YA book blog

          The maze runner has an interesting premise, but falls flat on a blaring issue which halts further analysis on it's core story. It starts with thomas, a sixteen year old amneciac, who is brought to the glade. After a strange event involving a girl coming to the glade, Thomas and a runner named Minho stay overnigh in the maze, a giant mechanical structure with monsters that when they sting you; you regain some of your memories. Eventually, the world of the glade starts to fall apart. When thomas finds a code in the glade, half of the people in the glade try to escape. Eventually they do and are saved by myterious people. It's very interesting, but an issue rarely addressed leaves me wondering how different the story would have been if the characters had realized that they could've just stayed in the glade.

          Throughout the story, the author mentions how beautiful the glade is. For example, "...it made him wonder about the weather of the place. Never rained, never snowed, never got to hot or cold... It could be paradise". Also "Thomas had found a tree...one of the nicer ones...with plenty of shade...he'd just felt his eyes droop...". This obviously shows how nice the glade is. It's got perfect weather, it never rains or snows, it's always the right temperature, the're nice trees. It place seems like a beautiful field.

          Also they get everything handed to them. To show this " Once a week, we get supplies, clothing, some food". Another example is " We got all the electricity we need, grow and raise most of our food, get clothes and such". They're self sufficient and have everything they need. They have no barriers. They could just stop trying to escape and just hang out. They have jobs, food, water, electricity, hospitals, etc. Besides everyone who gets their memory back sees terrible things and doesn't talk about it. What's really making their lives difficult.

          To conclude, this story is really good. But if you start to critically analyze it then it starts to fall flat. I feel like the characters are taking their situation for granted. Imagine if the characters had to survive by themselves with no outside assistance. I just wonder why the characters are so determined to leave when they have a grassy paradise with food, water, shelter, clothes, jobs, friends, and perfect weather.