2nd Book Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publication Date: Oct. 6, 2009

Pages: 384

Setting: The Maze, Dystopian Universe

Price: £7.99

ISBN: 0385737947

Readers Rating: 4.02/5

My Rating: 3/5

Goodreads Link

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.

Characters: Thomas

Teresa

Newt

Minho

Chuck

Alby

Gally

Review

Contains a lot of spoilers!

Main Points:

As a huge Hunger Games fan, I was curious to find out about a new and exciting dystopian universe that has collected a rather large fanbase. Even some of my closest friends insisted I read it, and to be perfectly honest, I was disappointed. Pretty much from the start. The story had a lot of potential and sounded very interesting, but the writing was barely tolerable. Even myself could write it better and I'm not very good at writing stories. James Dashner repeated sentences and words way too many times, he could have done with a thesaurus. There were too many unnecessary lines and it frustrated me (again, one of the words used at least 10 times in a space of a few chapters). The only things that made me read The Maze Runner till the end was hope that it would get better, the characters and boredom of having nothing else to read over my holidays.

One thing I will praise Dashner on is the characters. By themselves, they collect two stars out of the five because you couldn't help either loving them or hating them. Some were extremely credible while others were unrealistic (but still interesting to read about). Thomas is the classic main character. He has one close friend, several companions and another who hates his guts. Oh, and the strong-willed girlfriend. He acted scared when the situation called for it, but managed to get his act together anyway. Teresa is the mysterious girl who appears half way through the book and remains by Thomas' side the whole time. These two are probably ones I didn't feel that strongly for because they weren't original. However, two characters shined in my eyes and they are the reason the two stars happened. The first character was Newt. He appeared pretty much right at the beginning, and is the most realistic character of them all. He was the second-in-command after Alby, and all took a stand when he needed to. He stuck by the rules so he could maintain order in the Glade. He felt mental pain thinking about his limp and his past days as a Runner, and he conveyed the right emotions at the right times like any normal person would. The second character is my favourite - Minho. I am slightly biased on his part because he's Asian and I love my Asian men, real or not. He has a tough personality, needed for the situation his was in. He has a great sense of humour and uses a lot of sarcasm. He's also loyal and handsome. I feel like characters like Minho are needed in a dystopian universe, especially one as dire as theirs.

Characters:

I'm not sure it's because of Dashner's choice of characters or the fact that the Maze Runner takes place in a fictional world, but I couldn't relate to any of the characters. Usually when you read a book, you can find a character similar to yourself and become attached to that character, but I didn't find one in this book. Their personality and attitudes were too indifferent to mine, and that's another bad decision on Dashner's part. However, I do feel like Minho's choice of running and splitting up when himself, Alby and Thomas were stuck in the Maze sounded like something I would do myself. What Thomas did was unrealistic and most people would panic in those situations, like Minho did. And the choice to split up gave them both a better chance of surviving them for them to stick together.

Opinion:

I can't say I like this book, but I can't say that I disliked it either. The story was good, the characters were great, but the writing was awful. Out of the whole story, I would have to say that my favourite part of the book was when Minho was training Thomas. Showing him the ropes, how he remembered his route, leaving "crumbs," and planning out maps. It was a very minor part of the book but a lot of knowledge and effort went into all of that, and that showed how determined some of the Gladers were. My least favourite part of the Maze Runner was, like most people, the ending. It left too many open endings and questions. I realize here are two whole books after this, but leaving too much for the next book ruins it. I can understand why the movie changed a lot of the details. And that's why I feel like the movie was better. I watched the film almost a whole year ago, but I can still remember the ending. It was nothing like the book, and when comparing both endings, the movie was definitely better and was more thrilling. If I could change anything in this book, the writing comes before the ending.

Recommendation:

Unlike my friends, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, unless they liked mediocre, dystopian books and don't really care about the quality of the writing. Like the genre suggests, mostly younger adults would enjoy this book and those who enjoy unrealistic universes.

I do still plan to read the second two books, and the two prequels (The Kill Order and The Fever Code (which comes out in 2016)), but I'm not setting myself up for anything but disappointment. I can imagine that the next movies with still be better anyway.

Thomas.