A review by sarabamanda
The Maze Runner by James Dashner

2.0

Ehhh. My 13-year-old loved this. I would describe the writing style as “like a college kid who’s really good at writing, but not quiiiite professional yet” or “a great first draft that needs to be looked over by an editor and then further developed.” The concept is really good, but there were a lot of instances that lacked continuity and it just emphasized the sophomoric writing to me. For example, someone gets knocked out to the point that you’re not sure if they’re dead… and the next thing you know, they’re running right behind someone else. What? When did they wake up? In other instances, the author drops a scenario that seems very much like there’s more to be discovered… and then never comes back to it. Did he forget he dropped that bit? Did he decide not to run with it and didn’t bother to go back and take out the clue? Like I said, it felt very much like this was an unedited first draft. Great potential, but needs to be worked over much more thoroughly. (Maybe he’s familiar with the film industry and wrote just enough to secure a picture deal, figuring he’d let the screenwriters develop the story. Who knows?)