Dashner, James. The Maze Runner. New York: Random House, 2009. 374 Pages

The best book I’ve read since the spring of 2009. You’ll be on the edge of whatever you are sitting on, pacing faster and faster until that ONE LITTLE MOMENT releases all of the energy you’re building up, and you just stop. The Maze Runner, by James Dashner is the greatest book of our era, and I say nothing can challenge it.

The Maze Runner is about a boy named Thomas who goes into a world where every thirty days, a new person comes in through an elevator shaft with no memory and is forced to inhabit the world they come to, at the same time trying to find the escape. Various jobs happen in the Glade, including being a maze runner. Unusual things start to happen in the maze as Thomas enters, including the thirty day schedule being one day for one person, and this happens to be the first girl in the Glade. Some of the main characters in the book are Thomas, Chuck, Newt, and Alby.

There were many different things I liked about the author’s writing style. One of the things I liked about it was that he always had exploding moments, especially for Thomas. From all of the painful events and the leisure times with his friends, to the many surprises he discovered. When the reader feels like the character, as I did, I say that the author has REALLY GOOD WRITING! I also LOVED how the author adds/makes the twists in the book that make the reader jump on their feet and pace about, mostly about the discoveries I talked about earlier, like one where there is an odd hole in one wall in the middle of the Maze. It makes many questions for the reader; something for me to grasp on to! Overall, the way I felt about the book is unexplainable, so I’ll do my best: Imagine being on one of those rides that shoot you up in the air fast, being launched into the air from it, landing safely after all, and you must continually walk after all that. It’s like magic, but better! If I had to recommend the book to someone, it’d be my brother, because he likes surprises and he doesn’t read all that much, and this book would be a great start for him!