The Maze Runner - James Dashner

Date Started: 10/6/14
Date Finished: 10/9/14

Ok, seriously, WHY is everything a series. I read this one because of the movie coming out. Besides knowing it was Lord of the Flies-ish (boys, boys, boys!) and takes place in a maze I didn't know anything else about it.

Well SPOILER ALERT: you don't know much when you finish the book either! Here's what you do know.


Teens (and a few tweens) end up in a maze. They're sent up one at at time, in a box. The maze can't be solved (they've been trying for 2 years) and it changes every night. Oh and there are things they call Grievers that are basically killing machines that hunt them down at night if they happen to be in the maze. Great, right?

Our narrator, Thomas, is the newest kid on the block, at least until the next day, when the first and only GIRL is sent up in the box. Oh and she and Thomas are telepathic. He really wants to be a runner - the guys who go out and map the maze during the day - and feels inexplicably drawn to the place despite knowing nothing about it. There's some drama where some guy who has gone through the "change" says he recognizes him but Thomas proves he's a good-guy when he helps rescue some runners who get stuck in the maze overnight. They become the first group to survive a night in the maze.

What does all of this lead to - well turns out something awful happened to the real world and all of these teens are the "best and brightest" and have been put in the maze as an experiment. Only the strongest will survive and the world needs the strongest to help battle whatever is going on out there. Thomas figures all of this out by getting stung by Grievers, going through the change so that he'll remember everything, and then sharing the details.

It's a bloody ending - 20 people survive, and we're left with a group of boys (and a girl) who think they've been rescued, but are really just entering the next phase of the experiment. On to Book 2.

Ugh. Series. I seriously need to start figuring out if a book is part of a series or not before I commit.