The Scorch Trials

     I finished James Dashner's The Sorch Trials yesterday.  I think I liked this one a little better than the first book, but I'm still not loving this series.  My sister hated the movie based on this book, I'm not sure how I feel about that.  They really changed the events quite a bit when they made the movie and they almost seem like two completely different things to me.  It has been a couple of years since I've seen the movie so I won't debated the differences right now.
     The plot in this series just isn't working for me right now.  *Spoiler - those of you who haven't read this book may want to skip to the last paragraph*. The whole point of putting the characters in this book through all the horrible things they've been subjected to is so that scientists can map their brains through their responses.  They are immune to the disease that's threatening to wipe out the human race and this brain mapping will apparently help find a cure.  This is obviously a high tech society, they can create monsters and teleports for crying out loud, why can't they work any of the neuroimaging machines specifically designed for mapping the brain?  It would take all of a couple of hours to run one of the kids through a neuroimaging machine, run a non-immune person through, and then compare the differences.  But no, these scientists would rather wait years and torture teenagers to get the information they need.  Seems legit.
     Maybe they'll explain why there was a need for doing this in the last two books.  Maybe all the neuroimaging machines in the world broke and the people who knew how to repair them died.  Maybe the scientists are just sadists and like to torture teenagers.  All I know is right now I'm not buying it and, because I'm not buying it, I'm not invested in it.
     Another thing in this book I'm not a fan of is the introduction of the love triangle.  One of the things I've found refreshing about this series was that there seemed to be a lack of love triangle.  Every young adult book series seems to have one, it's part of the template, and I'm getting tired of it.  My hopes were dashed with the introduction of Brenda, a girl they pick up in a town they run through who is immediately interested in Thomas.  The typical strife follows.  Does Thomas like Teresa or Brenda better? He seems to love Teresa but he's also attracted to Brenda.  Confusion and indecision ensue.
     I'm not one to stop reading in the middle of a series though so I'll keep plowing along.  Maybe it'll get better.

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