Book Review: The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner

Maze Runner #1

Maze Runner #2

Maze Runner #3

Published by: Image Books
Rating: 2.75/5 stars

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade---a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls. Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they've closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift. Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up---the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.


The Maze Runner trilogy is a part of the recent YA dystopian literature craze. I will say straight out that for the time being I am not a huge fan of the craze, at heart I am a sci-fy/fantasy chick. That being said I recently read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and loved it, maybe with time and enough decent reads I might find dystopian novels more enticing.

I was really torn throughout the series, there were moments I loved it and I couldn't put it down, but there were also times I almost gave up on it. It took me nearly half of The Maze Runner to begin getting into the story, in fact I was about to give up and move on just before it peaked my interest. And therin lies the series biggest strength, the suspence and mystery. Dashner did a wonderful job in keeping the tension up, and making you want to stay to find out the truth, to find out what the Gladers, particularly Thomas had forgotten. He also did a wonderful job creating his version of a dystopian world, and making it believable.

Unfortunately for me that is were the positives stop. Thomas annoyed me for most of the series, he was so Gary Stu at times it was frustrating. Especially towards the end of the first book, where he has all the answers suddenly, I wanted to bang my head against the wall. Then there's Teresa. I didn't get her, I didn't like her. If Thomas was the Gary Stu of the story, she was the Mary Sue. Pretty, smart, has all the answers, will do anything she has to to save Thomas. However, I must say there were some redemable charcaters like Brenda, Jorge, and Newt. On the bad side, I didn't feel for any of them. I liked characters, I dislikeed characters, but in the end I didn't care what happened to them. Someone was found, someone died, someone was betrayed, meh. Nothing, I felt nothing, and I really did want to feel on the verge of tears or angry or joyous but I just couldn't.

Finally, the ending. It felt incomplete, like there was something missing. There were still huge gaps of the mystery missing by the end of The Death Cure and it left me frustrated. I understood why it was missing but it just left me feeling like I had been cheated. Dashner had held out carrots throughout the series and in the end he snatched it away leaving the readers hungry.

Overall, I really wanted to enjoy the books more than I did. There was a lot of potential to make things greater but it fell short. The series was only saved by the tension and intrigue that Dashner was able to create, pulling it up from a score of 2 stars.