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| The front cover |
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| The blurb of the book |
The first book, The Maze Runner, in James Dashner's trilogy starts with a boy falling into complete darkness only remembering one thing: his name, Thomas. It is then that Thomas is lifted up into the world above; greeted by a crowd of all boys who pull him out of the lift. He soon learns of his new home: the Glade, a section in which four towering, grey walls form a square. Each wall, however, has an opening, which Thomas soon learns are in fact doors which shut at sunset, protecting the boys from the deadly monstrosities patrolling the other side: the Grievers. Upon arrival to the Glade, Thomas learns that the Glade is in the centre of a Maze which is daily explored by Gladers known as Runners - whilst the doors are open between sun rise and sunset and the Grievers are hidden away - desperately trying to solve the Maze in order to return to their old and unknown lives. Thomas feels a sense of familiarity towards the Glade, despite having no memory of a previous life, and, despite it being an extremely tough task to become one, has his heart set on becoming a Runner: to solve the maze and return to freedom. However, his ambition is soon fulfilled after a strange turn of events: the arrival of a girl who announces that "everything is going to change", the disappearance of the Sun and cutting off of essential supplies to the Glade. It is then that the urgency to solve the maze is sparked and now, with the helps of other events and Gladers, the book focuses on whether not Thomas can do it before either the Grievers get them all or the supplies run out.
This book is jam-packed to the brim with action. It seemed that as soon as one event happened, another one began and this, cunningly, always happened at the end of each chapter, grasping hold of your imagination and will power and dragging you into the next chapter, persuading you into reading the next - a literary technique, when used well and appropriately, is a very clever way of grabbing the reader's attention. The Maze Runner was also a fairly easy read for one of its genre. I tend to find that action stories are often hard to keep up with and fully understand, however this book was still eventful, yet was written in such a way in which I wasn't bombarded nor dumbfounded by descriptions and the story. This is an aspect of the book that I am very pleased with.
Also, the episodes of action themselves were not too lengthy meaning my attention was completely involved in the book. I didn't find myself getting bored whilst reading or feeling as though reading it was a chore, which I find can happen with some books - especially action ones. This can also be applied to the chapters themselves: most of them were roughly only 8-9 pages long and I liked this as, not only did I make the book feel easier to read, but also kept me reading. This was because I was finishing more chapters quickly and therefore I felt like was get closer and closer to finding out what happens and eager to do so.
As I was reading the book, there didn't seems to be any particular themes other than the storyline itself. However on analysis afterwards I began to identify with some that I feel were actually present in the story. One major and obvious theme that I found within this book is coping with change as Thomas, and the others Gladers must learn to adjust to and survive in completely new world without any memory.
If you are considering reading The Maze Runner (or the trilogy) I would strongly advise that, if you enjoyed the Hunger Games (as the book), you don't read it completely comparing the two and don't expect both books to go hand-in-hand with each other, because you may be disappointed . This is because they are both very different, in many ways - the only real similarity they have is that they follow a principle of survival of the fittest and contain colourful events. Other than that they are different in terms of the actual story. First instance, The Hunger Games is written by Suzanne Collins in a way by which we are shown what happens through perceptive of the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, and so, as result, through out the book, the reader feels as though they are in the mind of Katniss and witnessing the story as she does and are given her immediate views , thoughts and feelings. However, James Dashner has presented the story of The Maze Runner so that we are told of Thomas' feelings and what is happening. It seems as though we are in fact in the story but are invisible to the characters and that we have Dashner in our ear giving us a running commentary on what is happening and what is going through out Thomas' mind.
One thing that I really like about this book was that way that the epilogue was written. It was written in a different format to the rest of the book which was in itself very intriguing. But also it ended in cliff hanger - but not your conventional story-is-ended-mid-action cliff hanger. It discussed future events which were inevitably go to happen that the characters are not aware of. This urges the reader to read the next book in order to find out how the characters react but also what happens too. I most certainly will be reading the next book in the trilogy, The Scorch Trials, in order to do so.
This book is definitely teen fiction, however it can still be enjoyed by adults too. I would recommended this to anyone over the age of 12 and even those of you who are fans of The Hunger Games but advise it to be read with an open mind. :)
I award this book 3 of out 5.
You can find The Maze Runner here
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