The Maze Runner is a strange book; to be honest, I've never really read anything like it. The story begins with Thomas, a 16 year old boy who wakes up in an elevator with absolutely no memory of how he got there. This elevator brings him up to a compound, the 'Glade,' home to 50 other young boys in the same situation, one arriving every month. For two years, the 'Gladers' have been attempting to escape the Glade by exploring the ever-changing maze which surrounds the compound and fighting the half-animal, half-machine beasts (called 'The Grievers') which terrorize them. Despite his attempts Thomas is never really accepted into this society, and it soon becomes clear that his arrival is just the first of a series of strange events in the Glade, including the appearance of the first girl, and the first real possibility of escape.
In writing a cast of characters which have no prior memory of their lives, Dashner sets himself a formidable task as an author. Essentially, Dashner is attempting to create personalities for characters out of nothing, and, in my (totally unauthorized) opinion, fails. For example, while Thomas' narrative focuses on only a few named Gladers (Alby, Newt, and Minho, for example), take away their names and they could easily be one person. For the most part, the Gladers are very flat characters, displaying the same mix of pent up rage, fear, bossiness and malice so much so that even with names it was difficult to distinguish one boy from the next, and I felt a little overwhelmed by the bravado.
Yet, even when Dashner attempts to grant certain characters unique qualities, it is far from subtle. For example, Thomas' compulsion to sacrifice himself for others. While such sacrifices move the plot forward, they occurred so often that I was annoyed and quite unimpressed. Perhaps this tendency of Thomas' is explained more in the series' other books, but here in The Maze Runner, it seems out of place, as though Thomas is simply too extraordinary for his own situation. Also, Thomas' personality doesn't change in the slightest throughout the course of novel, nor do the personalities of his friends. Of all the characters, meek Chuck is the only one to show some growth, and even that is cliched and entirely predictable. Well, now that I have ranted about all of this, I should say that there were some things I enjoyed about the novel. For example, I thought that the society of the Gladers was well planned out and fairly realistic, with all of the different jobs explained in satisfactory detail. Also, I was glad that 'The Girl' does not turn out to be a damsel-in-distress archetype and can stand up for herself--although she is in some sort of passive state for about 3/4 of the plot.
In conclusion, I can't help but be intrigued to read the next book in the series, The Scorch Trials, if only out of the hope that the problems which I have identified above will be resolved in the sequel.
Genre: YA Dystopian Fiction
Recommended to: Fans of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games
Rating: 6.0/10
Favourite Quote: "Such a display of death-- how could it be considered a victory?"
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