Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner
Maze Runner Trilogy

Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-385-73794-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-73794-4
Publication Date: October, 2009
List Price: $16.99

Review: “He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale dusty air. Metal ground against metal; a lurching shudder shook the floor beneath him. He fell down at the sudden movement and shuffled backward on his hands and feet, drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool air. His back struck a hard metal wall; he slid along it until he hit the corner of the room. Sinking to the floor, he pulled his legs up tight against his body, hoping his eyes would soon adjust to the darkness. With another jolt, the room jerked upward like an old lift in a mine shaft.” This young boy Thomas, is just at the beginning of his problems. Soon he will be facing challenges and tests that he never thought were possible. All of this suspense and action takes place in James Dashner’s The Maze Runner, a book that will keep you running until its end! What challenges will young Thomas encounter? Why is he starting his “new life”? What kind of room is this “shank” in anyway? All of these questions will unravel a mystery that will take you by storm!

As he exits the cold, dark room, Thomas remembers one thing and one thing only about his life. This is that his name is Thomas. Everything else is a complete blur. About fifty other teenagers, who also do not know anything else about themselves besides their first names, crowd around him all at once. These teens call themselves the Gladers and call the land around them the Glade. The Glade looks just like a settlement, but has four huge doors that close every night. Beyond the doors is a maze that is full of Grievers, strange creatures that can make you go through a horrible thing called the changing. This is very painful and will last for days. It was here on his first day of the Glade that he finds his one of very few friends, a boy named Chuck. Day two is even stranger for Thomas. At one point, he discovers that the Gladers have picked up a kind of slang language during their two years of being at the Glade. Shank (as used earlier) is a name that they would use in substitute of your name. Shuck face is a name that is used to insult. Klunk is the sound that they hear when they use the restrooms. I myself was starting to use the Glader’s slang on occasions. The second day is the strangest of all. A girl, the very first, comes out of the dark room with one message before going into a comma. A note in her hand explains that she is the last of the teenagers to come. Everyone now thinks that Thomas has something to do with this although he has no memory of her. Even later in time, the doors stop closing at night and Grievers are taking one Glader a night every night. Will Thomas and this girl be able to help the Gladers escape the Glade once and for all, or will they all die there, in that maze, one by one?

The Maze Runner is an outstanding piece of work that will blow your mind to the very end! James Dashner is a truly talented writer that has the ability to write a book for teens which can hook them on to the very end. Besides his amazing Maze Runner, James Dashner has written The Hunt for Dark Infinity, The Journal of Curious Letters, and The 13th Reality series. I noticed while reading that he has set the book up for the start of a series. From reading this one, I can guarantee to be the first in line for the next book in the series! I would recommend The Maze Runner to children of the sixth grade through high school because of bloody deaths and their detail. While reading The Maze Runner, I did not find these parts as defects, but very emotional parts of the story that made me continue reading to discover what would happen next. This book was so well written that I would not be surprised if it won many awards in the time to come. I would rate this book five stars on a rating of one to five because of its high quality and emotional parts such as the many unexpected deaths. The Maze Runner is on its way to becoming a world-wide best seller. There are absolutely no flaws in The Maze Runner. When the book came to its end, I wanted more. I kept rereading the last paragraph hoping that there would be more. James Dashner, you have impressed me in book one by astonishing levels. I could not expect more from a book. I am completely positive that The Maze Runner, and its eventual sequels will keep me fascinated for many years to come!

Review written by Brandon (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of The Maze Runner for this review.

Have you read The Maze Runner? How would you rate it?