Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a full analysis of the book, full spoilers included. You have been warned. [ALSO, if you choose to downvote my review saying it wasn't helpful, please tell me why in the comments. I welcome everyone's thoughts and opinions, but if you downvote a review of this size without commenting I will be under the assumption you simply downvote all negative reviews.] The story itself was interesting enough for the most part, but the pace was painfully slow and Dashner committed a few things you are not supposed to do in fictional writing, ever. I'm talking newbie mistakes here. The second largest thing that Dashner violated was the Show, Don't Tell rule. He almost assuredly does not understand this, as a lot of his descriptions are flatly told instead of explained. "Thomas felt sad." "Thomas snapped." Dashner does not do a good job showing us his world or his characters, instead just telling us how things are. This interweaves with my next points a bit and is explained in greater detail later. For my second point, marking the biggest mistake Dashner did with this story, he began the book with the White Room Syndrome. Much like the Show, Don't Tell rule, this is one thing that almost all writers know very deeply - do not start your story off with the white room syndrome. The white room syndrome is where your character suddenly wakes up in a completely unfamiliar setting and knows nothing about anything - his past, his name, people he knew, etc... This is cheap because it allows you to dodge any sort of actual development in the world, its characters or the relationships that the characters have. This book in particular suffered a lot because Dashner decided to go this way. One particular area it suffered deeply was with character development. Partially since he had no past to develop from, Thomas was a weak protagonist with nearly no original or interesting characteristics. He seems brave at times, but everybody in this book is. He seems smart at times, but so is everybody else. To me, he is almost a blank slate designed to move the story forward. I cannot list one original characteristic about him - other characters say he is interesting, but that is not the conclusion I came to - if the story didn't follow him, he would blend in with the rest of the characters. The other characters were also an issue. Other than Minho and Chuck, I had a hard time picturing any of them or even telling them apart. Alby was the typical reckless group leader. Newt was the typical nicer more rational second-in-command. Teresa was a typical plain-Jane female side character designed to make the plot actually go somewhere. Minho was interesting, but Dashner could have developed him further than he did. And Chuck was a potentially interesting character, but Dashner killed him off for no reason. It would have been very difficult to develop any of these characters to a great extent, though, since none of them have histories or memories outside of the maze. Because they all have heavy amnesia, they don't even remember who they are - thus, they cannot be deeply developed. They are just a bunch of people trying to get out. I have to wonder if Dashner himself had fleshed his characters out any deeper than this by this point of the story. Another way the whole `no past' thing effects the plot is the relationship between Teresa and Tom. It was possibly one of the weakest romances I have ever read in a novel. They loved each other because they did `before it happened', not because they have actual chemistry. There was no development or movement in their relationship whatsoever - it just started off that they were in love just because they were, and that's where the book left off as well. They loved each other because it's what Dashner wanted for the story, not because it made sense for the characters. Let's put this in contrast to the last book series I read - Divergent. In the first Divergent book, it takes almost 250 pages to fully develop the relationship between Tris and Tobias. Tobias starts off as her superior, and slowly their relationship develops and morphs into something tangible, which is why you were truly able to feel it in that series. It logically progressed into a relationship where you could really believe they had feelings for each other. In Maze Runner, the only reason I felt they loved each other was because I was told to think that. I had no real reason to assume they had feelings for each other besides that, since there was no chemistry, development, getting to know each other or even any conversations that didn't have directly to do with the plot. It was utterly emotionless and monotone and had no effect on me whatsoever - that is not how romance is supposed to be! That's not even how a mundane friendship is supposed to be! What he had with Chuck had more feeling than what he had with Teresa. --- Then there were several gaping plot holes. One that I was particularly annoyed with was how long it took them to figure out that the Griever Hole was the only way out. I mean, seriously... I figured that out the second they introduced it and tossed the rock in. I twas utterly predictable. Just think. They have been running around this big maze for two years and have not found any exit of any sort, but in this one spot there appears to be a hole you can toss thing into to make them disappear. It took them an extra 200 pages to figure out that that was, just maybe, an exit of sorts. Then, it surprised me to notice that Minho has noticed all of those WORLD IN CATASTROPHE: KILLZONE EXPERIMENT DEPARTMENT things all over the walls and never came to the conclusion that this was, oh, I don't know, some sort of experiment or something. It didn't even occur to the characters until the end of the book when Thomas brought it up that this might, just maybe be some sort of experiment. Minho was a pretty intelligent character, and so was Newt and Alby. In fact, it was a main plot point at the end that they are all technically very intelligent people. If this is the case, how did they not figure all of this stuff out a very long time ago? (Getting back to the Telling issue, the only reason I had to believe they were smart was because I was told so. I was never shown them being particularly smart, especially considering the things I mentioned above.) Then there is the scene where the sky disappears. I have several issues with this scene. First, why was the first conclusion Thomas came to that the sky was artificial? I was