Reader's Journel After reading this book and all the books before it in the series, I found it to be one of my favorite books that i have read in years. This book explains everything that happens before the first three books in the series. Before reading this book i wanted to know how the sun flares happened, how the virus got released, and how the characters in the Maze Runner, the first book in the series, got to be where they were and how they were a part of Wicked. This book completely answered those questions along with bringing an extremely good story to go along with it. The book had me hooked the whole time I read it and I could hardly put it down. It is just like all the other books in the series. It is sad how they all die in the end. I would have liked it if the characters had lived and he would write a book to expand off of what happened. Also to have the character Mark, Alec, and Trina show up in the previous books how Deedee did as Teresa. If these characters would have been in the previous books it would have blown my mind. This has happened in previous books that i have read and it has been one of the coolest things that i have read. One thing I learned about my life is how easy we have it. Also how easily this could happen in today's world. Smaller sun flares happen all the time but don’t have enough power to cause any damage. A big sun flare that hits earth could actually wipe out a lot of life on earth. So it's hard to say life is tough when this story could very well be the life of everyone.