Fiction Friday Book Review: THE MAZE RUNNER Trilogy by James Dashner

“Drama Queen,” the thirteen-year-old I watch/drive around was the first one to recommend The Hunger Games to me. So when she recommended a book called The Maze Runner by James Dashner, I definitely trusted her judgment. And as pathetic as it might seem that I share the same basic literary tastes as a thirteen-year-old, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed The Maze Runner. The two sequels, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure, were also highly enjoyable.


The trilogy is definitely dystopian, although that is not clear in the beginning. In fact, it took me a while to get into the story because I wasn’t sure where it was going. But Dashner did an excellent job of setting up the plot. It begins with the main character of Thomas, whose only memory is his first name. He arrives in an enclosed community called the Glade, where the population consists of several other teenage boys who also have no memory of their lives before they arrived at the Glade. Adjacent to the Glade is a dangerous maze, which is believed to hold the key to their captivity. The arrival of the first girl (Teresa) in the Glade triggers several events that might lead to their freedom, but her arrival also triggers memories in Thomas, which suggest that the world beyond the maze might not be what they expect. Lurking behind it all is a mysterious organization called WICKED, which Teresa claims is good—but Thomas isn’t so sure.

Perhaps one of the marks of a good dystopian novel is that it’s a bit disturbing—in a good way. I haven’t been kept awake by a book since I finished reading The Hunger Games series, but I found myself thinking about these books long after turning out the light. I wondered why the characters were acting the way that they were. I wondered how the characters might feel about the difficult decisions they had made or were about to make. I wondered what the characters were going to do next, what was going to happen to them. Dashner definitely kept me guessing throughout the series, often surprising me. In fact, at the end of the first book, I found myself staring in disbelief at the last page, absolutely shocked at the turn the story had taken. Dashner knows how to write a good cliff-hanger; he has a gift for suspenseful writing.

This gift was also evident in the many exciting action scenes that took place throughout the series. I often found myself on the metaphorical “edge of my seat” while Thomas and his friends encountered monsters in the maze, zombie-like creatures in an abandoned city, or (most frightening and disturbing of all) average humans who were capable of unspeakable cruelty. It was hard to tell who was a “good guy” or “bad guy” in this series. While that much mystery would typically bother me, I was intrigued by Dashner’s ability to make me repeatedly question whether or not I liked a character.

There were things I didn’t like about the plot—but mainly these were surface things, like not wanting a certain character to die, or not wanting the story to take off in a grim direction. But the darker aspects provided a realism that I can definitely appreciate and admire. Dashner crafted a story that was thought-provoking, exciting, and three-dimensional. His characters were not what one might always want or expect—they were human, with good qualities and bad. And somehow I think that message might have been an underlying theme of the whole series. We’re all human. We are all capable of noble things, but we’re also very capable of evil. Those were the thoughts that kept me up at night.

There is no sex and only light profanity in The Maze Runner series, but due to violence and disturbing/intense imagery, I highly recommend this series only for mid-to-older teenagers and adults. Despite the fact that a thirteen-year-old got me hooked on it, I think the younger teenagers should wait a few years.

I also want to point out that while girls will probably appreciate this story, it seems more geared towards boys. There aren’t enough stories out there specifically for teenage guys, so if you’re a parent of boys, I’d check these out. And if you live in Wake County and use their library system, go ahead and get put on the reserve list for The Maze Runner, because it took me almost two months to get it! The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure were both ready within a week of my reservation.

Fiction Friday: Book Review: "Across the Universe" by Beth Revis

As I am a fan of both science fiction and the Beatles, you might assume that I'd like a sci fi YA novel that takes its name from a Beatles song.  You would be correct in that assumption.  Although I don't really like that particular Beatles song, Beth Revis has penned an exciting dystopian-style science fiction which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Across the Universe centers around two main characters: Amy, a teenager who has been cryogenically frozen so that she can travel with her parents to colonize a new planet (which is so far away that it will take 300 years to get there), and Elder, a teenager who is being trained under the current leader, Eldest, to lead the people on board the spaceship Godspeed, which is the same ship on which Amy and her parents are traveling--as cargo.. The story is told in first person, present tense (which has recently become one of my favorite voices), alternating between the perspectives of Amy and Elder. At first, I was annoyed by the switching of perspectives--it slowed the plot (at first), and was otherwise just slightly confusing. After finding the rhythm, however, I was able to follow and greatly enjoy the story that Revis told through her two main characters.  It added to her story by telling it from both perspectives, and it was interesting how she handled different situations through those two perspectives.

