Saturday, February 27, 2010

"The Maze Runner" Review

Book 6 of 20 for the Dystopian Challenge

A teenage boy wakes up in the middle of a giant maze. He has no memory of anything other than his name. The center of the maze is a walled respite called the Glade, and it is run by several other boys, none of whom can recall anything that happened before their own arrival. Some have lived there for as long as 2 years. Every night the walls to the Maze close, a defense against the scary half-machine, half-slug creatures that patrol the Maze at night.

It's a brilliant and creative setup.

The dystopian factor is that the enemy (apart from the slugs), being whoever created this environment and controls the Maze and sends supplies and one more kid every month into the Glade, is unknown. The rules are enigmatic. They're trying to escape, but they don't know what they're going to find at the end of the Maze if they ever manage to make their way out. What they know of their enemies is that they're sadistic, since only a pretty evil person or organization would subject kids to the horrors they live through in the Maze and the Glade.

Comparisons to the Hunger Games are inevitable. The Hunger Games with amnesia. And they're not supposed to kill one another, just survive from day to day.

I loved this book...until the last 10 pages. What is it with endings?? They must be quite difficult to write. It felt far too hasty and far too much happened to make it either believable or effective. Stuff happened, but it was rushed through. Nothing had enough time to sink in with any kind of impact, not like the first 360 pages, which were very well written. Environments and characters were beautifully and realistically described. The politics of the society the boys established were well depicted. If only all that had held true for the last few chapters, it would have been fantastic.

The first 36/37ths of the book were very compelling. Riveting, even. But there was a point where the action should have stopped and the falling action allowed to begin. Multiple crescendos followed by a sudden halt do not make a satisfying ending.
I have the feeling that if I do find a book with a decent ending, I will be shouting from the rooftops. Fingers crossed that it will happen.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking that the writers don't want to end their books, but given that they need to publish to get $$ they have to end sometime and somehow..

jenn said...

With as much care and attention that books require, though, wouldn't you want to make sure it also ended fittingly? Tacking something on is a great insult to the work, isn't it?