The Maze Runner by James Dashner

When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he's not alone. He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade - a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there - or what's happened to the world outside.

I was a bit nervous when I got started on reading The Maze Runner. So far, the reviews I've read about it, have been mostly negative and while I really wanted to like it, I wasn't sure if I would.

As it turned out I really do like it. I think it's a genuinely good book with a plot and some twists I didn't see coming and I really enjoyed it.

I do think the writing for some reason is extraordinarily heavy and as such it's a heavy if not hard book to read. I found it impossible to fly through the pages and it took me far longer to read than any young adult book usually would. It's not that the pacing isn't rapid enough, it's definitely not devoid of anything happening, I really don't know why or how, it's just heavy to read.

Obviously many have compared it to The Hunger Games as they are also YA books in a dystopian setting with teenagers dying left and right, but I do think this is quite different. This is about the teens working together to stay alive and figuring out how to escape the maze and the evil that lurks there.

I really loved the ending and am very curious to read the next two books in the trilogy, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure.

THE MAZE RUNNER The Maze Runner #1 by James Dashner ISBN13: 9781908435132 371 pages / Published in 2010

Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2015