The Maze Runner by James Dashner

There are three things that could make you pick up this book.

1) You like science fiction.

2) You love The Hunger Games and need a "filler" book while waiting for Mockingjay to be released.

and

3) You like cliffhangers that make you go, "WHAT THE FREAK?  Hold on there for a second." But you don't get an explanation, you just have to wait until the next book comes out.

My biggest reason to pick up this book because it was a book one of my friends on GoodReads.com had read and recommended.

I couldn't say no.  I'm waiting so patiently (please hit that it is hard to write sarcasm) for Mockingjay and I did need a filler story that would pump me up for it.

I was right.  It was a great filler story that pumped me up for the release of the new Hunger Games book, but I was also so stupidly wrong that it would just be that, a "filler" book.

The Maze Runner is a great science fiction book that follows, Thomas, as he shows up in a place he's never been and knows nothing but his first name.  All known details of whatever memories he has are wiped clean.  No faces are remembered, no names.  All he knows is that he is Thomas.

When he shows up in the Box, he is told by the other boys that there is always one boy a month for the past two years sent up through to the Glade.  Supplies are sent the same way, but they survive how best they can with farming their own crops, slaughtering their own animals and living a simple life until they find a way out of the Maze.  Everyone has a job in the Glade and the one Thomas wants more than anything is to be a Runner. He wants to find the way out of the Maze.

He's only there in the Glade for one day when the Box sends up a girl. The only girl in the Glade.  With her comes a mysterious note and warning that scares everyone and really makes Thomas want to get out more than ever before.

This book really gave me the chills in spots, and held my attention through the whole story.  The author, James Dashner, created a new way of speaking, and a new way of community with this set of boys that live in the Glade.  The environment is eerie at best times and darn right scary other times.  I loved the set up of everything in this story and how everything in turn winds its' way through and all connects later on.

Thomas, the main character, is amazingly stubborn, stupid, but also very much a leader in this story.  We join him from the very first sentence when he wakes up in the Box and joins the Gladers in their world and community that is center to the Maze.  He is tortured, attacked, beaten, stung, and just plain old worn out as we watch him learn the ways of the Gladers.  For a main character, I love how he is.  His personality is stubborn, but enduring.  A quality that is good in a hero of a story.

Now, if you like cliffhangers, you won't be disappointed with this book.  It will leave you wanting more and wanting to know where it will lead you on your next journey.  See, I like cliffhangers, just so I can speculate on what may or may not happen next.  It gives me hope that the next story will be better than the first.  Most stories I have had that expectation and they fill that void you can get from thirsting for more from the plot.  I believe that the next book to The Maze Runner will do that for me as well.

The Scorch Trials is the next book coming out October 12, 2010 by James Dashner.  Personally, I already have it on hold at the library.