I'm just gonna say it. I believe that the ending of the Maze Runner franchise is one of the worst endings to any story I've ever encountered in my life. I honestly couldn't believe it the first time I read the series. It is absolutely atrocious. This book, in general, is pretty freaking bad, but the ending is downright abysmal.

As I've mentioned a couple times, Minho and Newt are the only two characters in the entire franchise whom I remotely give a crap about. One thing I like about this book is that we finally get to see some humanity from Minho. In the previous entries, it seemed like all Minho did in life was crack jokes and do his job. Here, however, a bit of his human side is seen after Newt gets the Flare. That brings me to my favorite part about this book: Newt. I love how they ended his story. It is tragic and well-written. Newt is practically the only good constant throughout this whole series. Consequently, his death is the only moment in the whole series that brings a tear to my eye. Couldn't give two shits about any other deaths, sorry.

Besides that, this book freaking sucks, dude. Unlike the first two entries, the plot isn't even that great. The story is unbelievably boring and uneventful for the most part. Despite this being the shortest book in the trilogy, it somehow feels more sluggish than the first two. Not much happens until the last hundred pages, then it's revealed that the Right Arm is planning to take WICKED down, so that happens, the protagonists go back to the Maze and fight some Grievers again for nostalgia bai-, I mean, rescuing some Immunes, and a couple hundred people make it to paradise on the other side of a Flat Trans. The end.

Actually, you know what? I'm not gonna go that easy. Let's look at this ending more closely. The entire point of this whole trilogy is finding a cure for the Flare virus, right? The first and second book are dedicated ENTIRELY to Phases 1 and 2 of the Trials, respectively. Thomas is the final piece to the puzzle of designing this cure, and it almost happens. However, we can't have satisfying conclusions. We can't have something that was built up for an entire fucking trilogy actually get resolved. Instead, at the very last motherfucking second, Chancellor Paige comes out of nowhere and instructs Thomas to take all the remaining Immunes to paradise in order to begin civilization again while the rest of the world drives itself to extinction. Are you fucking kidding me, dude? After all that set up, we're just going to resort to a hastily prepared Plan B and leave the rest of the world to rot? How am I supposed to root for these protagonists? How am I supposed to feel satisfied with this ending? It's fucking insulting, man.

Add to that the fact that the ending in paradise lasts all of 3 pages, and you have one of the worst endings ever written in fiction. We aren't even told which of the Gladers from Group A and Group B survived. We don't even get to see this new civilization flourish. The whole fucking story just... ends. Are you serious?

For the last time, I'll mention that I don't like Dashner's writing style. The dialogue sucks, and the characters couldn't be any shallower. New characters are introduced left and right, but tons of them feel like the exact same person. It's clear Dashner didn't put an ounce of effort into making them remotely unique or interesting, so he settled instead for having them be just some extremely flat, one-dimensional puppets who do nothing more than drive the plot forward.

Sigh... I don't really have much else to say. I felt a ton of emotion at Newt's death, and I had the slightest sense of nostalgia seeing the protagonists back in the Maze, but, other than that, this has got to be one of the worst endings I've ever read in my life. I don't want to think about it ever again. ( )

Wow. This was really dark and violent and just an awful story to get through.

Overall I was not a fan of this trilogy. I didn't care enough about the characters, I was never really sure who I should be rooting for, and the final resolution was unsatisfying after all of the buildup. It felt mostly like I was reading about a violent video game.

There is a slight twist -- one sentence really -- in the epilogue that makes the whole thing even MORE bleak. The flare release on purpose? Really?

I know that there is a new book out and I'm wondering if it explains what was up with Thomas and Teresa before The Maze Runner. ( )

The first book was good. The second one wasn’t good, but I was still curious. The third book was rotten and hard to finish and I’m disappointed I wasted my time. ( )

Probably the weakest book of the trilogy, but still a good read. Thomas is still a whiny teenager, but you can't help but like the kid. You're not going to find all of the answers here, but it's still a decent conclusion to a wild ride. ( )

Really more of a 3.5. I loved that the author was trying to do something different. I also didn't have a problem with the ending. I just felt like it didn't add as much to the story as the first 2. Some of the plot lines were a little repetitive and I had some issues with a few of the choices characters made. I still enjoyed it. As a whole the series was very interesting. ( )