The Flare. In the Maze Runner trilogy, we learned about the Flare and how it nearly killed the human race. We learned how the sun flares burnt up our world, and infected the human mind making everyone infected go crazy. We learned about the Maze, and how Thomas and the rest of the Glades got out, only to realize how dangerous and in trouble the world was.  With WICKED is behind it all, if left the Glades wondering why did the world put its faith in WICKED, who are positive they found the cure in Thomas’s mind. With the ending of the trilogy, leaving them on an island to reproduce, James Dasdner wrote this, as a prequel to the Maze Runner for us the figure out how the flare when first stuck putting the world in catastrophe.

Mark is in love with Trina, he has been since they were kids and use to wrestling in her front yard during the summer, saying hi in the hallways of middle school, to finally riding the subway in their high school years.  Trina (being blind to his feelings) takes her fun flirty attitude with Mark in a friendly way, not knowing how it makes Mark feel. Mark was with Trina when the sun flares came to earth, killing most of the people instantly. Together they survived the initial attack. Teaming up with an retire solider Alec, a military nurse Lana, along with other teenagers; Toad and Missy, they manage to survive and escape the city. Together with other survivals they create a village out in the woods trying to survive. 

The village has been striving for moths. Yet it was not like the luxury they were used to living in, but they have huts, food, and a place to call home.  Mark and Trina along with the rest of their friends have grown close, acting more like a family than a group of strangers. Not thinking of their real families, they live every day trying to reach tomorrow. One day at the village the real world came crashing down. Planes filled the sky with soldiers shooting darts at the villagers. When stuck the villagers fell down dead, causing chaos for the living. Mark and his friends all manage to get away, safe in the shelter of the hut. Determined to find out why the outside world would attack their village, Mark, Trina, Alec, and Lana set off into the woods. There they found out about the Flare, about other villages and what the world is planning on.  Mark fights with the insanity in his head and fights to keep control over his body from the flare.

James Dashner continued his successful trilogy with this unless, unimportant prequel to the trilogy. This book in a mind’s eye will tell you about the Flare, how it stuck the world, a little history on WICKED, and maybe even a little about Thomas and Teresa. Yet that is not what the book is about. This book tells you nothing about the flare, nothing that you do not already know. Thomas is not mentioned till the epilogue which tells you the same thing one of Thomas’s memories has already been told. This book is solidly about Mark, whom is never again mention in the trilogy and how hard his life was, and about the people who have gone crazy from the infection. Yet we already known about the people pass the Gone in the second book as Thomas had to travel through the Scorch. Honestly, it was a waste of a prequel as it did not even tell us about WICKED and how the world let them create a Maze. I would suggest you to not read this book, as it will just give you a bad taste about the series.