Eliza's Reviews > The Maze Runner

** spoiler alert ** I enjoyed this book a lot and second many of the strong recommendations I read in other reader's reviews. I was, however, left with a number of questions. If the world is in catastrophe, how would the organization have the resources to build this giant maze, consisting of these incredible stone walls, all in a enormous climate controlled building? A building which is apparently located . . . on top of a mountain? The kids go up at least half an hour in the elevator, and they had to go through the giant slide to get out. Even if it is not on a mountain it is up high somewhere. Between the climate control, the stone walls, and the elevator the whole project seems incredibly resource and labor intensive for a world that has descended into chaos. And then, despite that, the project seems almost criminally haphazard. The best, bravest, and most persistent of the boys could easily be killed by accident. Also, I couldn't help thinking that a group of adolescent boys living together for years at a time would be a little more Lord of the Flies. Despite hot tempers and emotions, they remained conspicuously civilized.
Finally, I know it's easy to criticize what others have been working on (like Thomas when he first arrives) but it seemed pretty weak that all these supposedly super-intelligent boys, chosen for the success in other trials or whatever, spent two years in the maze and basically got nowhere. They didn't get the letters, they didn't find the Griever hole, they didn't even get the acronym WICKED. The fact that Thomas and Teresa had to come and "solve" everything by accessing their repressed memories was a total cop out. And the idea that the maze wasn't solvable was bull - obviously it was solvable, just in a think-outside-the-box kind of way. All the info - the words, the hole - was there before Thomas came.
Oh, and one more thing - what if Chuck hadn't saved Thomas? They would have killed one of their best guys for a reason that had nothing to do with him.
Again, I really did like the book, I just have a lot of questions. And I thought the ending was great - very curious about Group B. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.