The Maze Runner

Today I woke up at 5:45AM. My eyes were closed as I kept a steady breathing pace, my mind was stuttering in its awakening. Suddenly, one thought took prominence in my early morning grog, "MY PE QUIZ...!!!"

My grade in PE went from a 100 to an 88 because I forgot (read: fell asleep for 10 hours) to complete the previous online quiz. THAT'S 22 POINTS. I wasn't about to fail PE because I was a lazy bum who fell asleep instead of completing the quiz. It was due on Friday but my teacher doesn't check it until Saturday morning and it's certainly not his first priority. I shot up from my covers, dug out my laptop from the depths of my room, and for the next 30 min tried to successfully answer questions about resting heart rates and goals for lifetime fitness. I appreciate this whole environmentally conscious quizzing method but I must say I'm being revealed to the true power of my near constant urge to sleep.

In case you were curious, I got a 90%.

OK ON TO THE BOOK REVIEW :)))

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The Maze Runner | James Dashner
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Published: October 6th, 2009
Read: March, 2014

I have a friend at school who really likes YA books and for a while, she was fangirling to me about this random YA book being made into a movie. Apparently that process is being delayed and now that I've actually read the book, I share her feels.

When I was reading this book, there were a couple of times when I just cringed because Dasher's writing or maybe simply the characters made me feel uncomfortable. Sometimes Thomas can act really awkward and annoying but maybe he's meant to be like that, who knows? When Teresa shows up, the way that the Gladers talk about her is absolutely disgusting. Thomas's thoughts about her had me like,

I'm mildly shocked and moderately disgusted. WHY THOMAS, WHY?

But I mean, this is a good book! I enjoyed the racial diversity and the relationship Thomas was forming with Newt and the others. I enjoyed Thomas' genuine nature and Teresa's attachment to Thomas. I really liked Newt and Alby's relationship as well as Gally's with his crones. Thomas and Chuck were sweet, especially in the beginning.

There are a lot of Gladers (what the boys that live in the Glade -the central setting of the story- call themselves) in the book, approximately 50 or 60. I would say that there is one main character and that is Thomas. The others are certainly integral to the plot but they are like, middle-main characters.

Main Character
-Thomas (He's an OK guy. He has an rather annoying sense of entitlement. He's not so arrogant as to just take what he wants, but his attitude and even his language when asking for information or for other things is irritating. He's acting like he deserves to know everything even though the people around him, in similar positions, don't know jack. I understand he's special and everything, but jeez, decency much? But nah, I like him. It doesn't seem as if he has a filter except for when it comes to secrets. He does get embarrassed sometimes but when he talks, it's like he has next to no regard for how he may be perceived by the people he literally met a day prior. It's up to you to decide whether or not you like him, but if you're planning to read the rest of the books you might want to make an effort to like him, considering he's a central handle Dasher uses to reveal information and express general feelings towards subjects in the book. ALSO THOMAS IS THE DEFINITION OF DUMB HEROICS.)

List of Middle Main Characters
-Alby (Thomas describes him as having an anger issue and consistently shows contempt for him. This made me wary and a whole lot more sympathetic to any and all plights Alby may possess. He's the leader and I find that he's a good one. He can be hard when he needs to be and kind when he can. In the beginning, when he's dealing with Thomas being a newbie, the way he was acting reminded me of an older brother or of an anxious parent. In fact, Newt and Alby seem like the parents of all of the gladers. They maintain order but they still allow indulgences in pleasure and they seem genuinely invested in the lives and cares and worries of all the brats. Obviously people look up to Alby as evidenced by people thinking, "Alby will take care of it" when things start changing. The whole thing with Ben surprised me though. Everyone's attitudes towards that incident surprised me. Alby's relationship with Newt is one of the best in the series despite it only being contained in this book.)

-Newt (MY BONA FIDE BABY. He's the sweetest, kindest, most compassionate, and most level headed Glader. Thomas immediately takes a liking to Newt because he's the gentler counterpart to Alby. Newt is the one who holds the torch of reason, Newt is the one who keeps everyone together. He himself admits that he's not the best leader around but I think that's only because he's nice. He doesn't let his niceness get in the way of keeping order and making good decisions. He doesn't let his desire for order get in the way of deviation from the rules in the light of progress. He is a perfect, humble, beautiful human being and my absolute favorite.)

-Minho (My first impression of this lil' brat was that he was super rude, muscly, and Asian. I cringed at language like, "You da boss." But honestly, it's all good now. His interactions with Thomas are really great because he acts like a pretty regular teenager. He jokes around with him and is very light hearted. I think he just keeps his emotions buried so that he doesn't have to inflict the group with additional negative feelings. He's a born leader and he's really tough. Not only physically but mentally as well, he can make hard and sometimes brash decisions and he isn't afraid to boss people around. He can seem a little arrogant at times but in my opinion, that arrogance pales in the face of Thomas' subconscious ego. Minho is so blunt and aggressive and I like him. He's a favorite as well.)

-Teresa (I hate how frequent her appearance was described when she first appeared. The book gave us "thick Asian boy" for Minho and "younger than Alby, taller than Alby, blond guy" for Newt. Thomas was basically just "you're uglier than fried liver on a stick". Teresa was a full blown 12 y/o fanfiction description compared to the others. "Long legs, dazzling blue eyes, long silky black hair, radiant pale skin, perfect pink lips" etc. I find that it was too much, But anyway, her whole tough girl attitude in the beginning was odd. I have no doubts that she's hella strong but does she have to be portrayed in that way? She's literally the only girl that a lot of the Gladers will ever remember seeing, she's all the representation present. I don't mind this especially since it makes sense according to the book but she's treated as extra special. Not in relation to the plot but the way that Thomas is reacting towards her. Everyone else was like, "wow! girl! dangerous? oh no" but Thomas was all, "She's all I ever think about, omg i love her a lot" even if they've literally interacted for 3 days. I haven't even talked all that much about her, I'm sorry. I feel so pressured because let me say it again, ONLY GIRL. This is getting very long, going to stop here, maybe I'll make a separate post for her. I think I like her...?)

-Chuck (He's very cute and it kind of makes you sad how others treat him but I really appreciate all that he does for Thomas. He's a very real depiction of a 12 or 13 year old boy and I really appreciate that, especially in the face of Thomas' dedication towards him. He was Thomas' first friend and I like that he just acts normal about it. He doesn't place himself in a special position and he goes along with what is in front of him. He does what he can to help and brighten the mood and he's a caring kid who means well. )

-Gally (what a dick)

I wonder what idea this story is based on. I guess what I'm asking is, what's the point? It makes me wonder if teenage boys can really be that brutal. It makes me wonder what terrible pains have happened to the rest of the world so that this is necessary. I hope that all of the questions I have for this book series are answered once I've finished reading. I'm currently on Chapter 31 or 32 on the Scorch Trials and I'm ok with it.

Awkward review is over with, lol. I'm not going to recount the plot or anything, there's a lot of stuff to discover and question in the book and I think you might want to read it for yourself. I bet I've already said too much in those character descriptions, haha.

My favorite parts of the book were Newt, Minho, the Grievers, Ben's scene, the Cliff, Newt and Alby's interactions, Thomas and Minho's interactions, learning about how the Glade functioned, and the guy who was scratching his nose at the end.

It's not like, amazing but I do like it and I do recommend it! There's a movie coming out in Sept., you can read this to prep for it. :)

//dylan o'brien is the bae tbh