You wake up in a metal cage, surrounded by complete darkness, as you’re racing up an elevator like structure at viciously high speeds. You have absolutely no sign of where you are, nor any knowledge of your background or even what your name is, when you finally come to a stop, as the cage opens with 50 boys staring down onto you. What do you do? That’s the first of many decisions that a boy named Thomas must make in The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

Thomas is placed in a mysterious community that the boys there refer to as “The Glade”. As curious as he could be, Thomas immediately asks hundreds of questions to the boys, who show very little interest and constantly tell him that they have all been there before. His curiosity now runs his mind, especially as he realizes how little he remembers about himself. “At that moment, Thomas realized with a sickening lurch that he had no idea how old he was. His heart sank at the thought-he was so lost he didn’t even know his own age” (Dashner, 8). After a couple of days of just being ignored and shut out from the other boys, the leader of the glade, a boy named Alby, takes Thomas on a tour and finally gives some answers to this crazy situation that Thomas has been placed in. He learns that everyone showed up there just the way he did, and nobody has any true clue to why they were placed there, or why they can’t remember a single thing about their lives. Something they do know about is the maze. The maze is what surrounds The Glade, and is said to be absolutely terrifying. “If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human” (Dashner, 9). The maze contains vicious sets of traps and monsters, all lying in between stone walls that open every sunrise and close every sunset. So intelligently designed, there must be must be a reason for the boys to be there. They take it upon themselves to explore these dangers, and look for their chance to escape, and find what they know must be out there, the real world. Can Thomas, the new kid on the block, bring his unique set of skills to great use and lead these boys out of imprisonment? Or are they even in prison, and they just aren’t meant to discover the outside world? Perhaps they will learn something about their past lives that explain the situation that they are in? Their destiny lies in their own hands, and you can experience the destiny of these boys by reading The Maze Runner.
Dashner brings such uniqueness, with his motif of mystery from the beginning and all throughout until the end of the novel. The mind baffling situations create such curiosity into the mind of the reader. The depth to all of the puzzles of the maze, makes this a perfect read for anyone who enjoys huge mysteries, and cliffhangers that will make you never want to stop reading. This novel completely sucks you in, as you grow a relationship with the characters as they go through their many trials, and you constantly wonder what’s next, and if your friends are going to be okay. Such a high-paced, full of action novel, perfect for any science fiction reader. From the cover to the back page there is tons to discover about this world that lies within The Maze Runner. This book deserves to be on shelves everywhere, and will simply turn any reader, into a science fiction lover.