Book Review: "The Maze Cutter" by James Dashner

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Cover of "The Maze Cutter" by James Dashner
3/5 stars

*Spoiler alert!*

Naturally, because I had read and enjoyed “The Maze Runner” series, I had to pick this one up from the library. However, the first entry in a new series taking place 70+ years after the events of Death Cure, The Maze Cutter is an intriguing, yet ultimately disorganized story.

GIF: "It's been 84 years..."

Perhaps it is my nostalgia from reading “The Maze Runner” series influencing my lower rating of The Maze Cutter, but I felt that this story had set up too many threads and introduced us to too many characters much too soon. So much so that the character development was comparably shallow. I could see the author maybe not being confident about the direction of this new series, instead relying on cameo appearances of characters like Frypan from the earlier series to shore things up.

GIF: "The Maze Runner"

Not to mention that Newt’s secret journal—the Book of Newt—is required reading on the island Thomas and his friends first settled some 70 years previously when escaping WICKD.

“They say that some things are worse than death. That might be true. Probably is.
But life and death are the beginning and end of beauty. You can't have one without the other.”

(The quote above is from Newt’s journal. I still haven’t gotten over Newt and his fate. Don’t mind me, just going to a corner to cry.)

GIF: person sobbing

As harsh as all that sounds, I found glimpses throughout the book of an interesting future, one in which the Flare—the virus that takes over the brain and drives people to transform into mad, raving Cranks—has evolved. There are variants of the Flare now, some seeming to coexist more with their hosts, making them ruthlessly intelligent.

GIF: "The Walking Dead"

I want to find out what happens next in this series, because most of our characters are extremely sheltered, coming from their safe island utterly unprepared for the mainland. I am excited to learn more about the outside world and how it has changed. I especially found the political and religious dynamics between the Godhead—a society ruled by these “evolved” Flare-infected people—and the Remnant Nation—a society designed to cure the Flare forever and at whatever cost.

GIF: war

Overall, The Maze Cutter is a flawed story setting up a fascinating series. I think that the author has room to grow in better meshing the various plot threads together and flesh out the many characters introduced and am looking forward to the second entry in the series. I don’t think anyone should count this series out yet.

Happy reading!

--BookOwl

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