When Amy is unfrozen (and nearly killed in the process) fifty years ahead of schedule, her existence threatens the ideal society that Eldest has maintained, but Elder befriends her. Together they try to figure out who is trying to unfreeze and potentially murder those who have been frozen, and also discover the truth behind the lies that have governed the ship for decades.

Honestly, for me, it's hard to go wrong with science fiction, but it is possible. I enjoy science fiction only if the characters are believable and interesting (even if they're aliens, they've got to be "real"). Revis' characters were brilliant, three-dimensional, and "perfectly flawed." I could see their behaviors, attitudes, and actions as being something anyone might display, given their circumstances. In all honesty, one of her villains was slightly over-the-top, but the gradual development and revelation of this character was one of the more interesting aspects of the book. I especially appreciated that Revis' darker characters showed great humanity, while her protagonists displayed believable flaws. The character development made this story all that more enjoyable.

I was also impressed by the mystery she unraveled throughout the story. There were a few things I had guessed, but she managed to genuinely surprise me in the end. The story ended on an open-ended, yet satisfying note. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, A Million Suns, which I already have on reserve from the library! I just wish the third book were coming out sooner than next year, but it will be exciting to have to wait for a book again. I haven't really done that since Harry Potter.

I will caution that there is some profanity and a lot of mildly graphic sexual imagery in this book. I am extremely sensitive to graphic imagery in writing because the words never leave my head. The imagery in this book was not enough to bother or disturb me.  The sexual references served to illustrate some of the problems of the society aboard Godspeed.  While I'm not sure the references and imagery were absolutely necessary, they definitely did not detract from the story in any way.  I would also caution that there is some depressing material in the story that might upset or disturb younger readers.

I was pleased and intrigued to find that there were some references to Amy's character having faith in God, although I'm not sure that her choices and lifestyle would always reflect that. The point was made a couple of times that Elder (and none of those living on the ship--who were not cryogenically frozen) did not believe in God. A very minor conflict between Amy and Elder was noted in Across the Universe, and I'm interested in knowing if and if so, how Revis will expound on this conflict in the sequels. I doubt she mentioned it without having some sort of purpose for it later--but we'll see!

I would definitely recommend Across the Universe to older teenagers and adults, but would encourage younger readers to wait a few years. This was an excellent, fun, and thought-provoking book!

Fiction Friday: De-Light-Ful Dystopian

I've been reading quite a bit of dystopian literature lately.  It's been fun, for the most part.  Among the series that I've read is the City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau.  This series is one that I would recommend to twelve or thirteen year olds before I'd recommend it to older young adults, but I really enjoyed reading them.

I think I had a greater appreciation for these books because I started reading them right after I experienced a 36 hour power loss at my apartment.  The first book, The City of Ember, takes place in, well, the City of Ember.  This is an underground city that was built some 250 years ago by the Builders, and it is powered by a generator that is beginning to break down, threatening to leave the city's inhabitants in total darkness. 

The night before starting these books, I had to use a lot of candles, and let me tell you, candlelight doesn't really cut it.  I'm not sure what people did before electricity, but I'm pretty sure they went to sleep earlier than I typically do.  I needed three candles just to be able to have enough light to read.  When the lights finally came back on, I did a major happy dance.  I've never been so glad to see an illuminated light bulb in my life.

And so I was really thinking about what it would be like to be dependent on a power source that was breaking down.  The main characters of The City of Ember, Lina and Doon, were just twelve years old when they had to face this problem.  They were both a little naive (a lot of the attitudes in this book seemed a little naive, which is why I would recommend it for younger "young adults"), but they were both courageous and hopeful--and in a lot of ways, much wiser than the corrupt adults in control of the city.  I'm not going into any further detail about the plot, because I think you should read these for yourself.

I like science fiction.  I like it a lot.  So dystopian literature is usually right up my proverbial alley.  I like fiction that takes place in the future after some kind of disaster has taken place, but only if the characters involved in such a situation end up with some sort of happy, yet realistic ending.  I'm not looking for a "happily ever after" necessarily; I'm looking for a "hopefully ever after."  The City of Ember and the following books, ending in The Diamond of Darkhold, do end hopefully.  Themes of hope and light are woven through them, so even if they are a little naive at times, I am glad I took the time to read them.

