Book Review: The Maze Runner

Title: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Genre: Dystopian/Contemporary/Adventure/YA

Page Count: 374 (paperback)

Rating: 4.3 out of 5

Cover Rating: 4 out of 5. It's good--I like the green and the font is nice and big--but aside from the spikes I find it kind of boring.

Back flap:

Everything is going to change . . .

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. He has no recollection of his parents, his home, or how he got where he is. His memory is empty.

   But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade, a large expanse enclosed by stone walls.

   Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning, for as long as anyone can remember, the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night, for just as long, they've closed tight. Everything thirty days a new boy is delivered in the lift. And no one wants to be stuck in the maze after dark.

   The Gladers were expecting Thomas's arrival. But the next day, a girl is sent up--the first girl ever to arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. The Gladers have always been convinced that if they can solve the maze that surrounds the Glade, they might find their way home . . . wherever that may be. But it's looking more and more as if the Maze is unsolvable.

   And something about the girl's arrival is starting to make Thomas feel different. Something is telling him that he just might have some answers--if he can only find a way to retrieve the dark secrets locked within his own mind.

My expectations: I'd heard a lot about this book, and almost everything was positive, so I expected a fast-paced, exciting read at the least.


That's what I got.

About the book: The Maze Runner is an interesting book. The idea that a large group of boys would be stuck in a maze that appears to be unsolvable is a perfect recipe for intriguing results. For some reason, this book creeped me out a bit, when even some Horror books don't. There was something disturbing about the Glade and the Maze.


I like James Dashner's writing style. It's to the point and there isn't excessive description. I thought that the emotions were highlighted somewhat more than what's usual, with swings from one emotion to the other and back again from Thomas's POV, but it wasn't a bad thing.

• Plot: 

I guessed the ending. Well, I didn't guess everything, but since I knew there was a book called The Scorch Trials--please, if you're going to release a sequel, don't give things away from the previous novel!--and since Thomas kept making promises and saying he'd do things . . . it all kind of led up to the ending. But aside from that, it was a fairly fast plot that kept me reading much too late. (Hehe.)

• Characters:

I felt throughout like I was in the mind of someone in their  mid- to later- 20s, past a "young adult", and maybe parent-age. He seemed almost condescending at times toward the other boys, and I got the feeling had more experience than everyone else, and not just knowledge. I wouldn't say I liked him; but I respected him for what he did.

Teresa didn't do much in The Maze Runner besides act as an anomaly. I didn't get attached to her, I didn't hate her, I just felt like her character was kind of flat. Yes, she had answers and information, and that was intriguing, but her personality could have shone through a bit more.

Gally was an interesting antagonist. Stereotypical bully at first, but then it comes out that he might just have other motives that seeing Thomas as a threat to his social status. He was an angry and creepy person, and why he did things was unknown to Thomas and the others--a good thing for a bad guy/villain.

• Setting/Elements:

I expected it to be a whole lot more like Lord of the Flies, with the kids there trying to tear each other apart and get to the top of the social ladder. However, things got nowhere near as nasty and violent as in the book by Golding. I suppose that's because things were fairly controlled inside the Glade, without much change--until Thomas arrived, of course.

Other: Violence, language, (made-up words that are clear substitutes for s%#* and so on; if that's worse or better than using the actual words depends on how you look at it) and "thematic elements" (I suppose that's what you'd call it).


They're making a movie of this book--I hope they don't botch it up.

Do I recommend this book? Yes.

*****

In other book news, I will have an interview here on January 20th with a character from The Treasures of Carmelidrium, the Fantasy novel recently released as an e-book, and written by N. R. Williams! Don't forget to come back to check it out. :)

(Also don't forget you can ask me questions in the post below, or HERE, which I will answer on January 21st!)

-----The Golden Eagle