Nikki D's Reviews > The Maze Runner

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For those of you who have no idea what this book is about, Thomas arrives at “the glade” which is a good size of land surrounded by a massive maze. Now the glade has dozens of boys already doing their part to keep their little make shift camp/community going. None of them know why they were put there, and none of them remember anything before their arrival. Thomas gets to know the camp and the jobs that are available and decides that he has to be a “runner.” Runners go into the maze and track the changes in it and look for ways out while the gates to the maze are open. The maze isn’t fun though. It has lots of traps and is infested with monsters called Grievers. Things start changing quickly once Thomas arrives and all of the gladers have to survive and escape the maze all while figuring out why they were put there in the first place.

I had such a hard time with this book. I really wanted to like it because the premise was cool. I thought of a modernized Lord of the Flies with big brother watching. But really I couldn’t get passed the terribly written characters. Especially the main character. I understand that there is bound to be a little whining at first when Thomas is adjusting but it just never stopped. Also the slang the boys used was really off putting. (shuck, shanks, etc.) Although, it might have been the fact that after reading all of Thomas’s complaints and frustrations I just got annoyed more easily.

I watched the movie and I actually ended up liking it a lot more than the book. (Which hardly ever happens.) I still don’t think I will see any of the other movies or read any of the other books though. It just wasn’t as interesting as I hoped it would have been.