Module 8 : The Maze Runner

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/The_Maze_Runner_cover.png

SUMMARY

Book one in a trilogy, The Maze Runner is very popular amongst young readers today. The main character Thomas mysteriously arrives at a place called the "Glade" and inside the Glade are robotic creatures called Grievers, and he has no memory recollection other than his name. Around the outside of the Glade there is a maze with walls so tall no one can see out of it. Although Thomas befriends some of the others in the Glade, he still feels as though he has been there before. His connections run so deep that his friend Teresa is able to speak to him telepathically. The same night she speaks telepathically to him, and they find out that the Maze's doors would stay open and the Grievers will take only one person that night. It is their job to figure out how to get through the Maze by solving a code word.

APA REFERENCE
Dashner, J. (2009). The maze runner. New York: Delacorte Press.


IMPRESSIONS

I am not a fan of post-apocalyptic or dystopian novels. These sort of dark and violent books are very hard for me to read, however I do feel The Maze Runner was well-written, and very descriptive. I found myself wanted to get out of the Glade as quickly as I entered it. I do not think I will continue reading the trilogy.

PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
[Review of the book The Maze Runner by James Dashner]. Kirkus review retrieved on October 19, 2014 from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-dashner/the-maze-runner/.

Boys come to the Glade via an empty freight elevator with no memory of how they got there or of their prior lives. This disorientation is made more frightening when they realize that to survive they must lock themselves in every night to avoid the horrors of the Grievers, beings that are part machine, part animal—and altogether deadly. The boys in the Glade send out Runners each day to find a way out through the Maze that surrounds their one patch of safety, with no success. Life goes on until one day the elevator delivers a girl. She brings a message: She is the last child to be sent, and there will be no more deliveries of food or supplies. Now the Glade is cut off, and as the Grievers gather for an all-out attack it’s clear that it’s now or never—the Maze must be solved. Dashner knows how to spin a tale and make the unbelievable realistic. Hard to put down, this is clearly just a first installment, and it will leave readers dying to find out what comes next. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

LIBRARY USES

There could be a group discussion on comparing and contrasting The Maze Runner and Hunger Games. There could also be a discussion on the slang and language used in the The Maze Runner and how it would feel to be thrown in a new community where you spoke the language, but there were certain words that everyone knew the definition except you.