The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1) in YA and Beyond

Oct 22, 2009 Brigid ✩ rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopia, young-adult, sci-fi

Ahhh this is a tricky one, because there were some things I really liked about it and some things I really hated. I'm not sure where to begin. Well, let's begin with the plot. The plot was good, for the most part. I thought it was very creative – and it was mysterious too, the kind of plot that keeps you reading and wondering what explanation there is. That said, I have to say I wasn't thrilled with the ending. It was one of those books where I'm reading it and saying to myself, "Oh, my freaking Ahhh this is a tricky one, because there were some things I really liked about it and some things I really hated. I'm not sure where to begin. Well, let's begin with the plot. The plot was good, for the most part. I thought it was very creative – and it was mysterious too, the kind of plot that keeps you reading and wondering what explanation there is. That said, I have to say I wasn't thrilled with the ending. It was one of those books where I'm reading it and saying to myself, "Oh, my freaking God. This plot is so cool … Now, it's either going to turn out to be really brilliant or it's going to fall flat on its face." And, it was more the latter than the former. I felt like in the ending, there was way too much crap crammed into it for it to seem logical. Like … Solar flares? Zombie apocalypse? Ehhh?

Secondly, the writing. I've been struggling a lot with the whole "show, don't tell" thing in my own writing. And I wasn't really sure what it meant. Thanks to this book, I now understand. James Dashner doesn't really show his characters' emotions. He just writes like "He was afraid", "He was sad" … It gets very repetitive, and it took away from the character development, in my opinion. He also uses far too many semicolons, like one in every single paragraph, and at totally random times. So, that ticked me off a little.

Thirdly, the characters. Urgh. I hated Thomas. Hated, hated, hated. GUUHHH!!!! He was one of those oh-so-perfect, self-sacrificing characters, always throwing himself into danger to help everyone else. Come on, that's not heroic, dude, that's just stupid. Human beings are selfish and cowardly, sometimes. Like, "Uh, hell no, I am not going to go attack that scary monster. How about you do it?" I just didn't think it was very realistic. He seemed very two-dimensional to me, and I didn't feel like I sympathized with him. None of the characters had really distinct personalities, and I kept getting them mixed up. The only character that I liked was Chuck. And, well, we all know what happened to him. Geeeez.

And then there was the whole thing where they had been there for two freaking years and they never got the connection between WICKED and World In Chaos: Killzone Experiment Department?! Come on, really?!

Anyway, I know I sound like I hated this book, but I didn't. Sure, there were a bunch of flaws in it, but it was still very enjoyable. I liked it, and I'm looking forward to the sequel. It had a bit of a cliffhanger ending, and I'm curious. Over all, the plot was cool, creative, original – kind of like some supernatural version of Lord of the Flies. You know, like Lost. Only not as cool. And with younger people. But yeah, it was pretty good. :) ...more

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Dec 19, 2009 Sam rated it it was ok

I picked up The Maze Runner for one reason: I love dystopian fiction. My mom reserved it from the library for me and I was really excited to get it. I hoped that it would live up to my expectations.

It didn’t.

The beginning of the book was really, really boring. I didn’t think that some kid waking up in an elevator and coming into this new world of The Maze could be boring, but I found myself putting the book down and going to do something else to entertain myself. I just wasn’t captivated.

The ma ...more

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Feb 15, 2009 Seth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-books

Oh. My. Gosh. This book was so good. I loved it so much. It kept me reading the whole way through with amazing plot twists. The ending was stupid (as in I wish I had the next book NOW). This is definitely one of my new favorite books.

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Jan 30, 2012 Jen Halligan rated it it was ok

Shelves: book-club, audiobook

I feel like I missed something with this book. I know people who love it, but I didn't get it. ...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Luella rated it it was amazing

I liked this book because of the interest to want to know what would happen to the characters. The author made you care about what happened. I love science fiction although I would say I liked watching sci fi movies instead. What intrigued me was the mystery surrounding the place that the main character finds himself. We want to know more about the place he is at so we keep reading to try to unravel the mystery. We learn a lot of things along the way, why they are there and how they are going to ...more

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