Center for Teaching & Learning

Thomas wakes up. A stranger to a small, pitch-black room, he feels his surroundings shoot up to the sky until he jolts to a stop. The top opens up to a blinding light. He can’t see anything for a moment, and all he hears is, “Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the glade.”
Author James Dashner puts his protagonist Thomas into a twisted, evil place called the maze. The setting is a huge field in the middle. Surrounding it is a maze with a box in the center that brings up new supplies and a new boy each month. But one month the very first girl comes up with a note: This is the last one.
I really enjoyed the book because it drew me right into the reading zone with all of the suspenseful action scenes around every corner—or every turn of the page. For example, my favorite is when Thomas runs into the maze to save his friends and fights off the Grievers, an enemy, at night. Nobody has ever survived a night the maze. One of the best traits of Thomas as a character is his bravery and how he is willing to help others, like he does in that scene.
This also leads me to the theme. It shows up in different chapters throughout the book: its perseverance and to never give up hope or leave anyone behind. Thomas does just that in the scene where he runs into the maze to save his friends. He believes in each one of them.
I loved how Dashner would give the reader some information and then hold the rest back. He would give me enough details at the right time so that I could make a connection, but it would not be predictable. For example, he tells readers that inside the Grievers stinger there is a number— that number is what section they come from and maybe an escape route.
Dashner did a great job with all of the plot twists, such as when Thomas kills the first Grievers ever. The next day, when the doors to the maze open and they don’t close, the Grievers roam into the glade when night falls. This had me reading for hours to grasp more of the juicy content that was provided over the course of this book.
I would recommend this novel to anyone. It was amazing and, as a reader, I was able to finish it in just a sitting. I rated this book a ten out of ten, and it is definitely a re-read book. There is also a series that goes along with the book— this is the first— and the rest of the series is definitely promising. The movie based on Dashner’s novel follows the storyline of the book perfectly, so give this book a read first and then enjoy the film.
Joe
Delacorte Press, 386 pages