Is there an audiobook of The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2)?

Yes. The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Mark Deakins.

How long is the The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) audiobook?

The The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) audiobook runs 10 hr 23 min.

Is The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) on Kindle Unlimited?

No. The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 16, 2026.

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) by James Dashner book cover for the Book of the Day young adult book review

Our score

4.4/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDOctober 2010

Genres

Fiction Young Adult Dystopian

Themes

Trust as the real danger once physical threats become visibleHow institutions justify cruelty as necessary experimentationThe blurry line between infection and identity in the CranksSurvival stripped of easy answers or last-minute rescues

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2)

Name: The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2)
Price: 7.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: James Dashner

James Dashner

James Dashner's The Scorch Trials pushes Thomas and the Gladers out of the Maze and into a scorched, plague-ridden wasteland where the real threat isn't the terrain, it's figuring out who among the survivors is still lying to them.

The Review

Our take

Thomas wakes up free of the Maze and immediately learns freedom was never the actual prize. WICKED hands the Gladers a new set of rules: cross the Scorch, a burned-out stretch of desert crawling with the infected, in two weeks or die trying. No riddle to solve this time, just distance, heat, and a ticking clock, and that shift alone tells you what kind of book this is. The first book was a locked-room mystery with hedges for walls. This one is a survival gauntlet, and Dashner uses the wide-open map to test something the Maze couldn't: what these kids do when the danger isn't contained anymore and everyone they meet might be working an angle.

The infected, the Cranks, are the best world-building move in the book. They're not zombies exactly, they're people undone by a virus that eats the brain slowly enough that some of them are still bargaining, scheming, even organizing, and that in-between state is scarier than a simple monster would be. Dashner also complicates the Gladers' own loyalty with a second group of maze survivors, girls this time, whose motives shift depending on which chapter you're in. Trust becomes the actual terrain here, harder to cross than any desert, and Thomas spends the book realizing that WICKED has been rigging the experiment from inside his own head the whole time, not just from a control room somewhere.

The pacing peaks in the middle stretch, an underground tunnel sequence that swaps daylight tension for claustrophobia and does it without losing momentum. Dashner isn't precious about hurting his cast, and the book is willing to let plans fail and people die without a last-minute save, which keeps the stakes honest all the way through. The prose is plain and built for speed rather than style, which occasionally flattens the emotional beats when a death needs a paragraph to land and gets a sentence instead. But as a machine for propulsion, chapter endings built to make you flip forward, a mystery about who's really steering events, this thing runs hot.

Why you should read

Readers who want dystopian YA with real teeth and real losses
Fans of Hunger Games-style survival trials with a sci-fi conspiracy underneath
Anyone who liked the first book's mystery and wants the stakes to widen
Readers who don't mind a plot that ends on a bigger cliffhanger

What to expect

Fast, plain prose built for momentum over lyricism
A wide desert survival gauntlet instead of the first book's locked maze
Shifting alliances and a second group of survivors with unclear motives
A claustrophobic tunnel sequence in the middle third

By the final pages, the scope has widened again, government conspiracies, a cure that might be worse than the disease, factions inside factions, and the Scorch itself starts to look like just the first test in a much bigger maze. That's the real hook of this series: every answer WICKED gives just exposes a bigger question underneath it.

Reviewed by Rowan · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.4/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2)?: Yes. The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Mark Deakins.
Listen to The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) audiobook?: The The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) audiobook runs 10 hr 23 min.
Is The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) on Kindle Unlimited?: No. The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 16, 2026.
How much does The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $7.99, Paperback $7.57, Hardcover $10.72. Prices as of August 21, 2026 at 3:47 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) about?: Thomas wakes up free of the Maze and immediately learns freedom was never the actual prize. WICKED hands the Gladers a new set of rules: cross the Scorch, a burned-out stretch of desert crawling with the infected, in two weeks or die trying. No riddle to solve this time, just distance, heat, and a…
Is The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) worth reading?: We scored The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, Book 2) 4.4 out of 5. James Dashner's The Scorch Trials pushes Thomas and the Gladers out of the Maze and into a scorched, plague-ridden wasteland where the real threat isn't the terrain, it's figuring out who among the survivors is still lying to them.