Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event showcasing upcoming releases. Breakingthespine may be the creator of this event--I'm not sure. I first learned about it through WORD for Teens.

I'm waiting for The Scorch Trials, the second book in the Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner. As a lover of dystopian fiction, it's no wonder I enjoyed The Maze Runner, the story of a boy who finds himself in an elevator with no recolelction of how he got there. He's entered a world of boys...these boys have to find their way out of the Maze. Easy enough, right? Right...except that the Maze changes every single night. And is surrounded by horrible beasties. The area that the boys live in is safe from outside elements, but heaven help you if you should be stuck in the Maze by nightfall--the falls close in and you're trapped outside.

It's good stuff, I'm sure I'm not doing it justice (blame it on my foggy brain--sinus infection). The Maze Runner got a nice boost when Mockingjay was released (it was referenced in several articles). What I like about it is that this story is told from a boy's POV, so when I had my high school boys coming in to the library over the summer complaining about all the "girly" books on the Summer Reading List, I could say, "No, The Maze Runner is really awesome and could definitely be considered a boys' book!" Unfortunately, it was so popular all summer that it was never checked in!

Long story short, I am anxiously waiting for the second installment, which is to be released on October 12. Here's the product description from Amazon (NOTE: contains spoilers if you haven't read/finished The Maze Runner):

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.
In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.
Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.
The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

Enjoy your reading!
Christi