Death Cure is the third book in the trilogy of The Maze Runner by James Dashner. After surviving the maze and the Scorch Trials, the gang, including Thomas, Newt, Minho, and other Gladers, searches for a cure or a safe haven. This is the Book Review of Death Cure.

The Scorch Trials left us with many questions after the gang reached the safe haven. Just like the other two books, the story in the third book is narrated through Thomas. The Gladers find themselves with Mr. Janson, aka Rat Man, who informs them that there is a cure for the Flare, and many of the Gladers are immune to the disease. Mr. Janson offers to restore their memories and remove a device installed in their brains to find the cure. While many Gladers agree to the procedure, Thomas has his doubts. Along with Newt and Minho, he disagrees and tries to run away from the facility. Before they escape, Mr. Janson shares with them that, of the three, Newt is not immune to the Flare, and he will deteriorate day by day. Despite the devastating news about Newt, the three of them agree to fight the Wicked and find their own way with the help of Brenda and Jorge, who confess to working with Wicked.

The five of them steal a ship from Wicked and go to Denver to find a man named Hans who will help them remove the chips from their brains. Newt starts getting angry and acts strangely as the Flare in his mind develops. Newt decides to stay in the ship while the others head to Denver to find Hans. During their trip to Denver, they meet Gally, a kid who was supposedly killed in the Maze Runner but reveals that it was all staged to stimulate anger in Thomas. Gally shares that he is now working with the Right Arm, a group of activists trying to take down Wicked, which, according to them, is starting new trials with the immune. The gang finds Hans and gets their chips removed. Before they head to the ship, Thomas gets captured by bounty hunters who take him to Wicked for a price. Janson helps Thomas get free and informs him to return to Wicked to save their friend Newt. Thomas is confused about what to do, and when he returns to the ship, he finds that Newt has been captured and taken to Crank Palace, where all the people affected by the Flare live. Minho convinces everyone to go to Crank Palace and free Newt from the hell.

The gang heads toward the Crank Palace and bribes the guard to let them enter the place to meet Newt. When Thomas sees Newt, he is broken and cannot understand what he should be doing. Newt shows symptoms of the Flare and angrily tells them to leave, as his end is near. Newt also blames Thomas for not doing what he asked him to do. Confused, Thomas and the gang leave Crank Palace, leaving Newt behind. He realizes that Newt has given him a note to read when the time is right. Thomas opens the note to read the word ‘Kill me.’ Scared and guilty of his actions, Thomas tries to figure out what they will do next: save Newt or find the cure.

Thomas, Minho, Brenda, and Jorge head back to Denver to find the Right Arm and learn how they can take down Wicked, which has started a new round of trials with the immune. The leader of the Right Arm, Vince, shares their plan to take over Wicked facilities and stop the trial. On their way to Wicked, Thomas sees Newt along with their Cranks taking over the city. Newt is angry and desperate to get over the Flare, begging Thomas to rescue him from his misery. With a heavy heart, Thomas is forced to shoot Newt in the head and save him from being inhuman.

The gang reaches Wicked facilities to rescue the Immune from the Trials. Mr. Janson catches Thomas and tells him that they are close to the cure but will need a brain procedure on Thomas, which might lead to his death. Thomas agrees only to buy time to plant a device to disable Wicked’s weapon. The procedure starts, leading to Thomas being unconscious. When he wakes up, he finds a note from Chancellor Paige, head of Wicked, sharing the location of the Immune and a ‘safe place’ where Thomas should take them and build a new world. Thomas and Minho re-enter the maze to rescue the Immune, and they find Teresa inside. All of them are heading towards a flat trans that will lead them to enter the safe place. Chased by Wicked, Thomas also realizes that the Right Arm was planning to destroy the entire Wicked facilities as they blame them for the flare. In their struggle to head towards the safe place, Thomas, along with Newt, also loses Teresa. In the end, Thomas, Minho, Gally, Brenda, Jorge, and a few other Gladers from both the maze survive and build the new world from scratch.

The third and final installment of the Maze Runner is emotional and heartbreaking, especially when you read the death scene of Newt. The one character that everyone wanted to survive and lead, Newt hardly appears in the book, and his appearance and behavior change over time. Personally, I wanted to read more about Newt as a character and also about the cure for the flare. The book ends with no cure for the flare, but it does shed some light on how the flare developed and started spreading. I will talk about that in the next blog in the Book Review of Kill Order, the prequel to the Maze Runner.

All three books in the Maze Runner series are exciting and transport you to another world. The book shows the confusion of kids and the desperation of humanity to start the trial to find an impossible cure. The characters are nicely portrayed; even though the book is from Thomas’s perspective, you will end up falling for either Newt or Minho. Thomas’s character sometimes looks weak, confused, and selfish at times, but his care towards his friends makes him do crazy stuff.

Worth a read!