Hello Bookworms! Welcome back to another book series review! I finally got round to reading The Maze Runner Trilogy in January, a series that’s been on my to-read list for years. I read it quite quickly, but I thought that I would share my views on it this month 😊.
The Maze Runner is a third person narrative that follows the life of a boy called Thomas, who is in a dystopian world similar to our own. We meet him in a maze, where he has to figure out a new way of life and how to solve a maze, with no memories of his previous life. We follow him and his friends through joys, laughs, heartbreaks and worry as they work out how to solve the inevitable. The next two books after this one carries a similar structure, just with different problems and obstacles to face (I don’t want to give too much away).
I found the books very gripping as well as being easy to read. You really dive into this alternate world and experience all of the events and feelings with the characters. I find that this isn’t always the case with third-person narratives, as you can seem out of the action. However, in this series, it works perfectly fine, and it made me certainly feel part of the group and helping them with the obstacles that they face.
There aren’t too many characters to keep track of: there are some that stay all the way through the three books, as well as some new ones along the way. Not all information is given straight away, but most of the time you are learning about them alongside Thomas and the other characters. This sometimes does create suspense, but I found that it made me enjoy the read more, as well as not overloading me with too much information at once.
The chapters aren’t too long in the series but aren’t too short either. They’re normally about 10 pages long, which makes it easy to finish at a chapter, then in the middle of one (this is definitely a preference of mine). All of the chapters end on either a cliff-hanger, the end of an event or day, or revealing some information. In some cases, this makes the books really hard to put down, which is obviously a bonus if you like your head stuck in a book!
As usual, there isn’t much to criticise about this series. The only thing that shocked me is my reaction to certain events and deaths (I hope that isn’t really a spoiler): normally I’ll end up sitting there feeling really emotional or teary. Instead of leaving me like that, this book left me feeling really empty and mixed on feelings. It was very weird, and none of my emotions came out until the end of the series. This was a little weird for me, but I think it only reflects the fast-paced sections of the narrative, and how we’re always kept on turning the next page.
So, there are my views on The Maze Runner series! There are film adaptations for this trilogy, but, as always, I recommend reading the books first. There are also two prequels set before the books which I read and found very interesting, but I would recommend reading them after the initial trilogy, because there are some spoilers and may leave you a little confused.
I hope you liked this review! Remember, if there are any books that you have read and want to share with us, feel free to send them to us! I would love to hear them! Here is a link for more information: https://www.girlguidinglaser.org.uk/challenges/report-for-the-hive.
Happy reading and I’ll see you next month 😊.