The Maze Runner by James Dashner Review

I have been wanting to read this book since a few years back and I'm so glad I finally got through it.  The story starts out pretty slow and I have to say I wasn't truly invested in the story until about half way through the book. This is not to say that this was a bad read. I have friend that told me that the first book in the series is a bit slow, so bear with me.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The story is written from a first person point of view with the main character Thomas appearing in a place known as the Glade inhabited by a  group of teenage boys that call themselves the Gladers. The Gladers seem to have a culture of sorts using their own unique slang and treating Thomas like the newbie. They nickname him "greenie" for a good portion of the book. Thomas seems to be very confused as to where he is and it becomes apparent that he has lost his memory before getting to the Glade. All of the other boys have also lost their memories from their past lives. It is later revealed in the book that there is a way of recovering these "lost" memories.

For the most part, the rest of the Gladers seem reluctant to share information they know about the Glade and the Maze with Thomas. This made reading the book in first person quite frustrating. For clarification on how the title relates to the book, the Maze is exactly what it sound like, a huge maze that neighbors the Glade and seems to be the only exit from this mysterious place for the Gladers. The Gladers assign Runners who each try and map out a part of the Maze hoping to eventually put together a map that will let them escape. The Maze moves every so often, though and has gates that close after a certain amount of time. Thomas really wants to be a Runner from the beginning of the book and eventually become one.

Overall, I wish the story was more fast paced and more information was given as to what was going on at the beginning of the book. I wouldn't say that I was super attached to the characters and their relationships with each other at first, but they eventually grew on me. Newt is definitely one of the characters I favor. It is not the best young adult dystopian novel I've read, but by the end of it I was definitely excited to start reading the sequel. I'll be reading that next, so expect a review soon!

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