The Maze Runner

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. 


The reasons I had behind choosing to read The Maze Runner had a lot to do with timing. This book made it on to my list just over a year ago when Brayden's Grade 8 teacher mentioned that this was the series of choice for her class right then. In case you missed it, I'm not opposed to Teen or Young Adult novels in any way shape or form and often times I find I like them better than Adult novels. So I added it to my [ridiculously long] to-read list. Then, the film adaptation came up on Netflix, so it was bumped higher in the to-read list. THEN, at work on day, on a particularly boring break, I grabbed it off of a unit bookshelf and just started reading it. Went home, borrowed the ebook from the library, and that's how The Maze Runner ended up bumping to the front of the line for the books I had to read. 

Unfortunately, being a choice of convenience rather than choice can sort of be a disadvantage. 

This is another one of those Young Adult series that are riding the gravy-train of post-apocalyptic, dystopian society, fad that's going on right now. Hunger Games, Divergent, etc... so it really feels like I have read it before. (C'mon youth of today! Read something HAPPY for a change! Your life isn't really all that bad that you need to read depressing stuff to realize it) I considered it a cross between Battle Royale (youth were placed in this environment, it was not an accident) and Lord of the Flies (the separation of different types of youth). And both of those novels were written far better than this one. There is a fine line between too much description and not enough... and things just being made too strange to describe. There are monsters called Grievers in this book and I am pretty sure I didn't imagine them right. A cross between a slug and a robot? What? Anyway, I figured when I watched the movie it would end up making sense, but it turns out the book wasn't good enough for me to get into watching the movie. I got about 30 minutes into watching it on Netflix, and then gave up.

This book was really one of those ones that are "fine", and considering it's a Young Adult series, if kids are reading them, great! But there's a lot better stuff out there, so go read the Hunger Games instead ;)