Review: The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1)

Author: James Dashner

Started reading: May 13th 2020

Finished the book: May 27th 2020

Pages: 384 / 12:42:09 hours

Genres: YA, Dystopian

Published: October 6th 2009

Source: Audiobook

Goodreads score: 4.02

My score:

Synopsis

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human. When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.
Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Everything is going to change. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
Remember. Survive. Run.

My thoughts

A couple of years ago, I watched this movie. I don't remember much about it, so it wasn't that great, but I saw this audiobook for free at the library and decided to try it. I knew pretty fast that I wouldn't rate this book very high, and that was not because of the story, but because of other aspects that I didn't like.

Pros

• Mystery: The favorite aspect in this book was the mystery. I love how you end up on the Glade together with Thomas and don't know a thing, just like him. He learns about life there, and you learn with him. There are so many questions that add to the mystery. That was very well done. I was kinda sad by the fact that I felt like I didn't get enough answers at the end.
• Tension: Towards the ending, the amount of tension is high. You can feel that people will die, you just don't know who it will be. It feels like there is real danger. I especially loved the scary nights the boys (and girl) try to survive.

Cons

• Unkind: I felt so many negative vibes coming from this book. Not one person was nice to Thomas, even towards the ending, the boys were being so unkind towards each other. It felt really weird that they all live together and treat each other the way they do. They all have no amount of patience with each other and get mad for the smallest things. This took away a big amount of pleasure listening to this book.
• Use of language: There is so much repetition in this book in the use of language. I didn't like the choice of words and the way things were described either. I also didn't get the weird words they use, like, what is the reason for that? Just use normal words... Usually I love conversations in a book, because I can dive into the characters, but in this book I hated the conversations. It all just felt like it didn't flow for me.
• Personality: I felt that the boys had little personality. They all talked the same way, even Thomas after a while. I don't know anything about these characters, apart from a little bit of info how they look. They all seem to not make connections with each other either. The only person I liked that stood out was Chuck and that was because he was being nice, lol.

Overall

A great story with a lot of mystery and a lot of potential to be a good book. For me it lacked kindness, real emotions and personality. This book wasn't it for me and I won't be continuing this series. Me getting away from this book:

Other opinions on this book

"Wonderful action writing, fast-paced, but smart and well observed."

- Newsday

"Heart pounding to the very last moment."

- Kirkus Reviews

Thanks for reading!

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