Week Five--The Maze Runner

On schedule with Week Five and it's only Tuesday!

I've been looking forward to this book for awhile because I've had many students rave about it to me. They even put it on the same scale with The Hunger Games, and you know how obsessed I am with The Hunger Games! So even though this is a pretty thick book, I knew I had to give it a try.

The book centers on Thomas, a boy who is completely, 100% confused. And this confusion is because he finds himself in an elevator-like box, being hoisted into an area called the Glade. And he doesn't know who he is, why he's at the Glade, if he has a family, or how he can get home (wherever that is!). And the other inhabitants of the Glade--all boys--don't seem to know much more than him. So Thomas' confusion soon turns to panic when he learns about how the Glade operates...like how monster Grievers come out at night to stalk the boys, the boys live inside an unsolvable Maze, and a girl arrives who can speak telepathically with Thomas.

This was definitely an action-packed book. Every chapter left a cliffhanger that just made me keep reading. And definitely a very creative concept...it kept me guessing the entire way through, and I couldn't decide if the book was fantasy, science fiction, or realistic fiction. The ending was a little abrupt and unexpected, but wow does it leave me ready to read the sequel! I wouldn't say it's another Hunger Games, but they really shouldn't be compared since they're so different. I felt like I related with Thomas since I was just as confused as he was during most of the book. This made it more fun as I tried to solve the puzzles along with him. Give this book a try and see the crazy world of the Glade, the Grievers, and the Creators. Good that!