The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1)

This is a horror book filled with nastiness, lack of empathy, and most revoltingly, the idea that it\’s reasonable and morally correct to torture and kill children in the name of possibly saving the human race. I forced myself to finish it to see if the ending had any redeeming qualities—it does not. A \”teaser\” for the second book begins with a brother and sister kidnapped after watching the murder of their parents. Apparently many adults, including respected reviewers, can maintain enough emotional distance to enjoy this sort of thing, but I am not one of them. And I certainly do not regard this as appropriate for children, or even teenagers.

I got this book shortly after having watched the first film. The movie really drew me in and I had to have it. Now, altogether, I think I like the film much better than the book, but the novel has its merits too without a doubt. I see a lot of reviews talking about how the characters were without personality, boring, unreadable, flat. In some ways I do understand the frustration. At times it\’s near impossible to read what is going on exactly, BUT I think I\’ve found purpose to what so many deem madness. I mean, these are kids who woke up in a strange place with no memory of who they are, where they came from. To top it all off, they\’re trapped in a maze crawling with monsters at night. And no matter how much they try to escape, they can\’t. They have lived in a place with no idea of what they were, who they were supposed to be, or what they ARE supposed to be now. For me, it would only make sense for a stagnant environment to produce stagnation in the people occupying it. I know that may be reaching a little bit – but it\’s what has helped me to manage through the book with a peaked interest. I couldn\’t put the novel down. Overall, I find the concept of the story good. And despite the blank slates of many characters, they are still fairly likable (except for Alby. Book Alby worked my absolute last nerve. He was a complete 360 from his movie self and I have never hated a character so much so quickly. I disliked him more than Gally >:( ). All in all, the movie made me want to dive directly into The Scorch Trials, so it definitely did something right. Honestly, I think the biggest issue that most people can agree with is the lack of personality in the characters. But in my perspective, I can kind of make it work in my head! I look forward to continuing these books.

The Maze Runner? (Rolls eyes so hard she can see her brain) Meh, it was forgettable…and aggravating! In fact, I can distinctly remember the day-to-day struggle I had with the book! Days where I would dread the fact that I had to pick up The Maze Runner and suffer reading through the endless chapters that give you no answers, no purpose to The Maze, no clear objective, annoying and pointless characters that you feel no connection to, and hopelessness. Hmm, okay, have you ever played Monkey in the Middle? Well, imagine you are the monkey in the middle, you have Thomas (the lead character) on one end, and James Dashner (the author) on the other end. Okay, now imagine James Dashner holding a mysterious black velvet drawstring which holds all the answers you are dying to get your hands on. Okay, now picture Thomas and Dashner cackling as they toss the drawstring back and forth over your head. At first, you chuckle and say something like, \”Oh, come on guys,\” then 30 chapters later, while they continue to play their silly game, you give up on the attempt to intercept the drawstring, and crossing your arms you say something like, \”Okay, this is getting really annoying.\” Finally, after 60 chapters, you decide to walk up to Dashner and rashly kick him right on the chin and you shout, \”ENOUGH!\” And in your disgraceful moment of defeat and frustration, Dashner \”thoughtfully\” hands over the black velvet drawstring, so as to say, \”All right, I\’m sorry.\” You gasp, and then squeal, AT LAST! YOU HAVE THE ANSWERS! You fall to your knees and madly begin to open up the black velvet drawstring, \”This is it! This is it!\” you exclaim to yourself, only to uncover….complete and utter darkness; yep, nothing. The bag was empty the entire time. Then, as your gaze moves steadily up at Dashner, you take notice that he is frowning, and smiling, and laughing all while staring at Thomas, who is responding in the same manner. And then it hits you, they are able to converse telepathically! What in the world!? Argh! So you get up, take a deep breath, sweep whatever Dashner dust-bunnies have settled onto your jeans and shoulders, and begin to walk away from their wicked scheme; who needs those guys anyway? Rude! But just as you are storming off, Dashner runs up to you, laughing irritatingly while trying to catch his breath and says, \”Okay, okay,\” his arms up in surrender, \”I\’m done, here take this, you\’ll want to read this,\” and just like that, he walks over to Thomas (who is laughing hysterically by the way), they pat themselves on the back, as to congratulate each other, and they walk away. You shake your head in utter confusion and look down at the single sheet of paper resting on the palm of your hand, you unfold it, it\’s an epilogue. The best darn thing Dashner wrote in the entire book!

This series is amazing. especially the first and last book. Many people get the order of the series wrong . The series order in google is wrong. Spoiler Warning: The first three books are flashbacks and the last two books is how the story begins. Please read in this order: 1. maze runner , 2. scorch trials , 3. death cure , 4. kill order , 5. fever code U might find the the 3rd and 4th a little bit boring but continue to read to start the best book of the series ,the last one

Read the full review at: http://polkadotbookblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-maze-runner.html When I started this book, I was extremely excited because I had heard good things about it and was told that if I was a fan of the hunger games then this book would be right up my street. I was imagining it to be an amazing dystopian book that would have me gripped from page one. But after the first 100 pages I realised that I had too high expectations and unfortunately it was not looking up to it. Which is why this book has me so conflicted on what to rate it because at some points I love it and at others I don\’t. Yet there are still many things that I did like about this book. I liked the mystery and the concept that surrounds the series. But then I didn\’t like how drawn out it was in the first part. I felt that there wasn\’t any important action happening until the middle-end of the book, so I was constantly urging myself to keep at it. The second half of the book is when I started to really enjoy it. I started to get the gripped feeling, where you cannot put the book down because you just had to know what happens. The pace became fast moving and the mystery and action started to get bigger and better, which was not seen in the first part. I just loved the twist at the end. I did not expect it and it is all this that making me what to continue on with the series. Another thing I did like was some of the characters, not all of them but some. Some characters I absolutely adored (Chuck and Newt) but others I was just so uninterested in. I just felt that I had no clue as to what was happening so I couldn\’t connect with the characters like I wanted to. Yet I loved the subtle loyalty and friendship Newt offered and the vulnerability of Chuck, that just made me what to kiss them and cheer at the little things they did. Overall, as a book there were so many things that had me going back and forth on whether I loved it or hated it. I loved the plot, the pacing of the second half of the book and some of the characters. But then I hated the pacing at the beginning of the book and was completely confused as to what was going on due to the writing style and confusion the characters themselves were going through. This is ultimately why the rating is 3.5, because what I loved about the book happened in the second half. While at the beginning I was constantly urging myself to just stick with it and not give up, at the end I just couldn\’t put it down and was thoroughly gripped.

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