Book Review: The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1)

 

The Maze Runner

James Dashner

2/5

I read this book for the first time maybe five or six years ago, when the movies were first coming out and a lot of people were really into them. I wasn't impressed enough to continue the series, but I own the book and decided to give it another go. I wasn't entirely disappointed by it, it had some fun moments, but it felt so much more like Lord of the Flies fanfiction than it did the first time I read it. If you loved Lord of the Flies and you love science-fiction and somehow haven't read this book yet, it really fits that niche. 

I don't understand a lot of what happened because a lot of the book felt like stalling in favor of praising and building up Thomas's character. Thomas makes a lot of poor decisions, he's sixteen and in an impossible situation so that's fair. There's a lot of idolization though, the fact that the other "geniuses" are in the maze for over two years without a hint of escape until Thomas shows up and solves it within a week kind of speaks for itself. 

Unfortunately, I think that the character deaths hit me a lot harder when I read it the first time. It goes along with building up Thomas through directly saying he's an interesting person rather than showing us it. He had "friendships" with the other boys but only because he was telling us he thought of them as friends rather than any legitimate connection between the characters. The eventual romance got off to a weak start for me too, I didn't feel any real connection between them. 

I know that this is YA and so you could argue that the actions were simplified for a purpose, but I've reread a lot of my favorite YA recently and I stay relatively up to date with what's current. YA doesn't mean you have to totally sacrifice character development in favor of making something that's kind of dark seem lighter and easier to read. I understand the angle that Dashner was going for and I appreciated it at times, I would prefer to have a better developed connection with the main protagonists though.