I must be one of the few YA readers who hadn't read any of the Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner, so I decided to remedy that over the weekend, reading the first book yesterday. In good time too because there is apparently a movie of the first book coming out next year which I didn't even know about. Yes, I enjoyed the book and can see why it it's a best-seller. It came out relatively early in the YA-dystopia revolution (around 2009) and is an original, action-packed, mystery story. The premise is derivative of ideas that have been around in adult literature - main characters who've had their memories wiped and who find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, having to solve mysteries to move forward. But it's done with a bunch of young boys (and one young girl) and the setting is very original. The idea of a maze has been done before - but the kind of maze Dashner creates and the creatures he populates with it are creepy and scary and generally pretty cool. I did have a couple of bones to pick with it, however. I thought the story started too slowly and I was annoyed with the repetition of the main character (Thomas) constantly asking the others what was going on and constantly being rebuffed and told they'd explain later. The pace certainly picked up about halfway through the book as Thomas found his footing so to speak. The other issue I had - and this is probably because the book was conceived as the first in a series - is that there are too many questions raised but left unanswered for the book to feel "complete" as a story to me. Dashner could probably have answered some of the unanswered questions - or at least hinted at answers to them more strongly than he did - and still preserved enough suspense for the next books. So overall a great read and I'll probably get to the next book eventually, but it's not at the top of my list right now. At least I've read enough to understand the movie when it comes out!
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