The Kill Order | James Dashner

The prequel to the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series.

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

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this book. Before I went into it, one of my friends had warned me of this book, telling me to prepare myself for a huge disappointment, and it was honestly pretty good. I honestly liked it better than The Death Cure. I thought it was really interesting how they finally went back and gave a specific run down on what exactly happened before the Maze. At one point we get to see bits and pieces of different documents from the government and I think we should have had more of that. Those two pages revealed more than a lot of the other book. 

I also wish there was more of a connection between the rest of the series and this book. For a while I actually thought the epilogue had Trina and Mark in it. I thought they were Thomas's parents, which would have been really cool. 

I realized that while reading this series, I wasn't as into it as I have been into other books. It was a good read, I don't doubt that, but I never really grew emotionally close to any of the characters. I felt no remorse when any of them died, nor did I particularly care about their personal and emotional lives. This could have been for a number of reasons. The first being that I'm so busy with school and work and all of my real world responsibilities that I'm neglecting my book characters, which is a prospect that really frightens me. The second reason could also have been that the book was written in a way to focus more on the plot than the characters, and there's nothing wrong with that. In some cases a fantastic plot is enough to sacrifice the emotions of a few characters. I just think if I had gotten more attached to the characters, this would have been a better read for me. 

Let me know what you guys thought in the comments below! Am I the only one disappointed with this series as a whole?