The Kill Order

I recently finished the book The Kill Order by James Dashner. While it was still a good read, it was not as fantastic as I expected. I had read the three books in The Maze Runner trilogy, enjoyed them very much, and this was the prequel. I had thought it would be as amazing as the trilogy was. But it was not. Well…not until the ending.

            To me, The Kill Order was an uninteresting book. It would be on my list of uninteresting books now if not for an ending that wrapped the entire prequel in context with the trilogy. Understand this: the reason it was so uninteresting was that you had been entirely enfolded with the characters in the Maze Runner series, Thomas and Teresa. To make a prequel to a popular series after the series is finished is what a lot of authors do to make the story continue. The Maze Runner series even sets you up for a prequel, since the characters lose their memory in the beginning and you want to know what their life was like before the Trials. So when readers see a prequel has been made, they want to continue Thomas and Teresa’s story since their story in the Maze Runner series is so popular you don’t want it to end. To instead open the book and be greeted with brand new characters like Mark and Trina is confusing and annoying because you don’t want to hear their story, you want to hear the story of the Gladers and how they continue to survive.

            Yes, it is interesting to learn the story of how the Flare came to be and see the struggle it took to make it to a safe land in the time of the first sun flares. And, don’t get me wrong, the author makes it very clear and precise the amount of strength and courage it took to brave the sun flare days. He also does a brilliant job of illustrating how mentally insane the Cranks are, which, in the Maze Runner series, he does a poor job of it, considering they meet a lot of nice Cranks in the series. In the Kill Order, the author’s writing is a lot worse than I remembered it was in the series.

            But, at the end, it changes everything. It is very dramatic. The young girl they found in the middle of the book who they picked up and traveled with, Deedee, Mark finds is immune to the Flare. Then Mark, Alec, and Trina all start to feel signs of the Flare, which makes their traveling to the only place that can save Deedee all the more difficult. They go to the Flat Trans, push Deedee through, and the building collapses and everyone dies except Deedee. It was very, very sad and dramatic. But that’s not the best part. In the epilogue, there is a mother and a young boy. These men in masks walk in and take the boy away from his mother. Then the men say: lets name him Thomas. This is the Thomas from the series, only many years younger. So we assume Deedee becomes Teresa. This connecty last bit made the book eons better.