Thomas and his fellow Gladers made it out of the Maze, but they had no idea that would just be the beginning. They're still not free: WICKED is running another set of trials, this time sending the teens on a 100-mile walk across the Scorch, the barren strip of land where the sun flares have wiped out nearly all life. The teens are informed that they have the Flare in them, a disease that will slowly attack their brains and make them crazy, and the cure is at the end of the walk--but to get there, they need to evade the infected, far-gone Cranks, not to mention the deadly lightning storms. Also, the Gladers weren't in the only maze: Group B was all girls, and they have orders to kill Thomas. 
 So. Lots of switchbacks and double-crossings and conspiracies. Can Thomas still trust Teresa, or his own memories? Teresa once told him that "WICKED is good" but that's starting to look unlikely. 
 Post-apocalyptic in that the sun flares have wiped out so much of life and caused severe environmental upset, particularly with the lightning storms that now come out of nowhere. People infected with The Flare are quarantined in a city in the middle of the Scorch, where healthy people are unlikely to run into them. There's still not a lot of exploration of the post-apocalypse lifestyle, and I'm not sure that will play a big part in Book 3, but I'll be reading it anyway when it comes out in October. 
 This would make a decent stand-alone--the context of the maze isn't necessary for the enjoyment of this volume, though most of the character development happened in The Maze Runner. If you don't care about the nuances of the interpersonal relationships, it's easy enough to jump in mid-stream. 8th grade and up for the most enjoyment; boys will particularly like the boy-centric action, and series readers will gravitate toward this trilogy. 
 Readalikes: Sleator's House of Stairs for psychological experimentation, Charlie Higson's Enemy for journey through disease-ridden city with the diseased attacking.