The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

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I want to write all this down while I still have it fresh in my mind, from the anger at reading some lousy Amazon reviews of the book to my feelings on having finished it. 

My first thought on The Maze Runner is simply "Wow." The book wasn't what I expected, so let's get that out of the way. If you're hoping to find a young adult dystopian novel in the vein of The Hunger Games, you're probably going to be in for a rude shock. 

Thankfully the shock I felt only lasted a few pages before they turned into that feeling of total "AWESOME!" that you get when you open a really powerful book you know you're going to enjoy.

A friend of mine instructed me that this book was "different." She's particularly good at avoiding spoilers when discussing books, and so I have had a hard time determining whether or not she actually enjoyed the book. On the other hand, it's true that sometimes it's difficult to determine the taste of another reader and therefore to assess whether or not they are going to like a book.

I liked this one. 

Actually, I liked this one a lot.

It's a bit awkward trying to tell you the story of The Maze Runner because the summary doesn't give readers a lot of information and I'm not comfortable telling you something the summary doesn't. 

Let me put it to you this (spoiler free) way. Thomas wakes up in a box, being taken to a place called The Glade. He's surrounded by other boys and he has no memories of the time before the box. The Glade is enclosed by giant walls, each with a door opening in them. Every night, the doors close, and every day, boys called Runners must try to solve the maze that lies outside the doors.

There's more to it than that, and certainly more I could tell you without spoiling the book, but I don't need to say more.

To say that The Maze Runner is a good follow-up book to The Hunger Games may be slightly confusing, but I will tell you this: It's nothing like The Hunger Games except inasmuch as it is a post-apocalyptic story. If you're like me and you don't like to read highly similar books back to back, this is probably a great follow-up for you.

I do have to tell you some technical things about this book because I'd be dishonest if I only gave you a summary and information on whether or not I enjoyed it. 

For the record, I only tend to rate the story unless the editing is so terrible that it warrants a separate mention. As far as I'm concerned, this book was amazing. I loved the story and was drawn through it from start to finish and have already started on The Scorch Trials (which I am also loving). 

Firstly, and the most irritating for me, is Dashner's use of passive voice and filter verbs. "A click was heard." (I'm paraphrasing from The Scorch Trials, but I'm close.) This is not only passive voice but it's also filtering us from the character! What's wrong with "The object clicked." I found this jarring coming from a writer who does an otherwise spectacular job of keeping the story being written from a single perspective -- and never straying from it. 

Less passive voice, Mr. Daschner (and editors). Much, much less passive voice!

Dashner also uses cliches with too much frequency, and I found the "new slang" of the books jarring rather than charming. Interestingly enough, I've picked it up and am using it in my daily conversations (but it's so crude I wish I wasn't).

The characters could have done with more development. That is to say all of the characters could have done with more development (including the main characters). But I found it easier to get over this than I did the other problems, because less development makes it easier for me to relate to the main character.

All in all, I found this book incredibly entertaining and devoured it in less than two days. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys teen thrillers. Boys in particular should like this book.