‘The Maze Runner’ is probably one of the most successful series written by James Dashner on 2009 (if not the best). Besides this New York Times Bestselling Serie, James Dashner has published
“The Jimmy Fincher Saga”, “The 13th Reality Series”, “Infinity Ring Series” and “The Mortality Doctrine (‘The Eye of Minds’ and ‘The Rule of Thoughts’)”.

Although this review only focuses on “The Maze Runner”, James Dashner has won many different awards for his many books, which tells us that he has lots of talent.
New York State Charlotte Award
Kentucky Bluegrass Award
Oregon Reader’s Choice Award
New Hampshire Isinglass Teen Read Award
Missouri Truman Reader's Award
Illinois Abraham Lincoln Award
Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award
Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award
Georgia Peach Book Award
New Jersey Garden State Book Award

“The Maze Runner” is a really entertaining 374-page long science fiction book that will keep the readers wondering what happens next and will keep anyone of young age, or mind, excited. It is also full of plot twists that will make reading something fun, even for those who aren’t really friends with the books.

“He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air.” This is how the book starts, already captivating the audience with a very mysterious first sentence. “The lightless elevator swayed back and forth as it ascended, turning the boy’s stomach sour with nausea; a smell like burnt oil invaded his senses, making him feel worse. He wanted to cry, but no tears came; he could only sit there, alone, waiting. My name is Thomas, he thought. That… that was the only thing he could remember about his life.”
Our main character, Thomas, wakes up in a metallic elevator that takes him into something called ‘The Glade”. The Glade is a small-scale society formed by boys up to eighteen years old, who are organized and each one of them has an specific job to do for the common being and survival of everyone in there. As we could expect, they have created their own expressions, which will gain a meaning during the book such as “shuck”, or “klunk”. The glade is also located in the middle of a maze with very dangerous creatures in it, called Grievers, but they are safe as long as they get into the Glade before the night comes and the Grievers get out to the Maze and close to the Glade, that has huge stone walls that close to protect the Gladers (that’s how the kids in the Glade identify themselves. Some of the Gladers Thomas meets are Alby, Newt, Gally, Frypan, Minho, and Chuck.
Since the first generation of Gladers (two years before Thomas’ arrival), they have been looking for a way to get outside the maze, and they have also been receiving a new “greenie” (kid) every month, on the same day, at the same hour, and weekly supplies as well. But: what happens when Thomas arrives? He feels he has been there before and, the day after his arrival, the metallic elevator brings something. That’s impossible, it is not supplies day and the last “greenie” came a day ago. What is inside the box it’s not supplies, it’s not a new boy; well, actually, it’s a girl. When they get her out of the box, she is unconscious. Alby and Newt think there must be something in common between Thomas and the girl, but when they were asking Thomas, she got up and said “Everything is going to change”, and then fainted again. In her hand, a mysterious paper note that suddenly shook the Glader’s world. What happens in the Glade, why Thomas feels he has been there, how things change, how everything as known before falls apart, is something worth to read.

I strongly recommend this book to you all. As I said before, it’s easy and light reading, even for me having English as my second language. It is also fun, although it might be a little bit slow during the first chapter or two. Also, the characters are all very human, in the sense everyone could easily identify with one of them. And for the girls, Teresa is a symbol of strength and bravery. This characteristics of the story just let the reader enjoy even more a lecture where they will be able to literally feel like they are getting into the story and are now in the Glade, watching everything from the eyes of one of the characters.

Hopefully, this will get people to read the book and enjoy it as I enjoyed it, even though my English skills might not be good, I assure this is a saga lots of people will enjoy. And again, if you are not a book lover, this is the perfect choice for you. Easy to read and enjoyable, so you can pride yourself in having read something besides a McDonald’s menu. There is also a movie coming out very soon, which I recommend as well and if we are lucky, it will be as good as the written story.