Book Review: The Kill Order by James Dashner

Goodreads Summary: Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease.
Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next. Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there's something suspicious about its origin. Worse yet, it's mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.

Mark and Trina are convinced there's a way to save those left living from descending into madness. And they're determined to find it—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some, you're worth more dead than alive.

Goodreads Rating: 3.72 stars with over 153,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia

Other Reviews on the Series: Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure

Goodreads Challenge: 11/60 books

2020 Reading Challenge: #22 A book by an author named Jim/James or a variant (See the full challenge here)

Book Review: 

Boy, did I pick one hell of a time to read The Kill Order by James Dashner. In a lot of ways, I liked the fourth book better than the last two in the Maze Runner series. While The Kill Order follows different sets of characters before the Flare, I think that the other three books need to be read first to appreciate this prequel. 

I had a lot of theories about who Mark and Trina were. My friend, who is letting me borrow the series from her, asked if I had figured out who they were once I started reading it, so I knew they were connected somehow. My theories ranged from founders of WICKED, actually, Teresa and Tom even though the age/time frame didn't make sense, and Tom's parents. There were probably other theories, as well. I won't tell you if any were correct. 

I enjoyed The Kill Order, but I didn't retain much of it. This isn't the book's fault. I was reading it in the car while driving back and forth from Minnesota to Indiana for a funeral. I will say it was a bit more gruesome in parts than I was expecting. It was interesting to see the Flare from the eyes of characters who went through it. Readers get a glimpse of what happened during the solar flares from Mark's dreams. A good portion of the book is how The Flare started. I feel like a lot of dystopian novels are post-apocalyptic, so it was a nice change to read the story of it's beginning. 

I didn't really feel particularly attached to any of the characters. They all felt a little generic to me. Alec probably had the most personality in the story. Mark and Trina felt a lot like place holders. They were prominent in the story but could have been replaced with really any characters, and it would have had the same effect. They weren't bad but just weren't particularly fascinating.  I don't know that character development is James Dashner's strong suit, but at least in The Kill Order, there wasn't the Glade's made-up language like in the other two books.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. I've got whatever the fifth book is on hand and will read it here soon. I probably would have started it right away, but when I finished this, I was in a car and didn't have it with me. If you like Dystopian series and just want a quick read, I highly recommend it. I would just be sure to read the first three books in the Maze Runner series first. They are also quick dystopian reads, but reading them first will give a better appreciation for the apocalyptic world in The Kill Order. At least, it did for me.