Read book reviews by our local teens.
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At first, I was hesitant to read the series because I didn’t like sci-fi series, but I fell in love with this one, from start to finish. I loved the characterization of each vital character and the relationships between everyone. The story and plot were well written and enticed me to keep reading to see what would happen next. I loved the themes of hope and trust and also friendship that were established in the series, making me love the characters so much. Overall, this is one of my favorite book series and I highly recommend it to anyone interested
in this genre.
The Maze Runner, by James Dashner, is a dystopian post apocalyptic book series set in a futuristic timeline. The series begins with the protagonist, Thomas, as he is introduced into the Glade. The boys that inhabit the Glade explain to Thomas that they get new arrivals like him every few months and have been for two years. Before Thomas can ask many questions, there’s an interruption in a nearby building and the boys go tend the wounded boy. The antagonist, Gally, tells Thomas he doesn’t trust him because of what he saw of Thomas during his Changing, and Thomas decides to keep watch on him too.
The next day Thomas is introduced to the other Gladers and their jobs by the leader of the group, Alby, and by his co-leader, Newt. After the tour of the glade, an alarm sounds and the boys meet at the elevator as a new arrival appears, a girl, Teresa, the first girl ever transported to the Glade. They help her to the infirmary and monitor her, as she’s in a coma. When Thomas visits her as she wakes up, she tells him, telepathically, that she triggered “The Ending”, which would explain the dead Griever Minho and Alby saw in the Maze. And just as she said, the day following her arrival, things in the Glade start to freeze, the walls, the sun, daylight. Thomas and Minho go into the Maze to understand how the Grievers travel but when they return to the Glade they see the other Gladers forming makeshift weapons to protect themselves as the Grievers can now enter the Glade from the doors freezing open. Meanwhile Teresa studies the maps Minho and Thomas made in their scouts of the Maze and learns that each map spells a letter, creating words, a passcode. The group arms themselves with weapons and enter the Maze, fighting off the Grievers that attack them and make it to the Cliff, a box where the Grievers enter and exit the Maze, and Thomas types the passcode in while Chuck, the youngest Glader presses a button to activate the escape. The remaining Gladers go through the box and down a slide where they end up outside a lab, being observed by scientists who help them to a safer location where they’re given food and beds to sleep in until the next phase is ready for them.