figuring that something covered up the sky at first, but the very first thing he figured was that it absolutely must be that the sky is fake, with no chance of another option whatsoever. There was no guesswork or figuring out to be done here - he just knew, just because he knew. And at that, where did this even come from? To me, it seems like Dashner literally came up with that on the spot. There was absolutely nothing in this book beforehand to hint that the sky was fake - nothing. If Thomas had thought to himself that this or that looks or seem fabricated or a bit off, it would have made some sense why he came to the conclusion he did so ridiculously quickly when the sky disappeared. But there was nothing. It just happened. Something like this should have been foreshadowed. This is something I feel he does a lot - or, forgets to do a lot. He does not develop a lot of things beforehand that eventually become important, nor does he give clarification afterwards. For an example, the telepathic talking that Teresa and Tom have. To me, this was clearly used so Teresa could move the story forward no matter where Tom was at the time being, but I would have been okay with that if there was another relevant and in-story reason why she could talk to him like that. Sure, he might answer that in the next book, but he should have answers that in this book, since it was a vital part of this story. As far as I am concerned, since he gave no good reason why that is the way it is, I am convinced the only reason why it is there is for a cheap and easy way to move the plot forward. If there is another relevant in-story reason why it exists, he probably could have come up with it in the second book. That all might not be true, but if he either developed it beforehand or clarified it afterwards, there would be no confusion. By the end of this story, I am convinced it existed for no other reason than to easily move the story forward when it needed to, just like the sky suddenly disappearing. It felt like a random event he came up with on the spot so he could get un-stuck in his story. --- Then, at the end, there is almost no resolution to the story whatsoever. They meet a woman who explains to them that this all happened for some sort of good reason (which I logically assumed), but then proceeded to say that that was certainly enough for them to understand and they should just accept it. She could have elaborated on just a bit more to explain a little bit of the context this story takes place in, but does not in any way mostly because she didn't feel they would want to know, or something. It seems to confuse her why making 40 people go through a maze for 2 years for less than 20 of them to survive with no context whatsoever might confused them or make then want answers of some sort. Then a bunch of people come in and kill her, take the main characters to a safe place (while of course explaining nothing about anything, because there's no time to explain) and the book ends. Well, sort of, anyway. The bus driver rushing them to safety explains something about sun flares and a sickness that has ravaged the world and how the maze was all some sort of mental test, but it all seemed non sequitur to the rest of the story. This, again, reflects back to the issue he has with foreshadowing. There was absolutely nothing in this book to hint towards any of this, and it all comes across as being random and on-the-spot. I was unable to correlate anything that happened throughout the book to anything relevant to the sun flares. There were very few answers to anything. Why could Tom and Teresa talk telepathically? What were the Grievers and why were they there? What was the test supposed to do, anyway? How was anything of the story relevant to the last few chapters at all? Those are the sort of things I should not have had to wait for book 2 to have answered, since they were all relevant to this story. Sure, you need to leave some questions for the next book, but the way that he answered absolutely none of them leaves me to assume he might not have had it all figured out by this point. One could argue that Dashner was clever not to reveal anything, but that is just not the case since he did that at the expense of this story not having an actual conclusion. Because of this laziness to answer anything at all, I simply have no desire to find out what happens next. I don't care what he comes up with, since he has not shown me that even he knew where he was going with the story by that point. I'm finding it hard to believe he actually had a big grand plan to reveal to us by this point. Take into consideration how the first Hunger Games ends. (Hunger Games 1 spoilers for those who have not read the book or seen the movie by this point. Skip this paragraph if so.) Katniss and Peeta make the government angry by making a joke out of them at the end of the Games, so at the end of book 1, we have to wait and see how they will politically fight against the government and how they can pretend to be in love when they're not. There was something truly tangible to look forward to in the sequel, and that is what drove me to pick up the next book. This was all done while making the first book a complete story with some resolution. That is how a book 1 is supposed to be done. Now let's go back to the ending of Maze Runner. They escape the maze to learn that it existed for some sort of reason, and the book ends with the promise that you will learn what that reason was later. There is no resolution to any questions raised in the story, there is no other major hook to make you read the next book - there is just no real reason to continue. The one and only hook that the end of this book had was that you will learn what the first book was about in the second book. That's it. Instead of building up new scenarios and conflicts to transfer over, his only hook is that he withheld vital information that should have been at the end of this book that he will give in the second one. In comparison to the Hunger Games, it's quite pathetic and lazy. I am not entirely certain how people can compare this book to the Hunger Games or Divergent. It's just not on the same level of storytelling in any area. The writing is full of telling, the story is riddled with plot holes and plot devices, the character development is lacking, the romance and relationships are boring and there is no real conclusion to the story. I am not certain why people put this book up there with some of the other major titles right now.