The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Title: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Series: The Maze Runner #1

Release Date: 6th October 2009

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb: 

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. 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, open expanse surrounded 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 the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

In A Nutshell:

A promising beginning but it didn't follow through to an ending that interested me.

My Review:

The Maze Runner is sort of like a cross between The Hunger Games and the TV show Lost. A group of about fifty teenage boys have been placed in an unknown area with no escape. They are given certain supplies each week and once a month, another boy joins them with his memory wiped clean. With no way of leaving, the boys send groups into the maze which is connected to the area they have been remanded to, in the hope of finding an exit and the possibility of a normal life and finding the families they hope are looking for them on the outside. But the maze appears unsolvable and has Grievers, mechanical monsters that patrol, ready to kill any boy that comes into contact with them.

Despite their undesirable circumstances, the characters have managed to form their own working community with a type of government and jobs to keep them busy. Everyone has a job to do, whether it be maintaining the vegetable gardens and caring for the livestock, cleaning the living quarters, taking care of the sick and injured, preparing meals or entering the maze. With the arrival of Thomas, and then Teresa, things start to change and as people begin to remember snippets of their former lives, the maze and the community they have created may not be all that bad after all.

I enjoyed the story and the characters for a large portion of the novel and I was really intrigued as to which way the plot was going to go. However, the direction the author took wasn’t for me and I began to lose interest in the final chapters. The last pages introduced a whole new mystery which did not appeal to me so I won’t be continuing on with The Scorch Trials.