When Thomas wakes up, his name is all he can remember. He's in a lift that leads to an arena surrounded by a giant maze with vicious creatures hiding in its depths. Luckily, he's not alone. There are many other teenage boys, too, none of who remember much more than Thomas. The boys believe that if they can escape the maze, they'd be free to return to family and a home that they can't remember. But when a girl shows up - the first girl ever, in all two years the boys had been there for before Thomas showed up - she brings a disturbing message which implies that there is no escape. Will Thomas be able to go home and save the other boys too? Or will he be stuck in the Maze forever?
I'd heard a lot of people rave about this series, so I figured I'd try it out. At first, I was disappointed. It's written in third person, which I don't always like, and the beginning was a bit dry. Sure, the content was supposed to be exciting, but be it the writing or just a lack of interest on my part, I didn't find it enjoyable. However, I forced myself to read on, and luckily, it did get better. I found that the farther I read, the more I enjoyed the story.
Since I'm a girl, I usually like to read books written from a girl's perspective. There have only been two times when I enjoyed the boy's perspective better: the Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, and the Pendragon series, by D.J. MacHale. I suppose I can just understand how a female thinks better and judge how good the book is based on partially on realism of the character's thoughts. This book was from the boy's perspective, but I don't know if I would've liked it better from the sight of a girl; there were some things that happened along the storyline that wouldn't have made sense if the main character was a female.
I found the writing in this novel to be very good. James Dashner is obviously talented with words and paints a picture in your mind that is very clear and thorough. However, there were some parts that got just a bit too wordy and I just automatically skimmed over without really understanding, which I then had to go back and read again. I found the ideas behind the book to be extremely creative, imaginative, and slightly scary - whenever I read a book based in the future about something bad happening to the human race or the earth, if it's even slightly plausible, it gets me thinking. This book definitely had me considering the future more, which is a good thing; authors want people reading their books to think, after all!
Overall, I found this book to be good, though not great, as I'd thought it would be. It did have twists and turns, though, and was not at all predictable, which I enjoyed immensely; I really dislike it when I can clearly see what will happen next in the storyline. This book was about the exact opposite of that; I couldn't picture anything that would occur before it did. I would give this story three stars. It's good for anyone looking for some futuristic drama, corrupt government, and love in disguise.
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