Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The Maze Runner


The Maze Runner
James Dashner
2 / 5

Published 2009

First Sentence
"He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air."
Publisher's Description:
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade - a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they've closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up - the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

Dear Reader,

Ehhh. I don't even know what to write about this one... I really have no desire to read further in the series, and I was thinking that for my own edification I might want to read a plot synopsis of the other books, but...I am not even sure I am interested in doing that. I honestly don't think I care what happens to boring Thomas and his compatriots. Maybe this is a book I would have really enjoyed as a teenager, but as an adult, I just didn't. I don't know why. The story was interesting enough, I suppose, and full enough of mystery. Maybe it was just that to me it was just so unbelievable. I could believe what happened to Katniss Everdeen as being a possibility, even when things did lean a little too on the side of magic - when nature the was too easily controlled by the game makers, for instance. But there was just too much of that with Thomas and his maze-running friends - creatures that couldn't possibly be real ended up just annoying me. And knowing there was some real reasoning behind their situation just made me frustrated, not curious.

I think I also hated that the book was titled as it was: Thomas never even really got to BE a maze runner. And why, then, is it just named after ONE of them? And, are the boys who try to figure out the maze really the most important of the group? What about the leaders, what about those who feed and take care of the others? This was a group of boys, all of whom contributed in their own ways.

Hmm, maybe another reason I didn't like the book was because it reminded me of The Lord of the Flies. It just felt like a "modern" retelling of that story, in a way. Even though I know the stranding of the boys in The Lord of the Flies wasn't planned. Actually, it felt like a blend of that and Battle Royale, come to think of it. But both of those books were better, to me. In my vague recollections, anyway.

I guess just what I am trying to say is that if you want to spend your time reading dystopian YA literature, there is so much out there already. This isn't doing anything new, in my mind. Perhaps it is, in the future books? But not now, and this first book was where it needed to get me hooked. I just didn't care enough. (Maybe if it had been females...you know I love my feminist YA books, haha.)

Yours,
Arianna


The Maze Runner

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2 comments:

  1. Definitely skipping this one, I'm really tired of YA dystopian novel by now. I know people were raving about the movie (or a few of my family members), so maybe it does better on film?

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  2. I hope...? Meh. I mean, if someone were to write the equivalent of another Hunger Games, then great! It's not dystopian YA I am over. I just did NOT like this one...maybe it was geared more towards boys, too? Since the others all seem to be "abnormally strong girls"...?

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