“If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.”

Maze Runner, by James Dashner, is a book I literally couldn’t put down. Its action packed scenes and mind boggling puzzles pulled me right in from the start and wouldn’t spit me back out until two days later when I finished.

In the beginning of the book, Thomas wakes up in a metal elevator going up to an unknown destination. All he can remember is his name. The elevator stops, and is opened by teenage boys, saying strange words Thomas has never heard before. He gets out and finds himself in a huge opening, surrounded by four massive walls, with openings leading into a maze. And so The Maze Runner begins. Tellings a story of mystery, puzzles, haunting memories, monsters, and the ultimate question. Why are they here?

The Maze Runner is a dystopian novel, but unlike other dystopian novels, you don’t know what type of book it is until the very end. This is very cool because you can’t really fully know what the book is all about until the end. This really keeps you on the edge of your sea and eyes glues to the pages.

Dashner’s way of writing packs mystery, action, and adventure all into one amazing book. Creating a maze that seems to have a mind of its own, doors to the maze that open in the morning and close at night, and strange little robotic creatures that seem to be watching the boys. His writing is very to the point, written like a non stop action book, which it kind of is. But then he adds some mystery to it to sort of even it out. He slowly gives you miniscule pieces of the puzzle, leaving you thinking even after put the book down. Then at the end he solves it all with answers galore, the leaves you hanging with even more questions as you drive to the library to get the sequel.

Dashner does an incredible job with this book. He tells a story that shouldn’t be experienced by an adult through the eyes of a teenager, who learns he is the key to saving the world, whether he likes it or not. This story tells of a fallen Earth, and the lengths people will go to save it, even if it means trapping 50 boys in a maze for years. It leaves us asking ourselves, what would we do in a situation like that? What would we do to save our world?