(Science fiction/thriller. 12 and up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 7 Up-In this final book in the series, Thomas and his friends learn that the World in Catastrophe, Killzone Experiment Department (WICKED) wants to devise a blueprint for a cure for the lethal Flare disease by analyzing their brain patterns. Although Thomas knows that he was partially responsible for the creation of the Maze, a brutal experiment that forces its subject to undergo trials and tribulations, he no longer thinks the end justifies the means-even if the goal is to save mankind. Despite his friend Teresa's continued protestations that WICKED is good, Thomas disagrees. His memories have started to come trickling back. He decides, with a few others, to break out of its headquarters. The group journeys to Denver, a city fruitlessly trying to keep the Flare at bay. Without a maze to escape from or a predetermined location to journey toward, the plot meanders. Thomas and his allies join forces with the Right Arm, a revolutionary organization determined to bring WICKED down. Like most things in the gripping series, good and evil are not black and white. WICKED, the Right Arm, and even Thomas all initially act with good intentions but make questionable moral choices along the way. Thomas's struggle to understand this contradiction makes the novel interesting. Fans of the previous books may be disappointed that many questions are left unanswered, but most of them will be satisfied with the conclusion.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The nonstop, gruesome action of the first two books in the Maze Runner trilogy helped distract from some tenuous plot logic and the complete stonewalling of crucial information. This grim conclusion finally addresses the truth behind WICKED the organization that basically subjects teen lab rats to torture and slaughter in order to map their brains for a cure to a worldwide virus that is turning people into psychopathic lunatics and does so with a fitting dose of moral ambiguity, while everything else kind of falls by the wayside. Readers who have stuck it out this far will need this bumpy, bloody finale.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist