While it failed to build emotional connections between this reader and its characters, The Maze Runner is an entertaining, quick read which is fine for whiling away a few hours.

What it’s about:

When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas can remember is his first name. But he’s not alone. He’s surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade, an encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible maze.

Like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know who or how they came to be there, or what’s happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything to find out.

My take:

The Maze Runner is a well-written page turner. It was sufficiently mysterious to keep me reading, but not so mysterious that I wanted to throw it against the wall for being infuriating.

I tried not to think about The Hunger Games while reading this book. But it’s difficult. The similarities are there: after all, it’s about a group of children who have been thrown to the wolves and have to fight for their lives. And The Maze Runner suffers from the comparison. While I will one day get round to reading the other two installments in the trilogy, I’m in no great hurry to do so. And that’s because I still don’t care enough about any of the characters. It’s not surprising really. None of them can remember who they are, so we don’t learn enough about them to form an emotional bond. This book is missing a Katniss Everdeen.

My other take away? The Maze Runner made me long to re-read Lord of the Flies, which I think was Dashner’s source of inspiration for at least a couple of his characters (Piggy! Read it and try to disagree with me!).

I’ll be interested to hear what you think. Can anyone tell me if the other 2 installments are worth it? Do we find out more about the characters and start to get more attached to them? Please let me know! 🙂

 Claire Huston / Art and Soul