The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner was written by James Dashner in 2009.  Dashner also wrote many other books including The Scorch Trails, The Death Cure, The Kill Order, The Eye of Minds, The 13th Reality, and the Infinity Ring.  Dashner’s writings are fantasy type books and many of them are geared towards young adults.  The Maze Runner is about a boy names Thomas who wakes up with no memory of who he is and why he is in a metal box.  Thomas remembers only his name.  Thomas is taken to a place called the Glad, which is a community of young boys who live together on what seems like a farm, that’s surrounded by high walls.  Outside the Glade is a Maze that has monsters (known as Grievers).  The theme of The Maze Runner is friendship and bravery.  It shows that friends are willing to have their life taken for another friend.  The Gladers are all good friends with each other and they all pull together to make sure that all gets done as it should.  The Gladers are very brave people since they have so many weird and bizarre things that happen to them.  The boys who did not make it through to the end of the book were brave also because they gave their life to help others. There were also many brave boys who were killed during their battle of the Grievers.

Thomas learns that if a Griever stings you that you then go through a process which is very traumatic and is known the Changing.  Gally (one of the Gladers) is not sure on how to take Thomas and actually accuses him of being a spy.  The leader of the Runners is Minho.  The Runners are the Gladers who run into the maze in hopes of mapping it and then finding a way out of the maze.  Thomas meets Teresa, who is the first girl ever to be sent into the Glade.  Thomas finds that he has a bond with Teresa and he becomes obsessed with her.  Teresa goes into a coma after she tells everyone that things are about to change.  Thomas decides that he would like to become a Runner even though he has a lot to learn about the Glade as well as the Maze.  Thomas is attacked by a boy who has gone through the changing, named Ben.  Alby (the ruler of the Glade) is stung by a Griever while out in the Maze.  Minho tries to get Alby back to the Glade before the walls close but Thomas knows they are not going to make it so he went out to help the two.  He is now trapped in the Maze with Alby and Minho during the most dangerous time- night.  Minho freaks out when the Grievers approach and runs away leaving Thomas with Alby.  Somehow the three of them manage to live through the night which is something no one else has ever done.  Thomas gets in trouble for his role in the overnight Maze stay.  Alby believes that he has seen Thomas before and thinks that Thomas had some part in the design or maybe even the building of the Maze.  Thomas visits with Teresa, who is still in a coma, and Teresa communicates with Thomas telepathicly.  Thomas is scared by this and runs into the Maze just so that he doesn’t have to hear her voice in his head anymore.  Teresa tells Thomas that they were both involved in the building of the Maze.  After Thomas’ punishment for the Maze incident, involving Alby and Minho, he starts to train to be a runner with Minho’s help.  Teresa lets Thomas know that she has started the end.  Thomas figures out that the Glade is a made up place where the sky really isn’t a real sky.  Teresa drops a bombshell that to Thomas that the Maze is a code.  Teresa wakes up so that she and Thomas could meet in the Glade.  Thomas is very much attracted to Teresa although Alby is very apprehensive of her.  For the first time ever, the doors to the Maze don’t close like they should so Alby takes Teresa because he believes she has something to do with this.  A large house in the Glade is where the Gladers stay as they wait for the Grievers to do their thing at night.  All the maps of the Maze that the Runners have made throughout the years are destroyed by fire.  Thomas figures out a new way to look at the map information although he was able to find the real maps as the ones burned were just fakes.  Teresa and Thomas look at the maps together and find that there are letters hidden in maps that spell out words but the words don’t make sense together.  Thomas allows himself to get stung by the Grievers to hopefully bring back some memories.  Thomas recovers from this sting and tells everyone what he has remembered. He then tells everyone that he knows how to get out of the Maze. Many people listen to him more now that he has gone through the Changing because they know that he’s remembered things. Thomas leads the Gladers into the Maze, knowing the risk he puts himself, and his friends at.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure and science fiction/ fantasy.  There were so many twists and turns to the book; putting it down became very difficult. To read this book, you don’t have to like a certain genre of books, however: when I read this, it was as a project in Language Arts and I ended up reading more of the books in that series. You’re never sure what’s going to happen next, which is the best part of the book. 

Book Review by Breanna S.