Review: The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1) by James Dashner

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.

I had been interested in getting my hands on this book for quite a while and finally, I was able to. I have really enjoyed this whole young adult, dystopia thing that has been going on for the past 5 years. I haven't liked all of the entrants into this little sub-genre but I've enjoyed most. After looking at the ratings that everyone had given this one, I was super excited. 

And then I started reading. Man. It was rough for the the first 50 or so pages. I just couldn't get into it. I was so close to putting this down and just not picking it back up because it was a bit ... disconnected for me at first. But instead of going with that first instinct, I just kept at it and it payed off. It REALLY paid off. I became immersed in this world that Dashner had created and I just couldn't get enough. I didn't read it as quickly as I have some others but it was right up there with them. 

The setting is something that takes a little while to kind of get a grip on. It's completely different from our society and while it seems a little extreme at times, I think that it was warranted in order to set the story up correctly. The characters were a bit difficult to connect to at first because of their different vernacular but it was easy to fall into and get the hang of after a few chapters. I really like how Dashner has written Thomas and a few of the others. It actually reads like it's young kids talking and not an author trying to get in touch with that generation ... it felt authentic. And that seems to be something that quite a few authors have issues with. There was no talking down or making these kids seem too young or stupid, it was just perfect. 

I did immediately pick up the next book in the series and while that would normally urge me to give a book 5 stars, since I had such a hard time getting into everything, I decided to bump it down to a 4. But all in all, this is a good novel and I'm pretty excited to see it in movie form to see how it stands up. 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads