Book Review: THE MAZE RUNNER
by James Dashner
Published by Chicken House
This book is about a boy called Thomas and how he adapts to his new surroundings in a giant maze. At the beginning, he arrives in the maze, his memory is wiped in an elevator and is thrown into the middle of the maze called the glade. He begins to find out the secrets of the maze with his fellow gladers – other boys living in there too.
What I particularly liked about the book was that the author put us in the position of Thomas to keep the reader in the dark, just as he is in the maze. My favourite character was Minho, Thomas’s best friend, because he was so sarcastic it was funny. He is also one of the main leaders of the gladers and proves to be very helpful. The characters felt very real because I related most of them to my friends. I liked that most of the characters were boys but it was a strange world to read about.
The book was written in such a way that it kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through, particularly the end of the chapters made me want to read on. I would not recommend this for children under ten years old because it has lots of gruesome, scary and heart-breaking scenes.
This is the first book in the series which you need to read to fully understand the story of the maze. I would recommend this series to fans of The Hunger Games because it is a page turner too. Overall, I would rate this book five stars as I could not put it down.
Review by Max Innes of The Malling School, Kent