Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Maze Runner #1
Publication Date:
Time/Pages:  10hrs 50mins/400
Book Source: Own Audio
Narrator: Mark Deakins

Synopsis: When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. 

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

My Thoughts:
This was one weird, twisty ride, the original premise totally hooked me and I remained enthralled for the entire book ... actually I didn't want to put it down. Excellently narrated by Mark Deakin I might add, his narration captured the personality of each of the boys and added depth to the sense of fear and unknown. 

The Maze Runner is one of those stories best read with little foreshadowing. The reader knows as little as the characters which keeps you second guessing, slightly off balance, and vaguely frustrated at the lack of knowledge. Mind you it also notches up the pace and keeps you turning the pages, eager for each new discovery.

The whole maze concept is genius, the Glade community focused on running, mapping and solving the maze and the maze beasties, Grievers, suitably creepy and deadly. The Gladers; Alby, Minho, Newt, Chuck, Thomas and even crazy Gally were easy to like and cheer for. 

The Gladers use some mindless unique terminology - Glade slang; typical 'boy speak' and sometime swear word substitution but it's pretty much self-explanatory ... klunk, shuckface, buggin, shank, greenie. It got a bit old for me; maybe overuse was the problem, or it was accentuated by audio or it may have been as simple as ... hey I'm not a teenage male. 

Whilst The Maze Runner is unlike anything I've read before it's reminiscent of a bizarre Lost/Hunger Games/Lord of the Flies mash up, it does your head in trying to figure it all out and I loved it. Bring on the The Scorch Trials!!

Check out the awesome book trailer ... believe me you'll be dying to read the book after watching it.






8 comments:

  1. Sounds really interesting!!!! I will have to look into this one!!!

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  2. The slang sounds odd, but wow, the trailer was amazing!
    The Maze Runner has been on my tbr for a while, and now I'm really excited to get to it.

    Thanks for the great review!
    :)

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  3. Replies
    1. I think you'd like it B, it's a bit different ;)

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  4. Yes the slang was a little annoying but "reading" the book perhaps it wasn't as annoying as "hearing" it. But I imagine a young teenage boy would love the swearing with out actually swearing :)

    For the target audience I think this book is brilliant. But I loved it (as you know lol).

    It is not used as much in the second book. But I wont say any more. I am half way through and enjoying it.

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    1. I can't wait to start on The Scorch Trials, glad to hear you're enjoying it. I'd be so disappointed if you weren't lol. I really did enjoy the audio of The Maze Runner but haven't been able to track down the 2nd book on audio so I think I'll be reading it, will be interested to see the difference :)

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  5. I'm looking forward to reading this one.

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