The Maze Runner Trilogy

by James Dashner

The Maze Runner
I read THE MAZE RUNNER shortly after it came out. It reminded me a lot of THE HUNGER GAMES, but gives me more hope in the future. The story follows the Gladers: a bunch of teenage boys, and a single girl, who live in a giant maze. None of them have their memories and there is no escaping the maze. No one knows exactly how long this has been going on but some of the boys have been there for two years. Every day they send out runners to map the maze, and every night they are locked in the glade where all the buildings are. Monsters roam the maze stinging those who come too close. Once they are stung they aren't ever the same again. Now all Thomas has to do is figure out how to get everyone out of the maze, and learn what part he has in all of it.

The main character is a boy named Thomas. He has a connection with the girl, Teresa, and makes a few other friends while he is there. I really liked Thomas. He is a decent character who treats everyone well. I liked how he was realistic. He doubts. He has fears. He wants to believe in others. He is just a good guy. All of the characters are flushed out, unique, and believable. You have Teresa Minho, Newt, Chuck, and Gally. You really cheer them on and want them to succeed and when things go horribly wrong, you feel betrayed by them.

THE MAZE RUNNER is intense at times but it never crossed the line for me. I don't have any qualms recommending this book to young adults and adults alike. I loved the visual image of the maze and the depth of the story, how everything fits together so smoothly.

The Scorch Trials
THE SORCH TRIALS is the second installment in THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy. The Gladers have escaped from the maze and are learning about Earth. They still don't have their memories back, though Thomas keeps having flashes that lead him to believe he and Teresa have a lot more to do with this than he wants to admit.

The Gladers reel from what WICKED, the organization who created the maze, is telling them. Earth has been damaged by sun flares and not only that but a strange disease called the Flare, is wrecking havoc on the human population. Flare destroys the mind, turning people feral, zombie-esque. Thomas and the other Gladers are told that if they can complete the Scorch Trials they will get the cure. If they thought the maze was bad, they had no idea what to expect from this new test.

This story puts a lot of strain on Thomas and through the whole thing I still liked him. At times it felt like there were a lot of similarities between this book and THE MAZE RUNNER, but I really liked the character development. I think that Dashner does an excellent job of putting his characters in situations where you feel so betrayed. This book really made me question what I thought I knew. Though there are some instances that took me by complete surprise I thought they were done amazingly well because none of the characters acted out of character.

When this book ended I was a little frustrated that I had to wait a whole year for the conclusion. It grabbed my attention and I would find myself thinking about it on occasion and just wondering what could be going on, because "WICKED is good."

The Death Cure
I pretty much counted down the days until THE DEATH CURE came out. And I was not disappointed. I was actually thrilled with how the story progressed and then ended. I feel at times that authors don't want to give their readers hope. Instead they want to see how much punishment they can give their characters. There have been plenty of books lately where it ended and I just wondered what the point was because it wasn't like anything had actually changed. THE DEATH CURE made me fear for the characters, I had no idea who was going to survive, and there are plenty of people who die, but I was completely satisfied with the end.

The Gladers are still at the mercy of WICKED, only this time they are promised that it is over. They have a chip implemented in their heads that map their brainwaves and gives WICKED control over their actions, which explains some of the events in previous books. The Gladers are given a choice, have the chip removed and receive all of their memories back, or keep the chip, have the controlling bit disabled remotely, and not receive any of their memories. This divides the Gladers into two groups which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the book. I liked how we see the change in Thomas. He becomes a harder person but it isn't unrealistic. This book was the most violent of the three but it wasn't explicit.

I was worried that this was going to be similar to the others but it wasn't. This book was refreshing and unique. I had a very difficult time putting it down and there were times that I teared up at what happened. I will be rereading this series in the coming years and I will continue to recommend it to people.