The Maze Runner

TRY TO IMPROVE MY ENGLISH 

► Title : The Maze Runner
     Author : DASHNER James
     Released in 2009
     Read between the 16 and 30 of march
     Publisher : Delacorte Books ( Young readers )
     Literary genre : Science fiction / Youth literature


► Back cover

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

    I really don’t know how begin this review. I have a lot of things to say as I felt a lot emotion and sensation. I read this book in English since I wanted to prepare an oral exam, it was such a great experience and a great training. The Maze Runner is just incredible, fantastic… Maybe you know it, but I don’t really like books for children or even for teenagers, however I fell in love with this book, immediately. I couldn't stop reading, I was completely absorbed by the story, the characters, all the things we can find when opening the novel. 

    It is so hard to tell you something objective. I didn’t expect nothing from The Maze Runner, is was an enormous revelation. I Confess, I had already buy the next part, in English too, of course! This novel is a real page-turner, when I was reading, I just wanted to read an other chapter, again an again, like if I was taken of frenzy. Despite the difficulty that represents reading in English, I guzzled this book in a few day, it is an authentic marvel and I had relish it. 

    It was, for me, an immersion at the heart of the Glade but also the Maze like for Thomas – the main character. We discover a new world at the same time as him and through his eyes, it was such an exciting experience. We know his thoughts, his feeling, his fears and doubts and we share their with him. He fell in an unknown world without any memory, he just remember his name. In this new sphere, where are only men, teenagers. All this children tend towards becoming adults, indeed, there are organized with some Keepers and each teenager had something to do such as in a little community. Thomas appears like someone very smart and interesting, he grabs the reader’s attention. 

    Thomas is the Newbie, the last one sent to the Glade. But something strange happened and everything is going to change. Everything. A girl fell from somewhere we don’t know, the first girl and she announced the coming changing. Each chapter is intense, bring his bundle of surprise and revelation. All of them are really short but really frantic. They give the desire to continue reading. Between action and thinking, readers can't get bored by the story. 

    I loved the dialogues between the characters, some of them were funny and pithy. Through them, we could feel sarcasm and irony, especially with Minho but also Alby and Newt. A lot of words are abbreviated and it gives to us the feeling that the text is very oral. To accentuated this sensation, the dialogues are sometimes crude and vulgar, I think it is normal as we are with teenagers, captive in a big Glade, without any contact with the world behind the Glade. All this elements match with the atmosphere of the book but also the state of mind’s gladers. 

  With Thomas and Chuck, readers can feel pain, sadness, anger, hope, joy, the lack of understanding this situation. I felt a lot of emotions and sensations, sometimes opposing. I grew attached to Thomas and some other teenagers like Chuck or even Mihno. I learned to know them and appreciated them, even loved them. I had both doubt and hope with all of them but hope seems to be an illusion. Hope like memory appear like a big joke, teenagers can’t remember, they just can hope for find an exit. 

    Chapter after chapter, I perfectly imagined the Maze, the Glade, and even the Grievers – a kind of monster. I matched the Maze to something really dark and threatening, puzzling and dangerous. This book involves readers in a great and thrilling adventure. I am in a hurry to watch the movies adapted from the book. It was hard to let the novel and go to bed, it was hard to do everything else that was not reading The Maze Runner. This reading leaved its mark on me, on my heart. I just want to read the next part. 

    An other thing I really loved in this book in the discrepancy between the serious and the humor we can find in one sentence. It is absolutely delicious, like if I was watching a movie with some pop-corn. James Dashner’s handwriting style is very simple but clear and impressively efficient. The author is able to deal with many strong topic with simple words and it can talk to everybody : friendship relation, love, difference, adolescence… I believe you had understand, I really love this book, really !

♥ ♥ ♥