Book Review: The Fever Code

Book: The Fever Code (The Maze Runner book #5) by James Dashner

Cover Art by Philip Straub
Typography by Stuart Wade

Edition: Hardcover

Description:

All your questions are answered in the fifth book in James Dashner’s #1 New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series. The story that fans all over the world have been waiting for — the story of how Thomas and WICKED built the Maze — is finally here. You do not want to miss it.

Once there was a world’s end.

The forests burned, the lakes and rivers dried up, and the oceans swelled.

Then came a plague, and fever spread across the globe. Families died, violence reigned, and man killed man.

Next came WICKED, who were looking for an answer. And then they found the perfect boy.

The boy’s name was Thomas, and Thomas built a maze.

Now there are secrets.

There are lies.

And there are loyalties history could never have foreseen.

This is the story of that boy, Thomas, and how he built a maze that only he could tear down.

All will be revealed.

A prequel to the worldwide Maze Runner phenomenon, The Fever Code is the book that holds all the answers. How did WICKED find the Gladers? Who are Group B? And what side are Thomas and Teresa really on? Lies will be exposed. Secrets will be uncovered. Loyalties will be proven. Fans will never see the truth coming. Before there was the Maze, there was The Fever Code.





Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Review:

When the world was thrown into chaos and catastrophe several organizations that would eventually become WICKED (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department) sought to find a cure. But what should be considered in trying to find a cure? And does the mean justify the end? These questions and more are at the center of The Fever Code. In this second prequel of The Maze Runner series, the reader is shown what those behind the scenes of WICKED are willing to do in an effort to find a cure to the Flare, a virus that's raging throughout the world. And once someone has the Flare, they will eventually start turning into Cranks (or zombies).

WICKED's test subjects are children, the organization seemed to believe that the cure would be found by studying how the test subjects dealt with a variety of variables. This also included giving the children new names that they had no choice but to willingly accept or be forced to. Among the children, there are four test subjects that WICKED seemed to favor: Thomas, Teresa, Aris and Rachel. Aside from the daily testing, these four got to work with the organization to further its research on finding a cure which included the development of two unbelievably large mazes. Despite having that slightly golden status and a little leeway to move around certain parts of the facility (which included hanging out with some new friends: Newt, Alby and Minho), Thomas never seemed to stop questioning the organization. There were times when he didn't want to make waves such as when Minho was trying to find a way to escape the facility. But seeing how the organization punished Minho raised even more questions for Thomas.

More and more, he was starting to question WICKED's motives and add to that his guilt in being a part of the creation of the Maze. WICKED would be sending nearly all of the kids at the facility (including his new friends) to the mazes. To make matters even worse, prior to being sent to the Maze, all the kids memories will be wiped with the only thing they will remember is their WICKED given names. Aside from his daily testing, Thomas was able to observe his friends in the Maze which was designed to be a learning environment that at times could be dangerous and grueling.

Danger in the Maze wasn't Thomas' only concern because there was growing problems within the WICKED facility. After new leadership, Thomas was more that ready to carry out a plan to rescue his friends from the Maze. But it would require trying to outsmart WICKED. Let's just say it didn't go the way he planned. But the ending of this prequel perfectly sets up the first book in The Maze Runner series.

I enjoyed reading The Fever Code, it's very well written but it's also very different from the first prequel, The Kill Order. Where that book was a very fast-paced horror story, The Fever Code had to slow down a bit to give the reader information about: WICKED and the organization's motive for finding a cure and Thomas and his growing concerns about the organization. Although, this had a slightly slower pace compared to the last book, there are still a lot daring and exciting moments along with a few horrifying ones. This is a good read and the story does it's job of setting up the The Maze Runner series. And it made me wish I had more time so I could re-read the first book.