I also managed to read the whole four book series in about 4-5 days, which also leads me to believe they'd be better for younger readers.  And there was a LOT of description, which was sometimes very good.  I was able to see many of the scenes very clearly.  I just often felt a little intellectually insulted by the author's descriptions, as if she felt the need to explain how things worked or what things looked like too much.  Perhaps she did this intentionally because her target audience was younger readers.  In that case, the overkill of description was probably a good thing. 

I also want to say that I'm not sure I agree with all the author's philosophies on religion (they were ambiguous, and I'm not always sure what point she was trying to make), which were included in all of the books, but mostly in the prequel (book three of the series) the Prophet of Yonwood.  If you're interested in the series, I don't think it's entirely necessary to read the Prophet of Yonwood.  It was a good story, but the other three books could exist very easily apart from it. 

I plan on seeing if Redbox has the movie version of The City of Ember that came out a few years ago, but I heard it wasn't very good.  Still, Bill Murray's in it, so I figure it's worth a shot. 

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Fiction Friday: Hopeful Endings

I am sort of writing about a genre today, but not really.  I've recently read a popular dystopian (kinda like the opposite of Utopian) YA series, which shall remain nameless for the moment, and it started me thinking about the endings of books.  When I get done with a work of fiction, I usually want to feel better about life in general than when I first started reading it.  I like books that end with a strong sense of hopefulness.  There are exceptions to this, I suppose--like if the book didn't leave me with a good happy feeling, but maybe it really made me think, that would be good, too.  Some of the best fantasy stories are ones that reveal truth about real life, and sometimes that truth is a sad truth.  I like it sometimes when a book ends somewhat (but not completely) sadly, but leaves me thinking about the characters and their philosophies long into the night, perhaps even pervading my dreams.

The dystopian series I recently read (at least the original books for the series) did not end with a good happy feeling.  Rather, the author ended the supposed last book with a stark view of humanity.  The main idea seemed to be that since humanity messed up their world once, they were inevitably going to mess it up again.  I was thrown by this.  Up until the last few chapters of the supposed final book, I was thoroughly enjoying the series.  Then I realized that things were not going to end happily.  I realized that the main character was not going to overcome any of her selfish character flaws, nor did she seem to want to.  Instead, she seemed to turn her back on humanity and recede further inside her own self.  There was another book added, seemingly as an afterthought, which did give me a better sense of closure, but the whole reading experience shook me.  I am thinking about this series late into the night, which I like, but I don't know if I like the reasons I'm thinking about it.

The series was well-written, entertaining, and enjoyable. There were exciting plot twists and the pace was just about perfect.  The characters were well-developed, likable, and believable.  I choose to believe that's why this series has done so well.  But I have to admit there's a dark corner of my mind that entertains the idea that maybe people liked this series so much because they agree with the grim ideas the author seemed to be communicating: that mankind is really screwed up and has no hope.

I agree with the first part of that.  Mankind is really screwed up.  We are selfish creatures who don't know how to love or be loved.  We're hopeless, but that doesn't mean we don't have hope.  Our hope isn't in our own efforts or own worth--if it were, then yes, I'd agree with every sentiment the author of that dystopian series seemed to be communicating: that humans would be better off annihilating themselves.  But if you've read this blog before or if you know me, then you'll probably guess what I'm going to say next.  Our hope isn't in found in anything we can do; it's only in the Lord. 

Now, other dystopian series I've read have not been quite so dark at the end.  They don't necessarily claim any religious viewpoints, but I tend to read Christ into any view of hope.  The Hunger Games series (another hugely popular dystopian series) ended sadly in a lot of ways, but there were tears streaming down when I reached the last few pages and read about the yellow flowers.  I love yellow flowers, perhaps for the same reasons Suzanne Collins (author of the Hunger Games books) used them in her book.  They are symbols of hope.  I am sure she didn't have anything religious in mind when she wrote the ending (or any other part of the books), but I experienced something pretty close to pure Joy while reading it.  I felt a sense that no matter what happened, life was worth living, trials were worth trying, and love was worth sharing.

And that's how I like the ending of a book to make me feel.