“You don’t take away my freedom without asking first.” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: This book contains: telepathy, secret files, tests, monitors, betrayals, secrets, a purge, cranks, experiences and subjects.

Once there was a world’s end.

The forests burned, the lakes and rivers dried up, and the oceans swelled.

Then came a plague, and fever spread across the globe. Families died, violence reigned, and man killed man.

Next came WICKED, who were looking for an answer. And then they found the perfect boy.

The boy’s name was Thomas, and Thomas built a maze.

Now there are secrets.

There are lies.

And there are loyalties history could never have foreseen.

This is the story of that boy, Thomas, and how he built a maze that only he could tear down.

All will be revealed.

Was this book necessary? I’m having a hard time answering this. On one side, I think it was cool that it showed what we discovered late in the trilogy – more specifically how Thomas and Teresa helped create the maze, how they developed their telepathy, etc. – and also how the chancellor ascended to power… but at the same time, some parts felt a little too unbelievable.

There’s one small detail about this book that bothers me. What are the odds that the exact same group of friends formed before and after their memories were wiped? Because in this prequel, we see that Alby, Newt and Minho were already friends with Thomas and Teresa before the trials started… just like in the maze. And not only that, but Chuck already had a deep relationship with Thomas by being his “younger sibling” before the memories were wiped. I just think this was a little far fetched and too perfect/convenient. I can see how some people may gravitate towards specific people but c’mon… about 50 kids were going to be sent to the maze and they formed the exact same group of 5 or 6 people?

I was also hoping that there would be a more specific explanation on why putting kids in a maze would be helpful in finding a cure to the flare. Sure, apparently they were trying to build a blueprint according to their behavior, but what would they do with that information? But yeah, don’t listen to me – I’m probably overthinking and this is just a science fiction series.

One thing that made me happy was to revisit these characters. I just love this group of characters so much. Even though it didn’t make sense that they had the exact friend group, I was truly happy they were part of the spotlight again – especially because their personalities shine through with or without their memories being wiped. Also, Newt has a sister! That was so cool, I was not expecting to see that she was also important to the story!

As usual, I need to say this as well: I really liked the audiobook narrator (I think he’s the same person narrating the other audiobooks), and I truly think he’s perfect to narrate this series!

I honestly don’t think this book was super relevant or added something important to the main story – well, maybe just the chancellor thing. I would still consider rereading the original trilogy, but I wouldn’t waste my time reading the prequels again.

Edit: Jokes on me – I did reread the prequels. And again: not worth it.