The Maze Runner by James Dashner

 

Title: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Publication Date: 2009

ISBN #: 0385737947

Number of Pages: 374

Trend: Trend: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Survival story

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books

Dashner, J. (2009). The Maze Runner. NY, New York: Random House Children’s Books. 

Summary: Thomas wakes up in a metal box with his memory completely wiped of who he once was. When the box opens he finds himself in a makeshift society of boys living on there own in the center of giant maze. The Glade, the name the boys have given the place where they live, is sustainable by the society they have manufactured to maintain survival and order. The boys who have been there the longest have been there for two years. Everyday massive metal doors open up to the maze and a group runs out to try and find information about the maze in order to find a way out. Every night the metal doors come down and giant half-machine, half-grotesque slug-like creatures prowl the maze making it deadly to stay out of the Glade after the doors come down. The maze is a complete mystery, none of the boys remembers who they were before they arrived, just like Thomas. Thomas seems to be the last member to arrive before things start shutting down; symbolizing time for the maze is running out. Everyone blames him, and demands that he knows something, but Thomas denies anything because he truly does not remember how he got there. Soon another individual is dropped into the Glade, the first girl to ever be put there in the two years that the boys have been there. Through bravery, wit, and memories that vaguely linger in his mind, Thomas makes a plan to get the boys, and Theresa, the girl, out of the maze. When they manage to escape, they are met by a woman in a white lab coat who explains to them that they are in a kind of massive observational laboratory and they are part of a military experiment designed to test their survival skills. They were all trained individuals raised since childhood to become soldiers to fight on the side of the people who put them in the maze. All of a sudden large explosions start happening and weapon fire and other men and woman start storming the laboratory complex. The boys and Theresa all leave with the people who have attacked the laboratory complex. It is revealed at the end of the book that there is a dystopian society outside of the lab/training center and there is a revolutionary war being fought. The book ends there, and is continued onto the next in the series. 

Curricular connections: This book would can be paired with other survival stories. The situation of needing to build a civilization where there was no civilization before, and team work to make the civilation get along, especially in the face of adversary. This might even be an interesting pair with Lord of the Flies. This book is also being made into a movie coming out later this year, so the book can be shown with a film companion as soon as the movie is available. This can be for both public libraries and the classroom.

Review Sources: Ian Chipman of Booklist compliments this book for being high paced and exciting, though ultimately frustrating since the book ends in a monsterous cliffhanger. Chipman thinks that Hunger Game fans will be interested but will lack the devotion that the HG franchise inspires.  Kirkus Reviews give praises for the same aspects of the story but also complimenting the way that the author can make the unrealistic believable. Kirkus also comments on the cliffhanger ending, stating that it is obviously the first installment and we will find out much more about the world in proceeding novels

Personal response:  I found this to be a very good book, but not great. I am far more interested in the story that comes after the end of this book. I would have even liked to see more character development, because with so much action it drew away from who the characters were. It was obvious that Dashner put a lot of work into making each character unique so why waste all that effort when you do not end of developing them more.