The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner is a book by James Dashner. This book is about a boy named Thomas who, in the beginning of the book, wakes up and remembers… well he doesn’t remember anything. His mind was erased by a group of people called the Creators. The Creators are the people who created the Maze. The Maze is an extremely large area made by the Creators for certain reasons I cannot discuss but the reason why they made it is in the book.

When Thomas wakes up, he is in a room he can’t remember. He is so scared that he goes into a corner and starts screaming for help. Then, the room moves upward like an elevator and he hears voices above him as the ceiling opens and someone takes him out. The unofficial leader of the Gladers, Alby welcomes him to the Glade, a large square enclosed by very large walls. Being the “Greenie” as people called him, means that he is the newest person to enter the Glade. Alby tells Newt, Thomas’s future friend, to give him a place to sleep in the Glade, the only safe place in the whole Maze. Thomas sees a beetle blade in a tree and someone tells him about it. Beetle Blades can only hurt you if you touch it. After the tour, Newt tells Thomas that Chuck is going to make his sleeping arrangements. Later, Thomas feels like he has been in the Maze before. He also realizes he wants to be a Runner. A Runner is the only job that allows people inside the Maze. Nighttime in the Maze is terrible and practically impossible to survive because at night a man eating machine like ball of goop that comes out at night. This freak of nature that uses lights to see is called a Griever. They have random limbs on their body such as arms with claws or harpoons on them used for killing stupid Gladers that go in at night. At night the four walls that surround the Glade close to protect them from the Grievers. The next morning when Thomas wakes up he is introduced to Newt, who wakes up Thomas and shows him a griever through a window. Then, Alby gave him a tour of the Glade. The Glade is divided into four sections; Gardens (food), Blood House (animal raising/slaughtering), Homestead (sleep), and Deadheads (Graveyard). Then Alby tells Thomas about the jobs he will try out for. They are Slopper, Brick-Nick, Bagger, Trackhoe, and Runner. The alarm went off which means that another person was going up the elevator. More people only come once a month so there was widespread panic. A person that does not like Thomas named Gally was staring at him angrily. When the elevator opened a girl named Teresa came out unconscious with a note in her hand that said, “This is the last one, EVER”. Thomas thought he recognized her. She mumbled, “I begin the end”. Then doctors took her away. A Gathering was called to discuss what happened. Later, Thomas went into the forest and found a person named Ben. Ben was stung by a Griever. When this happens you go through The Changing and you are never the same again. Ben cursed Thomas and lunged at him. Alby shot Ben in the neck with a bow but he survived. The next day he was banished to the Maze where he was immediately eaten by the Grievers. The next day the leader of the Runners, Minho told Alby he found a dead Griever. They went into the Maze. The Griever wasn’t dead and it stung Alby. At night Minho was going to make it out of the Maze with Alby but the doors closed. However, Thomas slipped into the Maze last second. Minho was flipping out about how no one has survived a night in the Maze. He split up with Thomas and Thomas climbed up part of the wall and tied Alby up there with vines. Then Grievers came and Thomas created a diversion so Alby didn’t get stung more. Thomas ran through the Maze and quickly met up with Minho. They had an idea to run the Grievers off the Cliff which is a large chasm in the Maze. It worked and they returned safely in the morning. There was a Gathering where Thomas was invited. They agreed to put Thomas in jail for a day for disobeying but he would also become a Runner. Gally said that he could survive the Maze too so he ran into it. Teresa woke up and was put in jail. Then Thomas freaked out because Teresa started talking to him through telepathy. Thomas ran into the woods and fell asleep. Later, while Thomas was training to be a Runner Teresa contacted him again and said the Maze was a code. He tried to contact her. It worked. Thomas and Minho went to the Cliff and started throwing rocks over the edge when they stumbled upon the Griever Hole, a hole/portal that Grievers jump into. After training, Thomas told Minho and Newt that Teresa told him the Maze was a code. Teresa woke up and was put in jail. Thomas visited her and demanded that she be set free. The next day Thomas woke up and saw that the sky was grey. People were panicking and that night the walls did NOT close. People put up barricades quickly in a futile attempt to keep out the Grievers. That night in the Homestead (where the Gladers sleep) Alby went out to the map room and someone hit his head and lit the Map Room on fire. Grievers broke in and Gally also came back from the Maze and jumped out a window and was eaten by a Griever after saying that they would take one person a day. The next day Thomas visited Teresa in jail. She said that she slept through the commotion. They also found out that the Runners were supposed to compare the maps they made to all of the other sections not to theirs’ from the day before. Unfortunately with the maps burned, it was useless. Thomas made Newt let Teresa out of jail and they said that if the Runners remembered their maps that their plan could still work. They did and after hours of frustration Thomas had the idea to overlap the pieces of paper by tracing the Runners sketches of what they remembered onto wax paper. After overlapping the pieces of paper they found that the walls in the Maze all spelled out words. Thomas and Minho went into the Maze to see if an exit opened up. Nothing opened. The next day Teresa told him that they had found the words: Float, Catch, Bleed, Death, Stuff, and Push. None of this made sense to anyone so Thomas faked being tired and that night after the Grievers took someone Thomas chased them and got stung by one on purpose. Through the Changing Thomas remembered many things. He called a Gathering the second he was up and they explained a big solution. I would rather not spoil the ending though.

I liked this book for a few reasons. One reason is the suspense. Another reason is the mystery that adds to the suspense. I also like the creative language. One thing I dislike about this book is the ending (NOTICE: THE ENDING WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED IN THIS BLOG FOR VARIOUS REASONS THAT ARE THOSE OF THE BLOGGER HIMSELF. QUESTIONS? PLEASE DON’T CALL ME. THE PRECEEDING WAS A BLOG IN WHICH THE OPINIONS OF THE BLOGGER ARE THOSE OF THAT SOLE PREPIOTER AND ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH THIS COMPANY”