Philip Young's Reviews > The Maze Runner

Have you ever worked a rubik's cube or a crazy puzzle? I was first drawn to The Maze Runner, by James Dashner, because I had seen a lot of people reading it. The Maze Runner is a book that will constantly keep the reader asking questions about what is going to happen next. Will Thomas, Chuck, Teresa, and the rest of the Gladers solve the Maze.

The Maze Runner is about Thomas, a sixteen year old boy, who was pulled out of a metal box and finds himself in the Glade filled with other teens called Gladers. He soon learns the workings how they live, keep order, and their jobs. Some of the jobs Thomas learns about are Builders, Baggers, Med-jacks, and (what Thomas wants to be) Runners. The Maze Runner takes place in a massive maze with the walls built of slabs of concrete and creatures called Grievers roaming it. In the center of the Maze is a squared area called the Glade were all of the Gladers live. The Maze Runner has a ton of conflicts in the story. Character vs. Character with Thomas and Gally as he keeps saying Thomas is the reason for the Maze, Character vs. Society with Thomas trying to ask questions and the Gladers refused to answer saying that he would be better off not knowing, and Character vs. Nature by living through the Maze with limited supplies in it. The Characters in the story are Thomas, Alby, Newt, Gally, Teresa, Chuck, Frypan, and Ben.

I liked how the book ended. When the Gladers won the battle against the Grievers they finally found out what is happening in the outside world. And when I finished reading the book, I wanted to read the second one. One of my favorite parts of the story is before the Gladers were going to fight the Grievers Minho asked if anyone should give a pep talk. When Newt said go ahead Minho faced the crowd and said “‘Be careful, Don’t die.” Then Newt followed up by saying “Great. we’re all bloody inspired.” That paragraph made me chuckle a little.

I really liked this book, even though some reviews say that the build up was really slow it didn’t bother me that much. And when I read this book I constantly was asking questions like “What does WICKED mean?” or “Why is everyone blaming or accusing Thomas?” or other things like that. I have never seen another book that has this same idea of putting characters in a maze and have them figure it out and make it interesting to read it, but I have to say I have not read many books. In conclusion, The Maze Runner is a great book for people who are interested in asking questions, post-apocalyptic worlds, and terrifying creatures.