Today, I finished "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner.
Since it's been made into a movie, you probably all now what it is about. Either way, here is a short description of the plot:
Thomas arrives at a place called the Glade. He remembers nothing about his life, only his name. The Glade is surrounded by a maze that the boys living in the Glade try to figure out. It isn't easy, as the walls of the maze move at night. Additionally, so-called Grievers live in the maze. As scraps of memory return to some of the boys, more questions about the purpose of the Glade and the maze are raised. There also seems to be a mysterious relationship between Thomas and the only girl, Teresa, the last person to ever be brought to the Glade. I don't really want to spoil everything if anybody decides to read a review before the novel. Everybody else knows what happens anyways.
There was a lot of suspense in "The Maze Runner". I read it almost in one go, and I am normally not a person to think about where things might be going. Either the story was very well made, or my constant reading without a pause prevented me from realising where the plot was going. Anyways, I enjoyed it. My favourite character is possibly Newt (isn't he everybody's favourite?), I also liked Thomas and Minho though. I didn't really identify with anyone - possibly because I'm a girl and because it is really hard to picture oneself in such a dystopian setting. Maybe because I would probably behave like one of those Gladers whose names are not even mentioned.
I really liked the whole plot, there were some unexpected turns and it all seemed credible. Dashner's writing style is probably not my favourite, but the plot made up for that. I didn't like the ending so much because you know from it that the world in which Thomas and his friends are living is not going to be well. Nothing seems to be really completed as the narrator already hints that the Maze was only the beginning.
I believe that having read the "Hunger Games" trilogy makes you think already that someone, somewhere has plotted all this. Still I didn't think that someone like President Snow was meant when there was talk about the creators.
In the end, I didn't quite know how to feel. On the one hand, it was nice to know that some Gladers made it outside the maze. On the other hand, it is impossible to be happy for them since so many died and that there are worse things coming. I really want to know how the story will go on in "The Scorch Trials" and "The Death Cure", but the dystopian setting made me quite depressed. So I will probably read other books first before going on with that series.
I would recommend "The Maze Runner" to people who like dystopies and/or Sci-Fi and who don't expect a happy end.
