THE MAZE RUNNER COMPANION BOOKS Review!

(Minor to no spoiler review! Go Read!)

So a few weeks back, I've posted a review on James Dashner's thrilling trilogy, The Maze Runner (Read it HERE!) and I mentioned that I would be making a write-up on its companion books too and here it is. Yay! :) Let's get started!

TITLE: Thomas' First Memory of the Flare 
(Maze Runner#2.5)
AUTHOR/s: James Dashner
PUBLICATION DATE: 11th of October, 2011

This e-short, which is the first companion book I've read, is just what the title itself says. Thomas' short flashback occurred between the happenings in book 2, The Scorch Trials and book 3, The Death Cure.

At first, I was very excited to read it after I've finished the trilogy even though I know that it was really really short, just a couple of pages or so. After reading it, I can say that I was quite satisfied to learn a little bit more of Thomas' past (since it wasn't completely explained in the series) but isn't really much.

Giving it a 3.5/5 rating :)

3.5/5 rating :)

TITLE: The Kill Order (Maze Runner#0.5)
AUTHOR/s: James Dashner
PUBLICATION DATE: 14th of August, 2012
AVAILABLE AT: Amazon | The Book Depository

The Kill Order takes place before the main series making it a prequel (Duh) Anyway, before even starting on it, I already have a little idea on what's going to happen in the end (because, duh, if it doesn't, then the main series wouldn't occur) and it turns out I was right.

One thing I noticed upon reading The Kill Order is that Dashner doesn't really create very likable female leads. Like Teresa and Brenda, I didn't really feel Trina's character. She doesn't stick around in my mind after finishing the book unlike other female leads in novels that has a male main protagonist.

Though aside from her, I can say that the other characters were cool. Mark, our story's protagonist, is somewhat more tolerable than Thomas. Plus, I LOVE how Dashner molded the teacher-student relationship between Alec and Mark. There were some deaths that are heartbreaking though not as heartbreaking as those in the main series. And you'll also get to see more zombie-ish cranks!

It was a long read and there were some 'meh' parts but nevertheless, it's still good for The Maze Runner fans out there. (You'll get to know more about the background story of the organizations built and how the virus started. And also the origins of Thomas' name and the word crank haha :) ) 3.5/5 rating!

3.5/5 rating :)

TITLE: The Maze Runner Files
AUTHOR/s: James Dashner
PUBLICATION DATE: 13th of August, 2013
AVAILABLE AT: Amazon

This companion book is what I really felt most excited about because how can you NOT be excited about "Classified Records and Concealed Information" ? I was looking forward to detailed and blow-by-blow explanation about WICKED and the other behind the scenes stuff. I also thought that this book will answer the hanging questions left in the series like what's with the variables and the making of the grievers and how they came up with the glader's name.

But The Maze Runner Files turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the three companion books. There are only a bit of new information released and almost everything could be read in the previous two companion books. I skipped about three-fourths of this book! A sneak peek of Dashner's latest, totally NOT Maze Runner related novel took up more than its fair share of pages. 

On the lighter note, the parts that were actually new to me are interesting especially Minho's part. If you are a big Maze Runner fan and haven't read the two other companion books yet, I think you'd enjoy this one very much and might give a higher rating. It just didn't work out for me. 2.5/5 rating :)

2.5/5 rating :)

So that wraps it up! Stay tuned for more reviews and updates! :)