This is the first instalment of ‘The Maze Runner’ trilogy, which explores the themes of survival, identity, friendship, global warming and human intelligence. Although the novel is aimed at YA readers, full grown adults will enjoy the series too. It is fast paced and has plenty of action, so it’s impossible to get bored. Plot-wise, the book kept me guessing until the end. Is this an experiment? Are they human ‘lab rats’? Or are the group being punished, with the maze serving as some kind of prison? There are several plot twists within the book, and I have a feeling there will be more surprises in the following books. I don’t think the true answers will be fully revealed until the end of the last book, The action is non-stop, and what I enjoyed most was that just when you think you’ve solved the puzzle, there’s a new twist.
Understandably, the you can feel a bit frustrated at times. Questions such as who is Thomas? Who are the Gladers and why are they there? Who put them in the Maze? All I can say is stay patient – almost everything will be explained within the book, but there’s still a few mysteries carried over to the sequel. The good thing is that Thomas feels just as frustrated as the reader, because he knows as little as we do.
At first, the language can be slightly off putting.
What lets this book down is the character development. The story is very plot driven, and very fast paced, meaning that less detail is put into character description. Apart from Thomas, I found that Newt and Minho were the only other characters I invested any feelings in. I felt that there could have been so much more interaction between the characters, and the author could have spent much longer developing the friendships between Thomas and the group. If you compare the novel to others in the genre, such as The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) or Exodus (Julie Bartagna), the difference between the level of character development becomes more obvious. However, given that this is a trilogy, there is plenty of time for the characters to grow


Engels versie gelezen:The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, #1)