Review: The Maze Runner by James Dasher
I just finished this book and thought I would get the review done as quickly as possible before I forget what I have to say about it.
I had high hopes for this book, since the hype surrounding it and the movie adaptation has been huge. Albeit I am a little late to the party, since the hype was at its highest a few months ago, I would say. But I finally got around to reading it and I have to say I was sorely disappointed.
Beware of spoilers below!!
I started reading and the story seemed like it would be suspenseful and full of exciting reveals and discoveries. It starts with a boy with no memory. He only remembers his name, Thomas. He is sent to a place full of boys just like him. The place is called the Glade and it sits inside a giant maze. The boys have been trying to escape this maze for two years, meanwhile building a functioning society. Thomas arrives and things start to change.
This sounds like an amazing story, but about halfway through the book, I realized I was bored. I was kind of surprised to discover this, because as I said, it sounds like a great story, but somehow it just didn't connect with me. I felt like the reveals were too long in coming, and then they only explained a minimum amount of the things going on. Maybe this was meant to mirror Thomas' frustration at not being told anything, but it didn't work for me, at least not in a good way. And the need to keep everything withheld from Thomas seemed weird to me. Why not just sit him down and explain everything ASAP, instead of letting it trickle out ever so slowly?
Maybe having the other side of the story, the viewpoint of the Creators, would have helped. The cover says that the book is "for fans of The Hunger Games", but "The Hunger Games" were far better than this book. I feel like it helped to know why the kids were in the arena, you knew the backstory in "The Hunger Games", and I was missing that in "The Maze Runner". Only knowing the boys' side of the story made for a boring read.
The writing was okay, but nothing brilliant, and a few things did irk me. Like the boys using shuck and klank as slang words. Why? Where did that come from?? Maybe if there had been more words like that, it would make sense, but these were the only two words seemingly invented for this book. It just seemed contrived, like the author was trying to create some sort of atmosphere, but failed.
As for the plot a few things bothered me. Like the whole telepathy thing. What? Thomas and Teresa are the only ones who can do it, and Thomas can not even do it at first, until randomly, suddenly he can! With no explanation, it just works after very few tries. And what was the point of it? Maybe it's explained in the later books, but it had absolutely no place in the plot development in this book. Secondly, the Gally storyline bothered me. He runs away, and stays away for ages. Then suddenly he comes back and knows things about what will happen. How? Then he is taken by the Grievers and turns up again later. Why is he not dead (presumably) like the rest of the kids taken by the Grivers? I feel like I was really missing the Creators' side of the story to explain a few things. Without that side of the story, it just comes across as boring and incoherent.
Perhaps reading the next books would help this lack of coherence, but I have no plans to read the other books in the near future. I'm just not that invested in the story, even though it ended on a cliffhanger. Maybe I'll go see the movies when they come out. Maybe.
I gave it 2 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.
I had high hopes for this book, since the hype surrounding it and the movie adaptation has been huge. Albeit I am a little late to the party, since the hype was at its highest a few months ago, I would say. But I finally got around to reading it and I have to say I was sorely disappointed.
Beware of spoilers below!!
I started reading and the story seemed like it would be suspenseful and full of exciting reveals and discoveries. It starts with a boy with no memory. He only remembers his name, Thomas. He is sent to a place full of boys just like him. The place is called the Glade and it sits inside a giant maze. The boys have been trying to escape this maze for two years, meanwhile building a functioning society. Thomas arrives and things start to change.
This sounds like an amazing story, but about halfway through the book, I realized I was bored. I was kind of surprised to discover this, because as I said, it sounds like a great story, but somehow it just didn't connect with me. I felt like the reveals were too long in coming, and then they only explained a minimum amount of the things going on. Maybe this was meant to mirror Thomas' frustration at not being told anything, but it didn't work for me, at least not in a good way. And the need to keep everything withheld from Thomas seemed weird to me. Why not just sit him down and explain everything ASAP, instead of letting it trickle out ever so slowly?
Maybe having the other side of the story, the viewpoint of the Creators, would have helped. The cover says that the book is "for fans of The Hunger Games", but "The Hunger Games" were far better than this book. I feel like it helped to know why the kids were in the arena, you knew the backstory in "The Hunger Games", and I was missing that in "The Maze Runner". Only knowing the boys' side of the story made for a boring read.
The writing was okay, but nothing brilliant, and a few things did irk me. Like the boys using shuck and klank as slang words. Why? Where did that come from?? Maybe if there had been more words like that, it would make sense, but these were the only two words seemingly invented for this book. It just seemed contrived, like the author was trying to create some sort of atmosphere, but failed.
As for the plot a few things bothered me. Like the whole telepathy thing. What? Thomas and Teresa are the only ones who can do it, and Thomas can not even do it at first, until randomly, suddenly he can! With no explanation, it just works after very few tries. And what was the point of it? Maybe it's explained in the later books, but it had absolutely no place in the plot development in this book. Secondly, the Gally storyline bothered me. He runs away, and stays away for ages. Then suddenly he comes back and knows things about what will happen. How? Then he is taken by the Grievers and turns up again later. Why is he not dead (presumably) like the rest of the kids taken by the Grivers? I feel like I was really missing the Creators' side of the story to explain a few things. Without that side of the story, it just comes across as boring and incoherent.
Perhaps reading the next books would help this lack of coherence, but I have no plans to read the other books in the near future. I'm just not that invested in the story, even though it ended on a cliffhanger. Maybe I'll go see the movies when they come out. Maybe.
I gave it 2 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.
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