The Maze Runner - James Dashner

Blurb

When the lift cranks open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he's not alone - an army of boys welcome him to the Glade, an encampment at the centre of a terrible maze. The Gladers have no idea why they're there, or what's happened to the world outside. And following the arrival of a girl with a message, they must find a way out - or die.

My Review

I'm going to have to start off by apologizing because I just did not enjoy this book as much as I expected! It's stupid that I feel like I have to apologize but I do because the world Dashner's created is real and believable as are the characters. There's action and emotion and struggle.

So why didn't you like it? I hear you ask.

The quick answer is that it was too long. My main problem during The Maze Runner was how incredibly slow the whole thing was. I'm not saying there wasn't conflict and exciting parts because there were, and they were great, but the beginning dragged on for an eternity! I slogged through the first hundred pages wondering if anything at all was going to happen. I had to force myself to read every day or else I knew it'd be Christmas and I'd still be reading it. It was only when I got 250 pages in that I felt like I was enjoying myself. And that was most of the book read!

To be quite frank, the only reason I carried on until the end was because I felt like I needed to. I know how many people love this book and I wanted to love it too, I really, truly did but it was just not meant to be. That and the first chapter was incredible. I was fascinated, thrown into the Glade with Thomas, dying for answers. Answers that came too late to peak my interest.

The ending did get extremely intense and fast but, if you ask me, it was too little too late by that point. And to top it all off, the tying up loose ends and signing off part at the end was - to fit in with the rest of the book - far too long also. 

I felt there was a golden 75 pages between 250 and 325 but that was it.

Although the characters felt real, for some reason I couldn't connect with any of them. I have no idea why this is and I don't blame Dashner because I think it was just me. I was just totally the wrong reader for this book, but I have no idea why.

I'll finish off with some offensive typos I found in my edition. At one point this happened ',.' In what universe is that okay to leave? And I also found a missing full stop. The capital letter of the next sentence was there but alas, the full stop had gone walk-abouts. Again, this isn't Dashner's fault, just an incompetent proofreader.

Evaluation

Overall 6/10

Would I recommend it? No. I did not enjoy it nearly enough.

Would I look up the author? No. For the same reason.

I'm saddened that, for me, The Maze Runner didn't live up to its hype.

Molly Looby

Author / Ghostwriter / Editor / Blogger / Reviewer / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly.looby@hotmail.com