The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Book Synopsis:

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

My Review:

4/5 stars. If I were reviewing this for plot and concept only, it would be five stars. It was a very unique dystopian and kept me very engaged, especially in the second half. However, I had a few issues in other areas, like with characters, small prose-level things, and some unbelievability. But these weren't enough to ruin the book, and I generally very much enjoyed it. I'll probably continue the series eventually, but I'm in the middle of a couple other series right now so don't want to have too much going on at once.

Right away, I was very confused but also very intrigued. The confusion was good because it was intentional, and it made me want to keep reading to find out what was going on. As the information slowly got revealed, I realized what an interesting and cool concept this book has. I've never read a dystopian similar to this, which is saying a lot in a genre that can be pretty formulaic.

The uniqueness only continued. As the mystery continued to pick up, I thought each new development was so clever. The book went in so many directions I never could have predicted. This also helped hold my attention, because I needed to find out what every new element meant and how it would be important.

While the first half was a bit slower to get into, the second half of the book is where things really started to get good. The action and tension ramped up, and characters finally started to see the bigger picture of what was happening to them. I read the last 40% or so in just a couple days because I was so engaged.

Now on to the parts of the book I didn't like. One of my biggest criticisms is with the characters. I didn't feel super connected to many of them because they lacked depth. I liked the ones I was supposed to like, but I wished we knew more about them beyond a few personality traits. I understand they've all had memory loss and so don't have a past to reflect who they are, but that feels like a weak excuse for not having characterization. Despite that, some characters still stood out. Newt and Minho were probably my favorites and the most likable.

As for the main character, Thomas, my main issue with him was that his actions felt a bit unbelievable at times. He had too much plot armor. (SPOILERS) A specific scene that demonstrated this was when he was in the maze overnight. It's kind of hard to believe that he accomplished the insane physical feat of scaling the wall from a rope made of ivy, swung from said vines, fought off a Griever and come out with barely more than a scratch, then somehow manage to mentally keep track of every twist and turn as he ran for his life through the maze. (END OF SPOILER).

This issue became less noticeable as the book went on, but some of the writing felt a bit heavy-handed at times. There were some repetitive lines; the author was constantly reminding us of things that had already been established instead of trusting the readers to remember and pay attention.

Finally, I wasn't a fan of how often Thomas just intuitively "knew" the solutions to problems. We were never shown his thought process or him actually figuring things out. There was a lot of "for some reason, Thomas knew XYZ," "He just had a feeling XYZ was important," and "He couldn't explain it, but he knew what he had to do." Even just a brief explanation of what made him realize the significance of something would be better than nothing. (SPOILERS) I understand now that it was because he played a part in creating the Maze and had those memories lodged in the back of his mind without knowing, but that doesn't take away from my annoyance with it. (END OF SPOILERS)

Content:

Language: Frequent made-up curse words, no real ones

Sexual Content: Romantic feelings, nothing else

Violence/Gore: Death, blood, wounds, injuries, dead bodies, some gruesome descriptions, but still not to the intensity level of something like Hunger Games

Drugs/Alcohol: None