The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner

By James Dashner

Genre: science fiction

My rating: 3 stars

Summary taken from back of the book: "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 30 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."

I was sadly disappointed in this book.  I ADORE dystopian novels and this is definitely one of them.  Normally, in these type of novels dystopian societies come about because the leaders/creators of the society are trying to protect the people, just not in the best way possible.  Not this one. This one is evil.  And it's obvious from the get-go.

I was so eager to read this book because several people I knew raved about the suspense of this book.  It took me two weeks to read this book, when I can normally read a YA book in a day or two.  I personally found it lacked suspense because 1) Thomas always has this totally random thought and then in the next chapter or two he's figuring out why he had that random thought.  Ridiculously overdone foreshadowing = no surprise = no suspense.  And 2) I didn't really care about any of the characters.  No investment in characters and whether they live or die or ever escape from the wicked experiment = no strong desire to keep those pages turning.

And if Dashner mentioned one more time how Thomas found it weird he could remember some things but not others I was going to stop reading altogether.  We get it Dashner.  He has some memory loss.  All the boys do.  Get on with the story.

There were some good things though.  I did like the word choice and the description Dashner used.  Normally I'm not much of a description type of gal--I tend to skip those paragraphs just of description. But Dashner interwove the description and plot beautifully.  It was heartwarming to see the characters keep strong and keep resisting the wicked experiment they were undergoing though things seemed hopeless.  I did find the connection that Thomas and Teresa shared very intriguing,  though extremely unrealistic when revealed.

Review in a Nutshell:  I'm glad I read the book, but I have no incentive whatsoever to read the next book in the series.