First Post and The Maze Runner

Ok, so I've had this blog for awhile, but I haven't really done much with that. Now that NaNoWriMo has ended (successfully for me! 50,000 words in one month!), I want to start doing some blogging. Let's see if I can follow through with this. I'd also like to get back to writing newsletters, for any of you out there who read them (and I'll try and get Josh and Brad back doing them too if I can.)

Something I've wanted to do for awhile is write book reviews. I like to read. I own a lot of books (over 400 at my last count) and I liked to read book reviews. I also am very forgetful. I don't remember what happened in books or movies generally. I remember if I liked said book or movie, but details escape me so hopefully reviewing the books I've read will allow me to reread my own reviews and remember why I liked a book I liked.

Anyways, I just finished a book yesterday actually so I thought that it would be a good starting place for a book review.

The name of the book I'm going to review today is "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner.

Review:

When Thomas wakes up, he finds that he can't remember anything save his first name. All memories of his past have been wiped away.

Thomas isn't alone.

A group of about 50 other boys, perhaps more, have also found themselves in this same situation before. All of them now, including Thomas, the newest addition to the group, live in the Glade. The glade is a giant area, encompassed by a giant maze that, despite years of investigation by boys called "runners" seems to have no escape.

Every month without fail, a new boy is sent up into the glade to live.

Every week without fail, supplies are sent up to the glade.

Everything changes the day after Thomas arrives, when the first girl is sent up to the glade. Although the girl starts off her role in the story in a coma, she has a large role to play eventually.

When I read the inside cover of this novel, I immediately picked it up. I'll admit it- I'm a sucker for dystopian fiction. Probably a good 60% of my favorite books fall into this category.

The maze runner, while it shares many things in common with other young adult dystopian literature (children forced to do some type of survival on their own, a group of mysterious "Creators", similar to many other "evil" adult forces in other dystopian series) still has a lot of new and unique twists that kept me reading this book straight through without feeling like I'd seen this or read this before.

Most of the story revolves around Thomas, trying to remember who he is, or why another boy Gally claimed to have seen him during "the changing", fighting to become a runner because he somehow feels pulled to the dangerous job (strange blubbery/spiked/motorized creatures roam the maze at night and even occasionally during the day, killing any children they come in contact with), and finally trying to survive and even escape from this maze the children have been trying to solve for two years.

This book has a cast of believable characters. There's Gally- the "villain" of the children, who hasn't been the same since a Griever (one of those monster like creatures) stung him and he underwent "the changing", Chuck- a loveable if not a little bit annoying character who becomes friends with Thomas, Alby- the leader of the children who's attitude changes throughout the story, Newt and Minho- the two children whom Thomas becomes the closest to during the novel and finally the mysterious girl who has a connection to Thomas that neither of them can understand nor remember.

This novel certainly has plenty of excitement in it, ranging from when Thomas, Alby and Minho find themselves trapped in the maze at night, to the ending of the book when things become do or die for the children when they realize the "Creators" are about to put them to the ultimate test.

This book is the first in a planned trilogy by James Dashner, with the second entitled "The Scorch Trials" due out sometime next October.

Rating: 8.5/10 stars