“Kill me. If you’ve ever been my friend, kill me.” – 3.5/5 stars!

It’s the end of the line.

WICKED has taken everything from Thomas: his life, his memories, and now his only friends—the Gladers. But it’s finally over. The trials are complete, after one final test.

Will anyone survive?

What WICKED doesn’t know is that Thomas remembers far more than they think. And it’s enough to prove that he can’t believe a word of what they say.

The truth will be terrifying.

Thomas beat the Maze. He survived the Scorch. He’ll risk anything to save his friends. But the truth might be what ends it all.

The time for lies is over.

What a cool and intense conclusion to an amazing series! Still. I have to admit that this was not my favorite book of this series. Actually, it was my least favorite book of the trilogy, but only by comparison. “The Maze Runner” is my favorite, next is “The Scorch Trials” and then in third place is “The Death Cure”. This was pretty good still, I just think the plot was not as great – and I may be salty because of what happened to one of my favorites.

The conclusion was satisfying, but there were a lot of sad moments that (almost) made me cry – ok, who am I kidding, I definitely cried. It’s a book with a lot of action and a fast pace. Like I said, the plot for this one didn’t grab me like the first two books did, but it was still okay.

Just a little side note: if you are thinking of reading these books based on what you saw from the movies, prepare yourself to be surprised because the books are very different from the movies. You know when movie adaptations are a bit different and they incorporate a few scenes from the book? This is not the case because most of it has nothing to do with the original story. There are very few scenes that actually match the movies, but the most surprising thing for me was how different the storylines were. The first movie is similar but the last two movies are very different from the original books.

My favorite character of the whole series was definitely Minho! From the inappropriate things he said to his personality in general… everything he said/did made the book really fun. I just feel really sad about Newt and I wish he’d survived. The three boys made such an amazing team. I also had a hard time liking Theresa, and I honestly didn’t feel bad for her death. And I’m glad Thomas and Brenda had a chance to be together!

I also have to talk about the narrator. Mark Deakins is by far one of the most amazing narrators I have encountered in audiobooks. He added so much to this trilogy and I’m very glad I picked up the audiobook version!

This book was heartbreaking, and a little shocking and unexpected. I liked it and thought it was an okay conclusion to the series. I’m listening to “The Kill Order” next! Time for the prequels 🙂

“Anybody else wanna pee their pants and cry for mommy?” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: trials, bergs, cranks, shanks, old buildings, underground tunnels, metal teardrops, mysterious signs, new tattoos, the safe haven, sharp spears, rusty bullets, Rat Man, first kisses, the flare, telepathy, lightning strikes, betrayals, hunger, sand storms and a possible cure.

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.
 
Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.
 
There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.
 
The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
 
Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.
 
There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

Once again, I had a good time reading this book! I recently reread it and I decided to lower my rating to 3.5. Fortunately for me, my feelings didn’t change too much. Some parts were difficult to read because there’s a lot of betrayal going on and you don’t know who to trust. And not only that, but you get a lot of crazy revelations. 

Teresa is a very unlikable character and I don’t understand how Thomas is still crazy about her. It’s very uncommon for me to NOT root for the main romance of the book, but Teresa… just, no. Wake up dude! Anyways, I digress…

I came to an interesting conclusion while reading this book for the second time: the way the desert setting is constant throughout the book makes the story look very slow-paced. Since the setting doesn’t change for a very long time, it feels like the scenes are longer.

Just like the first time I read this, another familiar feeling emerged: I’m so surprised with how different the book is from the movie. The plot and setting is completely different, and I could only spot a few scenes that were used in the movie… I wonder why they changed it so much?

I still prefer the first book, but this was very fun as well! Oh, and the audiobook is phenomenal, I definitely recommend this format!

“Shouldn’t someone give a pep talk or something?” Minho asked, pulling Thomas’s attention away from Alby.
“Go ahead,” Newt replied.
Minho nodded and faced the crowd. “Be careful,” he said dryly. “Don’t die.” – 4.25/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: boxes, keepers, lost memories, maps, codes, secrets, huge spikes, a mysterious cliff, weird telepathy, WICKD, “shanks”, grievers, Fry Pan’s cookings, handcrafted weapons, blue deep eyes, “green beans”, a lot of running and a scary maze.

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

I reread this book recently for the second time, and all the positive memories came back in a flash.

