I'm going to start this one by stating that the fantastic marketing team of Random House called this book a combination of Lord of the Flies and Hunger Games.
Heavy, no?
Well, I'm going to both agree... and disagree with this assessment. Weirdly enough, I'm going to say that both books apply... but add a dash of The Diary of Anne Frank.
I know, I know. Ms. I's gone off her rocker. What does a heartbreaking story of a prosicuted jewish girl have to do with Maze Runner?
Give me a moment, and I shall proceed...
The Maze Runner starts off with a boy in darkness. He has the sensation of moving... lifting. He remembers his name... but not how he got where he is... nor who gave him that name. When he stops moving, a slit above him grows into a hole filled with young, male faces. These are the Gladers--the boys who have rising up the same way this boy has; and have the same memory lapses they do.
The Glade is a society of boys--in the vein of Lord of the Flies--and they have a daily puzzle to solve (very likely under the surveillance of some unknown group of elders)--in the vein of Hunger Games. Yet while the creepy vale of uncertainty coalesces around the entire story, an underlying moral that is repeated time and again is, we are good...people are good...in the end, no matter what.
Sound formidable?
The boys make the very best situation they can out of an awful, experimental distopia. More than that, they want to be free. To solve the ultimate puzzle of their existence.
Despite their hardships, and author James Dashner's obvious intentions on our torture while waiting for the second book, the reader gets the impression of a group of kids who will visit hell to save each other.
Even when the one and only girl arrives... And what to do when the "real world" might be worse than the experiment they're locked in?
Read it people. You won't be disappointed.
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