THE MAZE RUNNER | Book Review

Title: The Maze Runner
Author: James Dashner
Genre:YA / Dystopian
Published by: Chicken House
Originally Published: 2009
Page Count: 371

"When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas can remember is his first name. But he's not alone. He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade, an encampment at the centre of a bizarre maze.

Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there, or what's happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything to find out."

I picked this book due to the overwhelming attention that has gone with it. I first heard about it on the likes of Joey Graceffa's youtube channel, and had since been recommended to read it by my friend, Sean. I've just finished it and these are my thoughts.

I'm going to talk about this book chronologically. 

The opening. I don't think I can articulate my anger at the first, what, 100 pages of this book. Luckily, I'm allowed to type ARGHHHHHWHATISTHIS, and you will probably grasp my point. The novel is written in third person, and we follow Thomas throughout the entirety of the book, almost. When Thomas is welcomed into the maze, no one is willing to help him. This may be good writing about how tired the other boys have become with this world, but I don't get that impression, I feel Dashner was trying to build suspense. He instead drove me away from this novel. I read two other books alongside this, just to feel sane. Every character would tell Thomas things but then when Thomas asks a question he is immediately shot down and not told anything. It became a viscous circle of characters not saying anything and being annoying. 

The language of the boys in this novel is interesting, they appear to remember so much of the outside world without directly remembering the outside world itself. However, they invent names to call things, to call people. At first I thought it ingenious, a new world, a new language. Then it just seemed a little irrelevant, surely if they remember words, they remember offensive ones?

The book has many promising moments when the plot picks up, but it's through stupid decisions of Thomas, that have no real reasoning, that we are finally able to taste a slight bit of action. After that it is left to the final third of the book to convince you that what you read was worth while. The plot picks up, questions are finally going to get answered, and then it ends. It's just one big build up to the sequel and it was annoying.

The premise of this book wasn't even so original that I can praise it, we're pretty aware what's happening in the outside world if we know dystopian YA. And frankly, I'm sure I understand dystopian YA. 

I can't say I'm going to read the sequel anytime soon, but overall, even though I did rant a lot in this review. It wasn't the worst book I've read, but it's definitely not the pinnacle of dystopian YA. It has its moments where it sucks you in, it's short chapters mean it's an easy read and you pretty much breeze through it after the initial bump in its opening. 

3 out of 5 stars.