Genre: Dystopia
Published: January 1, 2009
Pages: 384
Ages: 14+
Movie Released: September 19, 2014
Synopsis
If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.
Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.
Everything is going to change.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
Remember. Survive. Run.
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.
Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.
Everything is going to change.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
Remember. Survive. Run.
Review
I received a copy of this book as a Secret Santa Christmas present. I read it now because my husband has been wanting to watch the movie for months and I kept telling him I had to read the book first. Also, I needed a book for this months book movie match-up and this was handy.
To start off, dystopia is one of my favorite sub-genres of literature. There's so many different ways for the almost end of the world to be portrayed that it basically never gets old. Beyond that, even though the characters in most of the books I've read in this sub-genre are teenagers, it's not hard to imagine myself acting the same way, although in reality I'd probably be even worse off because I'm older and less adaptable. I think that's really what's at the heart of this story too. They used children because they are naturally better able to adapt to new circumstances.
The kids in the glad have adopted their own language, which is really basically just a way for James Dashner to allow them to curse without having them cursing by today's standards. It makes sense though, because a group of teenage boys living together like these boys do and not cursing would be completely unbelievable. It was also pretty clear what the new words were replacing most of the time, although I still have no idea what "shank" equates to.
I was annoyed in the beginning by the boys reluctance to answer questions. Their method for bringing "green beans" up to speed with life in the glade just doesn't make much sense. It's almost like an every man for himself mentality, but once you get used to the way things work, then you're part of the community. I just think it would have been more efficient for them to just answer the questions.
Overall I give this book 4 out of 5 stars because it kept me interested, even though it annoyed me, and I already really want to read the next book. I would definitely recommend it for fans of books like The Hunger Games.
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Movie Review
This movie got off to a quick start in the details changing department and it didn't slow down. In fact, about halfway through the movie, they pretty much just started changing everything. I gave up on taking notes on what was different at that point because I would have spent way more time writing than watching. If you like your movies to stay mostly true to the book they're based off of, this is not the book movie combination for you. You will spend almost the entire movie saying, "That's not how it happened," or "That's not right."
However, if you either don't read the book or can pretend that the movie isn't based on the book, it's a pretty entertaining movie. The action starts fast and the intensity doesn't wane until the very end. The maze in the movie was even more ominous and terrifying for me than what I had imagined while reading and everything in general progressed very quickly (and while that's a change from the book, it's necessary for the movie to fit in the allocated time, really.)
There are many more things I'd love to talk about, but that would just lead to a complete rundown of everything that is different between the two, which would lead to spoilers, so it's just time for me to wrap this up. As an adaptation, the movie gets a D because it was just so different, but on it's own merit, I'd rate it 4 out of 5 stars. - Katie
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About the Author
James is the author of THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy and THE 13TH REALITY series. He also published a series (beginning with A DOOR IN THE WOODS) with a small publisher several years ago. He lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains.
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