The Kill Order by James Dashner

Summary from GoodReads:

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.

My Review:

Having just put down The Death Cure, I turned quickly to The Kill Order with the anticipation of getting some answers making my knee shake with excitement. The first pages sent a thrill to me as I saw those few minutes before Thomas was sent up into The Glade … but then the story took a journey to a place 13 years before.

This new story with new people (Alec, Mark, Trina, and others) was something very familiar to me. Flashing back and forth from this new present to their past, James Dashner does what he does best: writes a racing, thrilling story and slowly placates his reader with tiny bits of information as he does so. And it was easy to like both Mark and Alec, so I gave in to enjoy the ride.

While it was frustrating to not get the history and understand more of certain elements of The Maze Runner trilogy (sorry if that’s a spoiler folks – but I know a lot of people out there were very frustrated about knowing things), it was helpful to understand what Dashner did disclose and it pieced together a lot of pieces for me that were left undone by the ending of The Death Cure. Am I completely satisfied with what was given to me? No. And I honestly don’t know if there will ever be answers given to us or if Dashner will continue to string us along. But I did enjoy a riveting, full-blown prequel that set up a world that was a place of complete confusion to me.

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