappoint in this bleak and exhilarating finale--I can't wait to see what he comes up with next."

Thanks, Jason!!!

10. Has anyone else out there gotten their hands on an ARC? I'd love to hear what you think.

Okay, more soon. A lot sooner than later. I promise.