Here we go with my second book for the 2015 POPSUGAR reading challenge, this one is heading for the category: A book by an author you've never read before, and it's true! This is the first of Dashner's novels I have ever read, and I must say that after this I wouldn't mind reading a few more.
I've got to admit that I hadn't heard about this book until I say they poster at our local cinema for the new film that recently came out last year. Then browsing through the bookshop I stumbled across a copy, (or rather thousands of copies) and I very nearly didn't buy it. I love the hunger games and when I saw the plug at the bottom about how its 'a must for fans of THE HUNGER GAMES, I was worried that I would be disappointed that it would be a non-story. Compared to the Hunger Games so that it would sell more copies but I thought What the heck and took it to the counter and paid for it.
However I now stand here with my hands held high in surrender and apology to all you Maze Runner fans out there... you were right. This book is amazing and it has indeed left me with a book hangover to such an extent, that I don't know when I'll be able to start the sequel.
Just like it says in the blurb, we begin the story just as confused as Thomas and we stay as confused as he is until starts fighting back and asking questions. From the moment the box open, and Thomas is spewed into the Glade, to the moment he falls asleep at the end, you feel everything that he feels. Basically Thomas has somehow been made to live in a huge concrete square surrounded by walls that seem to be impossibly tall. There are four 'doors', on in each wall but all that seems beyond them is black. We soon learn that the Glade, as it's more commonly known, is the centre of a giant, seemingly unsolvable maze. He is trapped in there with 50 - 60 other teenage boys and there is only one rule: Solve the maze or die. The people before Thomas arrived have been trying to solve the maze for two whole years, so why should his arrival make any difference?
Firstly, I thought that this book was incredibly well written. The idea of creating lab rat style humans is almost unthinkable and I cannot begin to think where I would have started if I were the writer of this book, but Dashner has done an incredible job of making it realistic and believable. There was not a single moment when I stepped back and said 'Whoa! this ain't real'. The author here has managed to find the perfect balance between reality and fantasy, a sometimes very difficult thing to do. As a slight aside, I love the way that each boy is nicknamed after a famous scientist, that tickled me. I loved it.
As usual I talk a little bit about my favourite character so that what I'm going to do now. Newt. Favourite character has to be Newt. He's strong, he's a leader, he's hot and I just think that if I had to be stuck in a giant hostile maze with anyone, it would be Newt. I kinda liked Chuck as well in that annoying little brother sorta way but Newt definitely had to be the one for me.
Certainly one I would recommend to all people great and small who enjoy a good book, and most definitely a book for people who think that reading is ponsey and for girls, because this book could not be further from that assumption. Give it a read, see for yourself and see if you would be strong enough to solve the maze.
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