Photo taken from Wikipedia

Like I mentioned in my Birthday Post, I just finished the Young Adult Dystopian Fiction book called The Maze Runner by James Dashner, written in 2009.  This book was different from a lot of the books I’ve read from the same genre.  Usually, they seem written from a girl’s persective, so having a boy be the main character was quite refreshing.  It reminded me of Lord of the Flies, all of the characters were boys in their teens, except one girl who comes in later, especially in the beginning.

Each month for two years, a new boy arrives in the Glade, a living area complete with a farm surrounded by tall walls.  When they arrive, they have no memories other than their name.  Each wall of the Glade has a tall door that opens every morning and leads into a maze, one that doesn’t seem to have a solution and is full of dangers.  When Thomas arrives, he doesn’t remember anything, and yet everything seems familiar to him.  When a girl arrives unconscious the next day, everything starts to change.  Thomas knows that he and the girl are connected and somehow will be the answer to everything.

The first half of the book was dedicated to describing how these boys have survived for two years.  They depend a lot on the “Creators,” the people who obviously sent them there, who also provide weekly supplies including medicine that they may need.  The second half of the book, the Creators stop supporting them all of the sudden, with no explanation, and the boys have to learn to adapt and perhaps finally solve the puzzle of the maze.

The final ending provided a lot of surprises, some heart-breaking, some predictable.  It is a pretty easy read, the story flows well.  It’s not one of my top favorite books of this genre, but I would recommend it especially to people who might have enjoyed Lord of the Flies in high school.