Review of "The Maze Runner"

"He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air."

     Thus begins the tale of Thomas, the sixteen-year-old protagonist of James Dashner's YA novel The Maze Runner. Thomas wakes up in an unlit elevator with no identity, no knowledge of where he's going, and no clue how he got there. The elevator lets him out into the Glade, a clearing in the center of a giant maze, where an assortment of fifty-odd teenaged boys live. They, too, remember only their first names, and they spend their days working toward an escape from their stone-walled prison. But with the arrival of Thomas--and the girl who appears the next day--everything is about to change.

     On plot, this book is thrilling. Sixty teenaged boys are trapped in a maze with no way out (save a cliff hanging a thousand miles above the ground), no memories, and nobody to tell them what to do. If this were The Hunger Games, you might expect them to decide this was a "survival of the fittest" test and start killing each other; instead, they form a stable society based on order and trust. But the way they get along doesn't make this book a slow read. Instead, it contributes to the plot immensely.

     Shortly after Thomas arrives, strange things begin to happen. People remember him from their time before the Glade. A dead Griever--gross, terrifying monsters who roam the Maze corridors--is discovered by one of the Runners. And, strangest of all, a girl arrives in the Box, clutching a note that claims she's the last one ever. These things wear down on the order that keeps peace in the Glade. Thomas and his friends must now work harder than ever to escape the Maze before surviving inside it becomes completely impossible.

     I won't spoil the ending for you, but there is definitely enough drama, action, and plot twists in this story to keep you reading late into the night.

     You might be either disappointed by or satisfied with the characters depending on your preferred style of reading. Overall, the characters are pretty static. Alby is irritable, Chuck is eager to help, Minho is sarcastic, and Thomas is confused but determined to escape. Very little character development takes place in this first book alone. However, they are each very unique--you'll never catch yourself wondering which character is speaking or which one is in charge. From accents to patterns of thinking, the characters of The Maze Runner are well thought-out and well-written.

     There is very little cussing in The Maze Runner. One character, who has a British accent, says "bloody" regularly, but otherwise the characters stay away from profanity. Instead, the Gladers have supplemented curse words with their own supply of invented terms: "shuck", "klunk", "shank", "slinthead", and "shuck-face". Newcomers are called "Greenbean" or "Greenie", and are often belittled. Characters insult each other, but they don't usually mean it.

     There is a great deal of violence, but nothing is too graphic. Boys are killed by Grievers, punches are thrown, and there is one (short) scene that involves a knife and a very scared teenager. There is no romance.

     I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an action-packed story with honest, raw characters who depend on their wits, and each other, to survive. It's a very refreshing read in a YA book, and a must-have for a reader who's interested in post-apocalyptic tales of friendship and trust, as I am. I'd rate it four out of five stars, merely for the shortness of the chapters and for the simpleness of the characters. Don't let that stop you, though--The Maze Runner is well worth it.