Thomas wakes up in a cold metal box, surrounded by strange teenage boys, and all he can remember is his name. Every month, a new boy arrives in the box. Over the course of two years, the boys have formed a community with roles and jobs, including the runners, who map the ever-changing Maze outside of the stone walls. It is the only way out of the Glade, but they have never found a way out of the maze. Then the first ever girl arrives. And she has a message. Everything is going to change.
No one gives Thomas any answers when he arrives in the Maze, and the frustration and the excitement of uncovering the new world yields a fast-paced young adult dystopian scifi. The slang is also a nice touch.
The single mystery of the book is the Maze, and it’s difficult to believe that none of the genius boys have had a new idea for solving it in two years. Or any success in taking down the monsters that prowl the Maze at night – half flesh, half mechanical killing machines equipped with all manner of syringe-filled madness. Thomas is the first boy to have a new idea, and even he can’t figure it out without a work-around to jump-start his memory.
Unfortunately, the addition of the only girl to the Glade is as a blue-eyed, leggy girlfriend of Thomas and herald of doomsday to the other occupants. If she was the only flat character it would be really annoying, but almost none the other supporting male characters are much better.
I will most likely not continue this series but recommend it for a YA male audience.
“You are the shuckiest shuck-faced shuck in the world!”