I have recently completed reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner. The Maze Runner is a 375, dystopian fiction novel. The Maze Runner is about a teenage boy named Thomas, he wakes up in a box traveling upwards to a place that he has no recollection or knowledge of. This place is called The Glade, it is surrounded by a gigantic maze, and the maze hasn’t been solved, and to make it harder for the people searching through the maze, it changes. Also, not to make his or anybody’s situation better, all of the teens that live in The Glade are brainwashed When Thomas arrives, things in The Glade started acting weird. In the maze there are spider-like monsters that sting the Gladers(general name of people that live in The Glade.) If they get a vaccine, these victims go through a process called The Changing. It is a painful and brutal process, after The Changing is over, the victims get their memories back. The new people to The Glade “Greenie” so he is refrenced like that a lot in the story. The problem for Thomas is the people that went through the changing, say they saw Thomas working for the people that put them in this maze. Thomas now has to help find a way out and then clear his name. I was assigned to read this book for a dystopian-literature book club project.

I was surprised by how the author started the book, the author did not give any information. The first sentence of the book is “He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air.” This leaves a lot of unanswered questions such as, Where is he standing? How old is he? But the author did clear these up soon after the first sentence.

I’d compare James Dashner to Suzanne Collins, because they both write dystopian fiction trilogies. Also, their book ideas are very similar. Both have a teenager selected to do an outrageous task to save many people.

The liked the way that the author accelerated the plot, it started off slow, and then the suspense increased when Thomas almost got killed also when the girl arrived, it really made this book hard to read at the beginning, but a page turner a little while later.

This scene is important to the plot because it is when the girl arrives at The Glade and is one of the most rising actions before the climax. Alby and Newt call Thomas down in the box to see if he knows who the girl is. They also receive a note.

Thomas was drowning in a sea of confusion. A girl? He hadn’t even thought about why the Glade only had boys, no girls. Hadn’t even had the chance to notice, really. Who is she? he wondered. Why—

Newt shushed them again. “That’s not bloody half of it,” he said, then pointed down into the Box. “I think she’s dead.”

Newt and Alby scrambled out of the Box after her, then forced their way through to the girl’s lifeless body, the crowd re-forming behind to cut them off from Thomas’s view. Only a few seconds later, the group parted again, and Newt was pointing straight at Thomas.

“Greenie, get over here,” he said, not bothering to be polite about it.

Thomas’s heart jumped into his throat; his hands started to sweat. What did they want him for? Things just kept getting worse and worse. He forced himself to walk forward, trying to seem innocent without acting like someone who was guilty who was trying to act innocent. Oh, calm it, he told himself. You haven’t done anything wrong. But he had a strange feeling that maybe he had without realizing it.

The boys lining the path to Newt and the girl glared at him as he walked past, as if he were responsible for the entire mess of the Maze and the Glade and the Grievers. Thomas refused to make eye contact with any of them, afraid of looking guilty.

He approached Newt and Alby, who both knelt beside the girl. Thomas, not wanting to meet their stares, concentrated on the girl; despite her paleness, she was really pretty. More than pretty. Beautiful. Silky hair, flawless skin, perfect lips, long legs. It made him sick to think that way about a dead girl, but he couldn’t look away. Won’t be that way for long, he thought with a queasy twist in his stomach. She’ll start rotting soon. He was surprised at having such a morbid thought.

“You know this girl, shank?” Alby asked, sounding ticked off.

Thomas was shocked by the question. “Know her? Of course I don’t know her. I don’t know anyone. Except for you guys.”

“That’s not …,” Alby began, then stopped with a frustrated sigh. “I meant does she look familiar at all? Any kind of feelin’ you’ve seen her before?”

“No. Nothing.” Thomas shifted, looked down at his feet, then back at the girl.

Alby’s forehead creased. “You’re sure?” He looked like he didn’t believe a word Thomas said, seemed almost angry.

What could he possibly think I have to do with this? Thomas thought. He met Alby’s glare evenly and answered the only way he knew how. “Yes. Why?”

“Shuck it,” Alby muttered, looking back down at the girl. “Can’t be a coincidence. Two days, two Greenies, one alive, one dead.”

Then Alby’s words started to make sense and panic flared in Thomas. “You don’t think I …” He couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Slim it, Greenie,” Newt said. “We’re not sayin’ you bloody killed the girl.”

Thomas’s mind was spinning. He was sure he’d never seen her before—but then the slightest hint of doubt crept into his mind. “I swear she doesn’t look familiar at all,” he said anyway. He’d had enough accusations.

“Are you—”

Before Newt could finish, the girl shot up into a sitting position. As she sucked in a huge breath, her eyes snapped open and she blinked, looking around at the crowd surrounding her. Alby cried out and fell backward. Newt gasped and jumped up, stumbling away from her. Thomas didn’t move, his gaze locked on the girl, frozen in fear.

Burning blue eyes darted back and forth as she took deep breaths. Her pink lips trembled as she mumbled something over and over, indecipherable. Then she spoke one sentence—her voice hollow and haunted, but clear.

“Everything is going to change.”

Thomas stared in wonder as her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell back to the ground. Her right fist shot into the air as she landed, staying rigid after she grew still, pointing toward the sky. Clutched in her hand was a wadded piece of paper.

Thomas tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry. Newt ran forward and pulled her fingers apart, grabbing the paper. With shaking hands he unfolded it, then dropped to his knees, spreading out the note on the ground. Thomas moved up behind him to get a look.

Scrawled across the paper in thick black letters were five words:

She’s the last one.

Ever.”(Page 66-68)

I liked this passage because it was important to the storyline.

I rated this book a 9 out of 10 because it was a very good read that I enjoyed very much.