I feel like my opinion didn’t change that much, so that’s good! I wish I didn’t see all the movies before reading the book, because it was impossible not to compare both realities. I must say that I really enjoyed the whole concept of the book: the fact that someone decided to put a bunch of kids trapped in a maze for a survival experience is crazy. It’s a very raw and cruel reality to witness, and there is a lot of suffering – so be aware of that! It’s a true mystery of what’s really happening and why they are where they are, and there are a lot of questions that don’t have an answer… yet.

I just couldn’t stop thinking of how some of the characters were so similar to the movie characters, and others, yet, so different. “Movie Thomas” fitted the role perfectly, and so did “movie Minho” and “movie Teresa”. I was also intrigued how some of the characters were very different, like Newt and Fry Pan (physically) and Alby (personality). Not relevant to the review, but I thought I’d make that observation.

I also loved the small detail that their names are not their true names and that they were given nicknames related to influential people. I wish they mentioned this cool fact in the movies! At least I don’t think they did? I could be wrong though!

Another thing that I really liked and found interesting is how the gladers developed their own kind of language and communication. I’m not sure why, but it made the reading experience more real and interesting.

Even though I liked it, I missed the surprise factor to keep me going. I wished I didn’t know the story, because if I didn’t I would be hooked to this series!

I still love this book and story! Revisiting this story was the perfect way of completing my 2022 Reading Goal.

“I began to understand that we were born in order to see and listen to the world. And that’s all this world wants of us. It doesn’t matter that I was never a teacher or a member of the workforce, my life had meaning.” – 4.25/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: cherry blossoms, new recipes, drinking problems, new employees, discrimination, dorayaki, debt, caged birds, depression, school girls, Hansen’s disease and, of course, sweet bean paste.

Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste.

But everything is about to change.

Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape and Tokue’s dark secret is revealed, with devastating consequences.

Sweet Bean Paste is a moving novel about the burden of the past and the redemptive power of friendship. Translated into English for the first time, Durian Sukegawa’s beautiful prose is capturing hearts all over the world.

I got this book as a gift, knowing absolutely nothing about it. So thank you gifter, I ended up being very surprised with how good the story was! It was the perfect way to start my 2023 reading year, and if I’m lucky… hopefully this sets the tone for the entire year – well, I can dream!

So what is this book about? In a nutshell, I would say it’s about social discrimination, improbable friendships and learning how to be patient and listen. Ah yes, and the making of sweet bean paste, of course!

I’m probably spoiling the book (just a little) in the next sentences, so be aware of that! Tokue is the old lady Sentaro hired to work with him in the dorayaki cafe, but she is constantly being discriminated against for being sick in the past. This happened ever since she was a teenager, when she first got sick. The thing is: she is not sick anymore. She hasn’t been sick for a very long time, but since she has a lot of physical damage on the visible parts of her body, the customers don’t want to be near her. It’s a tough book to read sometimes because it breaks my heart that some people go through this.

What also makes this book so great – besides the message – is the powerful combination of amazing characters and immersive writing. The characters were amazing and I truly loved every single one of them. My favorite was Tokue, of course. She is a very kind-hearted character, full of wisdom. One of my favorite things about the book is how Tokue constantly tells Sentaro to listen to things and to be patient. 

The writing is very immersive and atmospheric. There are plenty of sensorial descriptions throughout the book – such as food, weather, etc. -, and I believe that added an extra layer of greatness to the book. 

I just love how timeless this book feels. It felt like I was reading a classic book, and it would still make sense to read it in 100 years. Also, thanks to this book I was able to learn about Hansen’s disease and how it impacted Japan.

I honestly can’t recommend this book enough. Even though it was a heartbreaking kind of book, I still loved everything about it and I’m sure the story is going to stay with me for a long time. I am curious about the movie adaptation.

Oh yeah, and now I want a (high quality) dorayaki.

3/5 stars!

Sometimes our goals seem like unobtainable fantasies, but the key to success is making motivational thinking part of everyday life. In Get Up & Do It! Beechy and Josephine Colclough explain how to develop a plan to achieve your goals by planning, practising and adopting positive thinking, as well as motivational and other problem-solving skills. With Get Up and Do It! you’ll be able to decide what you want to achieve and why, and then create a ‘can do’ frame of mind. Based on the BBC book of the same name, this audio version is presented by the authors. Beechy and Josephine Colclough are chartered psychotherapists. Beechy is well known for his work with celebrities, including Elton John, Robbie Williams and Caroline Aherne….

