The Maze Cutter

The Maze Cutter was incredibly frustrating to read.

I remember really enjoying The Maze Runner series in high school (books and movies) so when I first heard that Dashner would be expanding the series, I got very excited! I was able to put a hold on the audio through my library app and waited for nearly 25 weeks for it to be my turn to check the book out. I am so sad that I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped.

There are a lot of issues that I have with this one, but the biggest is that it was just frustrating to read. As a reader, we're kept in the dark literally the entire book, and every time it seemed as if something important would be revealed, the chapter would cut and the scene would jump to another POV. At the beginning of the book, this didn't bother me as much, but as I neared the 60% mark, I started getting very irritated every time the chapters ended unfinished. And then it did that all the way to the end and I was just uninterested at that point. I think the author wanted to keep us in the dark, but even though I finished the book, I really can't tell you anything about the Remnant Nation or the Godhead. And I can't tell you anything else that happened after the point of where The Maze Runner series ended either (which is what I was the MOST curious about). There were so many opportunities for The Maze Cutter to build off of such an incredible series, but what this book is, came completely out of left field.

I had a difficult time connecting with the characters as well since there is very little tied to the original series. I kept waiting for some big reveal to make these characters mean something to me, and there was one thing, but it was mentioned so casually that I was just like: shrug “okay”. The characters just seemed very two-dimensional on the surface (except for Minho and Roxie, I really wish the entire book would've been about them), and then to have almost no connection to the other characters that I loved from The Maze Runner, I don't know, I just wasn't interested in their story.

I could've overlooked the previous two things if something exciting had happened, but again, coming from The Maze Runner where cranks and monster-filled mazes were prevalent parts of the story and you had no idea which of your friends would die...almost nothing happened in this book. They just traveled...for months and we don't know why. There were a couple of tense moments and the end happened with a bang, but I never felt the suspense that I had expected from this dystopian author.

So overall, maybe the rest of the series will get better? I don't know. But regardless, this book didn't do a very good job of convincing me that The Maze Cutter series will be able to hold a candle next to The Maze Runner series. Super sad to say that I was disappointed.

Content warnings: Frequent mild cursing (the curse words used in The Maze Runner are replaced with real-world cursing, which kind of upset me because I liked how unique The Maze Runner was for that). Romance consists of mild mentions of kissing (LGBQT+ as well). Gore and action are very mild with only a few mentions of de@th and wounds. 

3.5 stars

Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book via R&R Book Tours as part of this blog tour in exchange for my honest review and thank you to Shannon for allowing me to take part in this blog tour.

This book takes place 73 years after the events in The Death Cure. It followers the descendants of the original Gladers. We start off on the island where they went for safety all those years ago. Things happen and several of the characters end up back in the real world. 

I was really excited to get back into this world because I really enjoyed the Maze Runner series. I was curious to find out where they were so many years later. I guess it makes sense that pretty much all of the characters from the original trilogy have long gone but I have to say I kind of missed them although that doesn't really hamper my opinion on the book. 

It started off slow for me, but it eventually picked up a little. I did enjoy this story, but I am left with so many unanswered questions. So much so that I am just left being confused. I guess it makes sense since there is going to be more books but I don't particularly like being left not really knowing what's going on at all. I enjoyed the action and the friendships I just wish we could have gotten more answers. 

Like I said I did enjoy this, but I needed more. I think it's a great start to the series and I am interested in reading the next book and hopefully getting some answers to all of my questions. 

Meh