Book Review – The Maze Runner by James Dashner

This was the first one of James Dashner’s books I have read. It just happened to be sitting on our coffee table because our high school sophomore had it as an assigned reading for his English class. It has been on my reading list for a while, but my to-do list had a couple of things left to finish before I could start it. As I finished up those tasks, I kept seeing the book and longed to sit down in my comfy chair and read it. When I was finally able to pick it up from the coffee table, I had a hard time putting it down.

Selma’s Book Review

Book Title

The Maze Runner

Author

James Dashner

Type of Book

YA – High School level reading – dystopian science fiction

Background

20th Century Fox released a film adaptation of the book in September of 2014

Summary of the story

Thomas is brought to a place called the Glade with his memories of the past wiped clean from his mind. It was a place where a group of teenagers, all brought to the Glade the same way Thomas was, already lived. Where they lived is found in the middle of a maze the teens have been trying to find their way out of. The story is of the group coming together to figure out the puzzle and to fight off creatures called the Grievers who lived in the maze and kept them from getting out.

Reactions to the book

I really enjoyed the book. I had a hard time putting it down. The characters were engaging and I found Dashner’s writing style easy to read.

The story is like The Hunger Games trilogy in the survival of the fittest and dystopian themes found in both books. I liked the premise of the teens being challenged to find their way out and were forced to when their world started to change. They didn’t sit around like a lot of teens have done if they were faced with challenging circumstances. It was inspiring.

Being a writer myself, I understood the ending was written the way it was to set up the sequel, The Scorch Trials which I added to my reading list. I think the way it was written took away from the punch that the actual story gives you at the end. Many books have done cliffhanger endings to provide suspense for their next book. In this case, the ending seemed to be the beginning of book two, where I think it could have been written as the beginning of book two instead. Probably just his style and a different way of doing it. I would recommend the book as a good teen read.

If you are looking for more information abut the writer, here is his website James Dashner .

If you are looking for a copy of the book, here is the link to it on Amazon The Maze Runner

#BookReview #series #JamesDashner #TheMazeRunner #YA #postaweek #dystopian