The Maze Runner

Read the full review at: http://polkadotbookblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-maze-runner.htmlWhen I started this book, I was extremely excited because I had heard good things about it and was told that if I was a fan of the hunger games then this book would be right up my street. I was imagining it to be an amazing dystopian book that would have me gripped from page one. But after the first 100 pages I realised that I had too high expectations and unfortunately it was not looking up to it. Which is why this book has me so conflicted on what to rate it because at some points I love it and at others I don't.Yet there are still many things that I did like about this book. I liked the mystery and the concept that surrounds the series. But then I didn't like how drawn out it was in the first part. I felt that there wasn't any important action happening until the middle-end of the book, so I was constantly urging myself to keep at it.The second half of the book is when I started to really enjoy it. I started to get the gripped feeling, where you cannot put the book down because you just had to know what happens. The pace became fast moving and the mystery and action started to get bigger and better, which was not seen in the first part. I just loved the twist at the end. I did not expect it and it is all this that making me what to continue on with the series.Another thing I did like was some of the characters, not all of them but some. Some characters I absolutely adored (Chuck and Newt) but others I was just so uninterested in. I just felt that I had no clue as to what was happening so I couldn't connect with the characters like I wanted to. Yet I loved the subtle loyalty and friendship Newt offered and the vulnerability of Chuck, that just made me what to kiss them and cheer at the little things they did.Overall, as a book there were so many things that had me going back and forth on whether I loved it or hated it. I loved the plot, the pacing of the second half of the book and some of the characters. But then I hated the pacing at the beginning of the book and was completely confused as to what was going on due to the writing style and confusion the characters themselves were going through. This is ultimately why the rating is 3.5, because what I loved about the book happened in the second half. While at the beginning I was constantly urging myself to just stick with it and not give up, at the end I just couldn't put it down and was thoroughly gripped.

When the noise from the lift wakes Thomas, all he can remember is his first name. He is not the only one. When the lift opens, he finds himself in the Glade. It is a walled compound that holds dozens of boys and there only memory is from the moment they appear in the lift. They have no idea how they arrived, what is on the outside and what awaits them if they ever get out. It is not going to be easy, they are surrounded by a maze, that shifts its walls every night and where the Grievers wait to tear them to shreds.They don’t know much, but still work as a unit to survive and try and find a safe way out. Thomas becomes an instant threat, he is different. There is something that makes the other boys suspicious and nothing he can do can change their minds, especially when things stop working and the end of their existence looms just over the horizon.I was looking forward to this book. Yes it is another young adult read and yes, it is about a group of children, but I surprised myself when I quickly thought I couldn’t read anymore about kids trying to survive against the odds. Everything had such a familiar feel to it that I just wanted to finish it. There was nothing wrong with the writing style, it flowed well, read at a nice pace but I didn’t feel it, didn’t really care what happened to Thomas or his friends. You knew where it was going, only not how many would die trying to escape.

Thomas wakes up in a dark lift moving slowly upwards, not knowing anything about himself except for his name. When the doors open, he's surrounded by boys of different ages and they welcome him to the Glade. The Glade is like a giant farmland surrounded by towering walls - which is in the centre of a huge, dangerous and terrifying maze. The maze isn't a simple maze though, during the night, creatures roam the halls looking to kill. Every night, the walls around the Glade close, and the walls in the maze shift, making different paths each day. From the first moment he hears what a 'runner' does, Thomas immediately wants to be one. Runners run around the maze each day, mapping out the area and trying to find a solution to the giant puzzle.Usually I find male characters who narrate books annoying and I can never get into them, but I loved Thomas' character. He had a good sense of humour and was very selfless and put others before himself - he was definitely was one of my favourite characters. My second favourite character was Minho, the 'Keeper' of the runners. Even though he was a bit of a defeatist at times, I thought his character was really refreshing and funny. He was one of the boys that took Thomas by his word and believed the things he said.As for the storyline in general, I found it amazing - it's so original! I've never read anything like this before. One thing that did annoy me at the first of the book, is the 'lingo' that the boys use throughout the book. Words like 'Shank' and 'Klunk', they drove me insane for the first 150 pages, but after that, I grew used to it and it just became second nature for the boys to be using the words constantly.I loved this book - it's as simple as that. The reason why I only gave it 4/5 stars is because it took me well over 70 pages to actually get into it - but when I did, I couldn't put it down! Something I found funny about the way I was reading this book, was that whenever there was dialogue, I found myself reading the speech in a Scottish accent. Weird, right?James Dashner's writing is amazing and pretty much flawless. He created such strong and interesting characters and such an amazing and interesting world. I can't wait to get my hands on the second book in this trilogy, The Scorch Trials - I have a feeling it will be just as amazing as the first book. :)

Absolutely brilliant opening novel to a superb gripping, spine tingling series.The Maze Runner: is book 1 out of three, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure are the follow up novels.Details: 371 pages, 62 chapters. Written in third person narrative, easy to read (both the language and writing style.)Don't worry James Dashner I didn't intend on sleeping at night anyway ;)Review: Right lets get too it! As you can probably guess I utterly adore this first novel. The book is a real page turner with multiple cliffhangers, surprises and mental challenges that the reader can join along with Thomas (main character.) Moreover, I believe the book was very evenly paced throughout with every paragraph having an actual purpose. (What I mean is that sometimes authors can over - describe the physical appearance of something or a place; and that for anyone, especially me, is partically annoying. But Dashner manages to avoid this! YAY!)Beautiful story, well plotted. However (here comes the bad / negative point) I felt that maybe some things were a little too obvious, like I saw the 'twist' coming a mile off. Like the promises Tom makes, and the sign on the wall in the Maze were easily solved in my head before the character in the book came to the same realisation. Although in saming that, this might just be because I've read far too many books in my lifetime for saying that I'm barely 16 - all of the the same genre of futuristic / fantasy.Overall, I stand by the 5/5 stars - because the book itself is truly compelling, it kept me up until all hours of the night and early morning. Highly recommend to anyone that loves reading books that are out of the ordinary, futuristic, with complicated plot twists. Praise to James Dasher and looking forward to the approval of a movie...

After finishing the Harry Potter books a second time around, The Hunger Games and the Gone books by Michael Grant, this book had a lot to live up to, and I would say it coped pretty well.It's definitely in the same vein as The Hunger Games but from a males perspective and there isn't really a big romance part to the book which is a breath of fresh air (although I'm sure in the other books it will occur). My favourite character is Newt, he seems rather witty and made me smile with his dialogue..It's interesting enough to read if you like dystopia scenery. However I will say it gets a bit tedious because you don't necessarily find out who the is enemy right up until the end and this results in the first half of the book being pretty slow. I'm also not really a fan of the Grievers since it seems impossible to imagine what they look like, I decided to just pretend they were Darleks from Dr Who, but I think it would have been scarier if they were to look half human half ox. Another thing that irritated me was that it doesn't mention whether they're British, American or other? As I read the conversations it seemed to me as if they were British but I was unsure.Overall, I recommend giving it a shot, seeing as the film will be released this September perhaps you should wait until august to read the book and then have visual aid with the film. The casting looks to be pretty perfect for the characters (especially Teresa)