“Let’s get this started, people. It won’t be long before we all lose our minds.” – 2.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: darts, a virus, sun flares, cranks, the PCF, bergs, flat trans, crazy people, sacrifices, a little girl, two transvices and a kill order.

Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease.

Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next. Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there’s something suspicious about its origin. Worse yet, it’s mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.

Mark and Trina are convinced there’s a way to save those left living from descending into madness. And they’re determined to find it—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some, you’re worth more dead than alive.

I’m disappointed. 

The only thing I knew before going into this book is that this book would explain how the virus was formed. But I didn’t know it would have (almost) nothing to do with the main characters of the trilogy, and that’s probably why I was so disappointed.

I was bored the entire time. The book was filled with a lot of fluff and the action scenes were exaggerated and unrealistic, and… well, were just plain boring. For example, there is a whole chapter in the end of the book dedicated solely to Mark fighting a man. The entire chapter… I wish I was kidding. 

The romance was also pretty weak. I didn’t really care about Trina or Mark’s love for her. I just didn’t. I also didn’t care for Misty, the Toad, Darrell, and the other irrelevant characters. I didn’t care for almost anyone in this book, how is that even possible?

Throughout the book I had my suspicions that Deedee was Teresa, but I was never sure of that until I found out online that there is a secret chapter only a few editions have. The “Secret File” chapter consists of Teresa telling Thomas that her name was Deedee. So if I didn’t do my homework I would never be sure. Why is it that only a few editions have this special chapter? I didn’t think it was fair that only a few people could have access to such an important chapter – but maybe that’s just me.

On the positive side… I did like Alec a lot! I loved his personality and his presence in the book. I also loved the audiobook narrator, Mark Deakins. As always, he did an amazing job narrating another book from the Maze Runner series. Even though the book was pretty boring, he sure made it fun to listen. I also feel like I’m starting to understand Dashner’s style. I’m definitely starting to identify some things that are part of his personal mark! Even though this is not my favorite book from him, I still like his style of writing.

So what do you take from this book? In conclusion: how the sun flares affected the planet, the story of how the virus was spread, and Teresa’s story before WICKED. I wish the story was better, but it is what it is!