VMJ Media Thoughts

 

Guess who just finished the long slog of a book? If you guess me then, my friend, you are most certainly right.

 

This is kind of weird, I’ve been reading this book for…a long while now and have been angry every step of the way. But now that I’ve finished I feel as though I have nothing to say. Which is completely untrue. I have a lot to say. Perhaps too much. Maybe that’s where this…loss of words is coming from.

 

Oh well. I’ll charge forward and ramble if need be.

 

One thing that bothered me throughout the whole book was the fact that Thomas didn’t have his memories back. Yes, this is away to keep the mystery for the reader but it was all really unfair I felt. There were hints in the second book that his memories were…leaking (?) through and I couldn’t wait to at least learn something more about Thomas or any of the other characters.Like…Thomas had a choice– which was so freaking pointless since they decided to try and force him anyways– and he chose'no’. The guy who wanted answers through the whole series and then, when everything’s being offered he just turns it down!

 

Now, that in and of itself didn’t piss me off. No. It was later on in the book when Thomas was having a dream with all his memories were just right there! At the tip of his fingers. And what does Thomas do? He walks away! What the hell? Like, I (sort of) get it.He’s moving forward and doesn’t want the past to follow him.Except…there are times in the book where Thomas thinks “…if only he remembered…” or something to that effect and all I could think was “YOU HAD A CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR MEMORIES AND ALL THE INFORMATION YOU’D NEED AND YOU WALKED AWAY!!!” I was so angry every time that came up.

 

I also don’t like Brenda. Like, I’m not sure Dashner can write romance (Thomas/Teresa was my least favorite parts of the first book and I didn’t like it in the second book either) so every time that came up I just rolled my eyes. But I also just didn’t like her character. That could be because I experience her through Thomas’s perception and I really hated Thomas in this book so that could be it.

 

Also, Thomas was super fucking whiny in this book! Seriously, I couldn’t stand him for a lot of it. Especially when it came to him and Teresa. He just claims to be done with her in the beginning of the book. And I guess I get it. What happened in the second book hurt him. Okay. Except we know why she did it. She did it because she was told to or else Thomas would be dead. She played it safe to save his life. But then he never forgives her! He forgives Gally and Aris (who was with Teresa by the way) but not Teresa! How the hell is that fair? Why doesn’t he forgive her??

 

Which is actually another reason I don’t like Brenda because it feels like she was just put there to replace Teresa.

 

Ah.

 

There’s also the writing which I feels lack in a lot of areas.Thomas always felt very…reaction-y to me, or like he would"forget" about certain things which I thought would have been on his mind during the whole book. Like When Thomas and the Gang, sans Newt, were in the city. Fine, they were going on about their new lives or whatever, but it seemed like they totally forgot about Newt until the just decided to go back to the Berg. Then Thomas is all “How could he forget about Newt” or something and I’m like, “Yeah, Thomas, how could you? Or Minho?”. Then after they leave the Crank House and are all like, “We gotta go to Right Arm” and I’m sitting there thinking that was the plan all along.

 

Everything just came off very disconnected to me.

 

I blame the writing honestly.

 

Also…WHY THE HELL DOES THOMAS (AND MINHO) TRUST BRENDA AND JORGE?? Like if he’s supposed to just be done with WICKED and not trust anything they have to say or be suspicious about anything to do with that, then why does he just trust them from the get go? Shouldn’t he be worried that this is all some kind of weird WICKED test? I know it’s not but still, it should stay consistent.

 

And why doesn’t Brenda just tell Thomas that getting to the safe space was the plan? Why all this running around? Sure Thomas didn’t want to know anything about Chancellor Paige, but Brenda could have mentioned it at some point. Just keeping it a secret didn’t really seem t make much sense other than another surprise for the audience. But whatever I guess.

 

I guess there was just so much that I wanted from the story.Like…I would have been more into it if Thomas had his memories. He would have to actually deal with what he had done in the past. Then him trying to take down WICKED as a redemption would have had more impact because he would actually have an idea of what he did. He would be able to make informed decisions about everything, and he would struggle with the whole “Should I actually go back to WICKED to possibly save the world” instead of only thinking about it once or twice. That would be something I would have enjoyed reading. Maybe I would have liked this book if Teresa had been the main characters.

 

There’s probably a whole lot more but I can’t think of it right now. This review is a long ramble anyways. But I’m done and won’t be reading anything else in the series. Probably. Unless there’s more Newt, Alby, and Minho.