The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1) by James Dashner
Thomas wakes up in a cage that brings him up out of the ground into a glade that is surrounded by a Maze, that 50ish boys have yet to solve. He doesn’t remember anything but his name, and he knows nothing about where he is. Except he also has a deep seeded feeling that he should be running and solving the maze. His arrival to the glade seems to trigger a series of events that cause a panic amongst the gladers as they determine that their time there is nearing an end.
The Story
I’ve read this book twice now, and to be honest, the movie was not that far off, I mean granted YES they did change a few things, but honestly it was probably for the best and made it so that a viewer could understand since, you know, we aren’t in the heads of the characters. **Now, please keep in mind this is only for the first book. The second movie had me completely lost as far as following the story in the book**.
Here’s the most frustrating thing about this book. A kid wakes up in a box inside a maze, and everyone is basically being a jerk to him because he’s asking questions. They are all like “we’ll tell you later”. Really? What a bunch of a-holes, or what they like to say “shuck-face”, because they have all been in that situation, you would think they would be a little more empathetic. So the story revolves around a bunch of teenage boys being jerks, running in a maze, and then a girl arrives, and all hell breaks loose. By the end of the book, you’re just as confused as the beginning because you get pretty much zero answers about what is going on. Really, that was the only thing that was really driving me through, the what the heck is actually happening, and the ending was intriguing enough to keep me going into the next book.
The World Building
So there’ really isn’t a lot going on here. We have some boys in a maze. I think the biggest part of this book is that it’s setting the pretense that WICKED is something to do with the maze, why they’re there. The real question they are all wondering is if WICKED is good? Despite what Teresa says, you still get an ominous feeling from WICKED since they put a bunch of kids in a freaking maze with monstrous creatures.
I would like to point out that the slang in the book was a little unnecessary. Just because a few boys are living in a secluded place for a few years doesn’t mean they need to make up their own words. It actually was severely lost on me for the simple reason that they kids know everything about basic living – they all had their memories wiped. Meaning they still remember basic conversational skills, writing, etc….why would they feel the need to make up new words? If Dashner was trying to tone it down for young readers, he probably should have skipped a story that included so many people dying from gruesome deaths. Just saying.
The Characters
Thomas is boring. I hate Thomas. He has this I’m special and I know it, everyone follow me while I figure out how to solve all these problems type of complex. Seriously, in case you don’t know it, but Thomas is
The Soundtrack
AFI – The Leaving Song Pt. II
