REVIEW: Maze Runner

[Laura Bychowski]

The Maze Runner by James Dashner is a dystopian thriller about a group of adolescent boys trapped in an experiment by unknown “creators”. The boys have arrived, one a month, for two years by a mysterious elevator, with no memories of their past lives except for their first names. Their home, the Glade, is a plot of land surrounded by four massive stone walls with openings leading out to a maze of equally insurmountable walls. Each night the openings to the maze close, the maze walls shift, and terrifying mechanical monsters search and kill anyone remaining in the maze. The arrival of the lead character, Thomas, begins a chain of events signaling the end of the experiment which will push the boys to their limits of survival as it becomes clear that they must either solve the maze or die within it.

The novel is told from the perspective of Thomas, the newest addition to the collection of boys inside the Glade. A young person can instantly relate to the character who desires both a return to normalcy and a chance at excitement and responsibility. The lack of adults in the Glade forces all of the boys to create their own social order and take on different levels of responsibility. All of the boys have important roles in the community they build for themselves. Their efforts keep them alive and the order keeps them happy enough to go on. In this way the teenage characters are directly given credit for their efforts. The story is close to 400 pages long, but there is action and suspense in every chapter. The absence of a break or lull in the story adds to sense of urgency in the plot. The characters are usually split into optimists and pessimists, but the story reveals that only those with a sense of hope would survive or be useful to the group. The story is focused on emotions ranging between fear and depression to rage and lust. The emotion most relatable to teens would be the sense to belong which Thomas struggles with throughout the book.

If you're interested in hearing more, this is a link to an interesting review about the novel.
http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2009/10/the-maze-runner-book-review/

This book is a thrilling novel for young adults. The invented language used by the characters masks all the curses in different, yet recognizable, substitutes. The censorship works at a surface level to quiet the fears of parents while still getting the ideas across. The book brings up philosophical questions about mortality, the price of human existence, and the structure of societies. It also questions the ethics of scientific experimentation. The point of view of involuntary test-subjects invokes sympathy for lab rats, pigs, rabbits, etc. It succeeds at capturing the reader’s interest and I would recommend it for leisure reading as well as an example in classrooms for the debates of scientific experimentation. I would recommend it for ages 12-16 and adults looking for a fun, fast read.