It was a nice, condensed book, but I personally didn’t learn anything new. I would say this is more appropriate for people who are starting to get into the self-development world and could use some help with setting new goals and figuring out how to achieve them.

With that said, I still found this book inspiring. Reading this reignited my motivation to achieve my personal goals and do some planning!

It’s a nice book to get some instant motivation and to review some well-known concepts. It has good advice and the audiobook version is short (about 2h), so you’ll listen to it in no time.

“An audience can go back and watch a film any number of times they want. It’s always there for them. For the cast and crew, the relationship with a film is more complex. The magic is in the making, and that process is a discreet unit of time in the past. You can reflect on that unit of time, you can be proud of it, but you can’t revisit it.” – 3.75/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: long trains, amazing performances, perfect roles, child actors, old friendships, rehabilitation centers, a lot of magic and several “breaths of fresh air”.

They called for a break, and Gambon magicked up a cigarette from out of his beard. He and I were often to be found outside the stage door, having ‘a breath of fresh air’, as we referred to it. There would be painters and plasterers and chippies and sparks, and among them all would be me and Dumbledore having a crafty cigarette.

From Borrower to wizard, Tom Felton’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame saw him catapulted into the limelight aged just twelve when he landed the iconic role of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

Speaking with candour and his own trademark humour, Tom shares his experience of growing up on screen and as part of the wizarding world for the very first time. He tells all about his big break, what filming was really like and the lasting friendships he made during ten years as part of the franchise, as well as the highs and lows of fame and the reality of navigating adult life after filming finished.

Prepare to meet a real-life wizard.

This was a very pleasant reading experience! I truly enjoyed this more than I thought I would and I flew through the pages in no time.
In this memoir, Tom Felton takes us through his personal journey, starting from the moment he became a child actor to his most recent struggles with addiction. This book was mostly focused on his work as an actor, but we also get a glimpse of his childhood and the years after the Harry Potter movies were shot.
A big part of the book is what we already expected: a lot of Harry Potter set stories and fun moments shared with the rest of the cast. I enjoyed these chapters the most because we get so many fun stories! Tom was born to play Draco. Just like Daniel, Rupert and Emma were perfect for the roles of Harry, Ron and Hermione, Tom was a perfect Draco. The casting directors did an amazing job finding kids that acted like their characters! Tom speaks very fondly of his castmates and it was a joy to listen!
I came to the conclusion that what makes this memoir so cool – besides all the cool Harry Potter references, of course – is Tom’s honesty. He seems like a very sweet and down-to-Earth person, and he is very appreciative of everyone around him. I had no idea he went to rehab, or even that he had a problem with substance abuse. Fortunately he didn’t give up and he went through the recovery process! He talks about his problems very openly, and I appreciate his honesty as a reader.
This is a great book for Harry Potter fans for obvious reasons, but now I have a new respect for Tom. I’m surprised by his talent, honesty and personality. Definitely worth checking out!

“When you make the commitment and take action, The Universe will bend over backwards to help you achieve your goals.” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: This book contains: Tony Robbins’ courses, lists of goals, beach breaks, ski trips, philanthropy, beautiful views, supporting wives, triathlons in Hawaii, new jobs and new lives.

When you read VisualFestation you will see that it is a guide book telling you how to manifest the life of your dreams. Going beyond other books on the law of attraction, the Author has successfully used these techniques and habits to manifest miracles in his own life. As you read Visualfestation and hear the stories, you will acquire all of the tools you need to bring your vision of a dream life to your reality now.

This small book is full of great knowledge! If you’re not familiar with the contents of this book, this is essentially a law of attraction/manifestation book – and a good one, if I may add!
Personally for me this was more of an inspiring read instead of a learning read, because I’m already familiar with the topics that were mentioned in the book. With that being said, I believe this small book is perfect for everyone who is interested in learning the foundations of manifestation. The author also shares his personal experiences and how he was able to change his life, so I believe this is great motivation for readers. It is always inspiring and interesting to see how other people manifest the amazing things they have in life, and how they decided to inspire others to do the same!
I listened to this book in the audiobook format, and this is the format I would recommend if you decide to pick this up! It’s only a 2-hour reading, so it’s definitely worth it!