Review: The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

genre: sci-fi/dystopia
age: YA
recommend to: indiscriminate lovers of dystopia
rating: 3/8 tentacles

Thomas suddenly finds himself stranded in a strange place called the Glade with no memories but his name. The Glade lies at the center of a labyrinth teeming with venomous monsters and is populated by a group of boys who rely on discipline and structure to stay alive, never losing hope that their perserverance will eventually lead them to escape their unfathomable prison. Thomas’s arrival is the first in a series of events that begins to overturn everything the Gladers thought they knew.

Initially, the premise sparked my interest. I love mysteries and immediately wanted answers to all of the questions Thomas and his friends struggle with: where did they come from, what is the Glade, who sent them there and for what purpose, what’s the deal with the labyrinth etc. As I read on, I found that I did not particularly like any of the characters or care what happened to them—partly because they weren’t quite developed enough to feel like real people and partly for subjective reasons.

Dashner’s writing often seems flat and contrived and is peppered with phrases that, at second glance, make no sense. I was also put off by the Gladers’ slang. In M. T. Anderson’s Feed, characters in a futuristic society use slang that demonstrates the gradual deterioration of language and appears to have evolved over a long period of time. Dashner’s attempt at slang seems random and unnecessary. It adds nothing to the plot and does not seem to have evolved organically. It is, rather, thrust upon the characters in what seems to be a flimsy imitation of other Sci-Fi works, in which having a distinct way of speaking has a more substantial function than decoration.

The plot through both novels felt loose and disjointed—a serial collection of obstacles instead of a flowing narrative propelled by cause and effect. I pushed myself to finish The Maze Runner and picked up the second book in hopes of receiving the answers I was denied at the conclusion of the first. I have read two thirds of the trilogy now, and still only have enough information to put together a vague picture of what’s happening.

I recommend this trilogy to those who like dystopian novels unconditionally and aren’t as picky as me when it comes to the technicalities of writing. I’m not yet sure if I’ll read the third book when it’s published—I still want to know what’s going on, but I don’t think I will enjoy the novel very much unless is an improvement on the previous two.