A Book Review Of The Maze Runner

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

By James Dashner

I chose the maze runner as my ISU book because it is a young adult novel and I wanted a book that was just like the hunger games. The cover captured my attention and I was expecting a lot of mystery, adventure, and danger, a book that was gripping to read so that every chapter you wanted to know what was coming next.

In the book Thomas wakes up in an elevator car with no memory except his name, he finds he is part of a community of about 50 teen boys called "Gladers", their leader's name is Alby, co leader Newt and their lives revolve around trying to solve the Maze. Entrances to the maze automatically close at the same time every night, which protect the Glade from "Grievers", have robot half animal that attack you if you are caught outside at the wrong time. Chuck, the former "Greeni" in the compound, is assigned to Thomas to help adjust and later becomes his best friend; Thomas spends his first couple of days learning the ropes and various work positions, such as Baggers ( police, grave keepers), runners and sloppers(farmers, cooks etc.) and that the group has been working for two years to figure a way out of the maze Thomas notices that parts of his new life somehow seem familiar. Every month, a new boy arrives in the elevator but on Thomas' second day, the elevator brings a teen girl Teresa nearly in a coma, she has little memory remaining, and it is quickly fading. Later, when Teresa emerges from her coma, Thomas discovers that Teresa can communicate telepathically with him, and they deduce that they must have known each other before their arrival. One evening, as time draws near for the walls to close between the Maze and the Glade, two of the runners Alby and Minho have not returned as they had discovered a dead griever the day before. As the walls nearly finish closing, Thomas sees the two runners but realizes they won't make it breaking the No. 1 rule to never leave the Glade Thomas steps out. Minho the keeper of the runners decides to split up and leave Alby to die since he was stung by a griever Thomas couldn’t accept that and he tied Alby up dangling above the ground tied to the wall. Miraculously Thomas and the other boy survive after tricking the grievers off a cliff when he reunited with Minho it was amazing since they were the first to survive the maze at night. The end to life in the Glade is triggered when they all awoken one day to the absence of what was the sun, and they realized, they exist in a simulated environment, Thomas decides the best way to solve the Maze is for him to get stung and endure the Changing, to retrieve his lost memory. After Thomas goes through the changing, he realizes that the boys were a part of an experiment, and they all had above average intelligence, he also found out that their names weren’t really their names they were given from scientist, like Alby is Albert Einstein. Thomas also remembers that he and Teresa help develop and design the whole project but is unaware for the reason behind it saying "he was forced to by the creators". Thomas comes up with a dangerous plan to escape, the plan works, but half of the group dies their escape including Chuck, when they escape they’re met by a rescue party and board a bus for a 2 hour ride to a new location. Book one ends with a memo from the World in Catastrophe: Kill End Department (WICKED), known to the kids as the Creators It says that what the teenagers just lived through was only the first stage of their trial.

As you must know now

Thomas is the protagonist. He is about 5 foot 9 in and about 15 or 16 years old has he stated "I am one of the older boys and around one of the tallest", he has brown or black hair with blue eyes. Thomas is described as ugly "shuck face" by some "gladers" but I don’t think he is, Thomas is really quiet saying "I feel strange and I don’t want to talk to anyone", brave "You think if you step outside that glade it makes you a hero", and he has great work ethic.

In the story one of many memorable scenes was when Thomas, Minho and Alby were in the maze after dark. I loved how Minho was the one I expected to act like a leader and be heroic decides to leave the group and survive on his own. Just the determination of Thomas to keep Alby safe and the way he led most grievers away from him was amazing. Out of everything my favorite part was the climax of this scene when after about 3 hours of running and dogging grievers Thomas meets up with Minho who is still alive! When they meet it is almost dawn but they were tired and weary not expecting to see tomorrow, at that moment Minho creates a plan and Thomas and himself were able trick the grievers into falling off the cliff. This was a very memorable scene because the characters overcame all odds and when I was reading had my adrenaline going even though I was just sitting down.

Out of everything and the "gladers" escape the only thing that would have made it a little better was after the climax and the escape the "gladers" its continued for about 4 chapters a little bit too long in my opinion for a bus ride.

Other people that would like to read this book would also be interested in a book series like Harry potter. The readers would really be into adventure, mystery, and a will to survive setting. When you read this book it keeps you hooked want to know what will happen next with amazing twist in the story line. When reading this book you will need to understand what is going on feel the story and plot and follow the story completely which I don’t think is too hard.

If you are going to read this book don’t spoil the story because you will lose interest and then the book will become very boring. Overall I give this book a great 4/5 because it was entertaining, and like I said kept me hooked on to read but it wasn’t perfect as in the beginning it is a little hard to understand. All in all a good book and one of my favorite series!