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The Maze Runner
Jun. 9th, 2013 10:14 amThe Maze Runner is the first of James Dashner's series about a group of teens who live in a strange maze, each arriving with a blank memory and only knowing their first name. Thomas is dropped into the maze by means of "the Box", an elevator used to transport supplies and the occasional new boy to the Glade, a pleasant farm where all the prisoners get assigned a job. As the newbie, the reader learns about the place through Thomas. The Gladers have fruitlessly tried to solve the maze that surrounds the Glade for around two years. The Glade is only populated by boys, until a mysterious girl shows up on day in the Box.
The boys constantly fight and argue despite their attempts to keep order. Thomas soon learns that strange monsters, called Grievers, roam the maze at night. Getting stung by a Griever leads to a delirious episode called the Changing, in which memories briefly return to the victim. As monsters go, the Grievers are not really that terrifying.
This first book, published a year after The Hunger Games, was actually written years before, but it's not remarkable enough to make me want to purchase the rest. Part of the problem is that the set up is drawn out far too long with the end spanning just a few chapters. It seems like less time was spent on thinking out the dynamics of the ending as opposed to the overly detailed account of life in the Glade (seriously, the repetitive nature of YA books needs to be addressed. I'm sure the average teenager is not going to forget details from one chapter to the next). Then there's the slang, which are really minced oaths, that gets old really fast from overuse. The fakest British speaking person ever was also annoying. The real thing would have been preferable to constant shuck and klunk. There's only so much of the characters calling each other shuck-faced, pieces of klunk and slinthead that one can take!
The boys constantly fight and argue despite their attempts to keep order. Thomas soon learns that strange monsters, called Grievers, roam the maze at night. Getting stung by a Griever leads to a delirious episode called the Changing, in which memories briefly return to the victim. As monsters go, the Grievers are not really that terrifying.
This first book, published a year after The Hunger Games, was actually written years before, but it's not remarkable enough to make me want to purchase the rest. Part of the problem is that the set up is drawn out far too long with the end spanning just a few chapters. It seems like less time was spent on thinking out the dynamics of the ending as opposed to the overly detailed account of life in the Glade (seriously, the repetitive nature of YA books needs to be addressed. I'm sure the average teenager is not going to forget details from one chapter to the next). Then there's the slang, which are really minced oaths, that gets old really fast from overuse. The fakest British speaking person ever was also annoying. The real thing would have been preferable to constant shuck and klunk. There's only so much of the characters calling each other shuck-faced, pieces of klunk and slinthead that one can take!
is the fourth and perhaps final book in The Giver series by Lois Lowry, and I'm not sure what to make of it as an adult reader. The previous two books, Gathering Blue and Messenger, had similar plot holey problems, spoiled the ambiguity of The Giver's ending and completely changed the story universe. 
was Nate Powell follow up to 
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by Jeanne DuPrau. It's young adult dystopia done right!
. It focuses on Kira's young friend, Matty, who leaves their village at the end of Gathering Blue.
is a loose sequel to Lois Lowry's 1993 young adult book, 
. It has been a while since I read The Giver, but I remember it being a very good book. Gathering Blue is just not as good a book. Sometimes it's hard to be a middle book in a trilogy, but what really killed it for me was the stunted language that the characters called things.
