I give the book “Maze Runner” by James Dashner a 4 out of 5 rating. The novel was very fast-paced even though it starts off a little slow. The whole concept of boys being kidnapped and trapped in a mysterious maze intrigued me and got me hooked right away.
The story starts off with a boy name Thomas who wakes up in an elevator and can only remember his name. When the elevator doors open, he is dragged out and pulled into a huge glade by a bunch of teenage boys who also have no memory of anything before being put in the Glade. They all speak English, but a very awkward vocabulary that includes many words unknown by anyone else. Thomas gradually discovers that the Glade is run by two boys who seem to be in their late teens/early twenties: Newt and Alby. They maintain order by setting up strict rules and keeping all the boys working. Outside the Glade is the Maze, a terrifying labyrinth of high walls covered in ivy that houses strange, lethal creatures known as Grievers. So the boys are stuck trying to survive as well as attempting to understand the Maze by running through it as fast as they can while tracking movements of the walls and trying to find an exit. Then, a day after Thomas's arrival, a girl is delivered through the elevator into the Glade. The boys are stunned and actually a little excited to have someone who doesn't smell like crap. However, she shows up mumbling strange prophetic words and then falls into a coma. To make matters worse, her arrival triggers everything in the Glade to change: the sun disappears, the deliveries of supplies stop coming, and the doors stay open at night which allows the Grievers to pick kids off one-by-one. Doesn’t that just sound like fun? Thomas has a brilliant idea, and figures out that maybe the walls of the Maze aren't moving for no particular reason, but that maybe their movements are actually a code. So they craft a model of certain parts of the Maze and discover that the maze is in fact spelling out words. Thomas also discovers that the Cliff that they all thought was just a cliff turns out to be where the Grievers are coming from. If they can come and go through a weird entrance over the edge of a cliff, then maybe so can the boys. The girl, Teresa, wakes up and tells Thomas that they knew each other before they were put in the Glade and they can communicate telepathically. (I don’t even know how or why, but let’s go with it) In an act of desperation to get his memory back, Thomas gets himself stung by a Griever and discovers the Griever Hole is indeed an exit. Also, the code that the Maze has been spelling out is their ticket to escape. A large group of them decide to make a run for it, knowing that it could be suicide trying to take on the Grievers but figuring that nothing could be worse than being stuck in the Glade. They succeed, only to find out that what they've been doing is an experiment being conducted by the Creators, a group called WICKED, who may or may not be evil. During this process, Thomas and Teresa discover that they were the ones that built the Maze! Thomas and Teresa built the Maze and then were forced to go into the Maze and solve it after their memories were wiped. The boys and Teresa then get "rescued" by some kind of rebel group and brought to a safe haven while being told about "the Flare"—an apocalyptic disaster that killed off half of the world's population. The epilogue reveals that the "rebel group" may just be another variable in the experiment, and they weren't the only group being evaluated.
There are six major themes/lessons that I could withdraw from “The Maze Runner”. These themes included the necessity of friendship for a society to function, as well as the unescapable fate that every living thing has…death. The Glade and the surrounding Maze carry a specter of death that plays a key role in the urge for Thomas to escape. Other themes are: persistence (though the task may come to feel pointless, they continue to persevere), environmental collapse/order vs. chaos (presents a world without order in which conventional ways of life have been all but eradicated. Humanity is reduced a struggle to survive), and bravery (pretty self-explanatory).
Overall, my experience with this book was great. It was a great concept, and the story was compelling, the characters and plot twists interesting, and there was no limit to the author’s creativity. Although, certain solutions to conflicts in this book were a little too unrealistic for me (and I mean too unrealistic for a sci-fi/fantasy novel), that’s why I give it a 4/5.
The story starts off with a boy name Thomas who wakes up in an elevator and can only remember his name. When the elevator doors open, he is dragged out and pulled into a huge glade by a bunch of teenage boys who also have no memory of anything before being put in the Glade. They all speak English, but a very awkward vocabulary that includes many words unknown by anyone else. Thomas gradually discovers that the Glade is run by two boys who seem to be in their late teens/early twenties: Newt and Alby. They maintain order by setting up strict rules and keeping all the boys working. Outside the Glade is the Maze, a terrifying labyrinth of high walls covered in ivy that houses strange, lethal creatures known as Grievers. So the boys are stuck trying to survive as well as attempting to understand the Maze by running through it as fast as they can while tracking movements of the walls and trying to find an exit. Then, a day after Thomas's arrival, a girl is delivered through the elevator into the Glade. The boys are stunned and actually a little excited to have someone who doesn't smell like crap. However, she shows up mumbling strange prophetic words and then falls into a coma. To make matters worse, her arrival triggers everything in the Glade to change: the sun disappears, the deliveries of supplies stop coming, and the doors stay open at night which allows the Grievers to pick kids off one-by-one. Doesn’t that just sound like fun? Thomas has a brilliant idea, and figures out that maybe the walls of the Maze aren't moving for no particular reason, but that maybe their movements are actually a code. So they craft a model of certain parts of the Maze and discover that the maze is in fact spelling out words. Thomas also discovers that the Cliff that they all thought was just a cliff turns out to be where the Grievers are coming from. If they can come and go through a weird entrance over the edge of a cliff, then maybe so can the boys. The girl, Teresa, wakes up and tells Thomas that they knew each other before they were put in the Glade and they can communicate telepathically. (I don’t even know how or why, but let’s go with it) In an act of desperation to get his memory back, Thomas gets himself stung by a Griever and discovers the Griever Hole is indeed an exit. Also, the code that the Maze has been spelling out is their ticket to escape. A large group of them decide to make a run for it, knowing that it could be suicide trying to take on the Grievers but figuring that nothing could be worse than being stuck in the Glade. They succeed, only to find out that what they've been doing is an experiment being conducted by the Creators, a group called WICKED, who may or may not be evil. During this process, Thomas and Teresa discover that they were the ones that built the Maze! Thomas and Teresa built the Maze and then were forced to go into the Maze and solve it after their memories were wiped. The boys and Teresa then get "rescued" by some kind of rebel group and brought to a safe haven while being told about "the Flare"—an apocalyptic disaster that killed off half of the world's population. The epilogue reveals that the "rebel group" may just be another variable in the experiment, and they weren't the only group being evaluated.
There are six major themes/lessons that I could withdraw from “The Maze Runner”. These themes included the necessity of friendship for a society to function, as well as the unescapable fate that every living thing has…death. The Glade and the surrounding Maze carry a specter of death that plays a key role in the urge for Thomas to escape. Other themes are: persistence (though the task may come to feel pointless, they continue to persevere), environmental collapse/order vs. chaos (presents a world without order in which conventional ways of life have been all but eradicated. Humanity is reduced a struggle to survive), and bravery (pretty self-explanatory).
Overall, my experience with this book was great. It was a great concept, and the story was compelling, the characters and plot twists interesting, and there was no limit to the author’s creativity. Although, certain solutions to conflicts in this book were a little too unrealistic for me (and I mean too unrealistic for a sci-fi/fantasy novel), that’s why I give it a 4/5.