Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I enjoyed reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner and found the premise interesting: a boy named Thomas finds himself delivered to the Glade, an isolated place full of other boys and surrounded by a maze. There are no adults around and everyone's memory is erased before arriving. Each night the boys are locked in the Glade as the Grievers, nasty, vicious monsters that are a mix of organic and mechanical, roam the maze and kill anyone they can find. Every month for two years a new boy is delivered to the Glade; however, the day after Thomas arrives, a girl is delivered, speaking an ominous message. Something is about to change.

As much as the story was interesting and kept me reading, there were certain levels of frustration that I felt in reading this book. For instance, Thomas is in a fog: he does not remember anything, but does have familiar feelings about some things. He tries to ask several of the other boys questions about their life in the Glade and how things work, but everyone is reluctant to talk about it. Thomas spends a good part of the book frustrated by this, and as a reader, I was frustrated too. Perhaps this was intentional so that we could feel what Thomas feels. However, it also got repetitive. I was compelled to keep reading, however, because I wanted to know why they were in the Glade, what was the purpose of the maze, and what kind of people would send children into this situation.

Another interesting aspect to the book was the almost Lord of the Flies feel to it: what would kids do if left to themselves, would they form a society with rules and structure or would it be a free for all? In this case, unlike the classic tale, Thomas finds himself in a functioning society where order is upheld at all cost.

For me, the book alternated between moving quickly and dragging. There was an interesting cliff hanger at the end, which definitely makes me want to find the next in the series, The Scorch Trials and the groundwork was certainly set to make the second book quite interesting. Overall I did enjoy the book and am glad to have read it and would recommend it to young adults over aged twelve.