When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas can remember is his first name. But he’s not alone. He’s surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade, an encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible maze.
Like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they came to be there, or what’s happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything to find out – even the Grievers, half-machine, half-animal horrors that hunt the Maze’s walled corridors.
Thomas has no memories beyond the lift that delivers him to a maze filled with boys who’ve made camp at its centre. Called the Glade the camp offers the only refuge from the Grievers, half-machine/half-animal creatures that hunt the boys in the maze as they search for the way out. Thomas is shown around this new world by the motor-mouthed Chuck who describes the different jobs available to Greenbeans (boys new to the maze) - including Slopper, Builder, Map-maker, Med-jacks etc. Thomas somehow knows that he’s meant to be a Runner and find a way out of the Maze but persuading the others is difficult until one day the lift delivers a girl to the Glade ...
James Dashner’s novel is a dystopian nightmare made more disturbing by the fact that the reader shares Thomas’s confusion – slowly uncovering what’s been happening to the boys since their arrival in the maze. The confusion is heightened by Thomas’s lack of any memories beyond his name and his growing certainty that he has a role in helping them to escape. However the confusion continues for too long and the boys’ continual refuse to answer Thomas’s questions soon becomes grating.
Dashner does well in creating a growing sense of tension and mistrust as one of the boys believes they recognise Thomas from an earlier attack on one of their own, with the suspicion growing when the unconscious Teresa arrives with a strange message written on her arm. Dashner’s Grievers are also a terrific creation – really creepy and utterly merciless as they either kill the helpless boys or subject them to their stingers, injecting them with a venom that drives boys close to madness but also gives them a glimpse of their previous lives.
Ultimately though, the book fell apart for me in the final quarter of the book as Dashner reveals what’s really going on with rushed explanations and large chunks of exposition. Worse, the way in which the book sets up the sequel seems to suggest a revisiting of some of the themes in this book. This is a shame because the tension and mystery created up until this point made for an interesting and exciting read and while I will read the next book, I’m hoping it takes the best of this book rather than the worst.
The Verdict:
Although the early creepy, nightmarish vision to this dystopian YA novel fell apart for me in the final quarter and the book also prolonged the mystery a little too long, there was a lot here that I liked – particularly the horrendous Grievers. I’ll be reading the next book in this trilogy, but hope it doesn’t fall into the same traps.
Cross-posted to
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