Plot or Premise

A teen wakes up in The Glade, a large field and homestead surrounded by four high walls with doors that open for part of the day, giving entry into a maze filled with untold dangers. This is the first book of the Maze Runner series.

What I Liked

The initial premise is interesting, a micro-society made up of teen boys, with no memory of the past, although many of them remember nicknames. The main character is named Thomas, and he has slightly more memory than the rest. Food and supplies arrive monthly through the same metal elevator that he arrives in, but nobody knows what’s going on. As time progresses, it becomes pretty clear that this is some sort of experiment, although more clear to the reader than the boys in the Glade. Eventually, they have to push the boundaries of the maze and then life starts to get more interesting.

What I Didn’t Like

While the premise is on the same level as The Hunger Games or Divergent, I marked it down a peg because the life they’re leading in the Glade is a little too “pat”. You find out a bit more in book 2, but in book 1, it all seems to run a little too well for a bunch of young teens who have no memory of the past yet somehow maintain a certain level of advanced maturity anyway…farming, treating the sick, dealing with trauma and chaos, etc. It has a bit of a “hey we’re not Lord of the Flies” but with no explanation of how they developed. Plus, it’s hard to believe NOBODY figured stuff out for the Maze before Thomas, yet part of the experiment was to do exactly that…

The Bottom Line

A great start to a great series