Maze Runner by James Dashner Book Review

The Maze Runner by James Dashner is the first book in the series, Maze Runner (woah what a coincidence). Thomas wakes up in a metal lift with his memory gone. He can remember things such as cows, but he can't remember where he saw them from or who he saw them with (this is actually mentioned in the book). He is lifted out of the cage by a rag-tag group of boys who welcome him to the Glade, which consists of a farmhouse, some fields, and a giant maze. He meets the gladers including a guy that sounds a bit violent and reminds me of Jayne from Firefly (I forgot his actual name, so just bare with me here). This boy recognizes Thomas because he was once stung by a griever and had to go through a painful process to be cured. Now, these grievers are like giant slugs with spikes and needles and pretty creepy, and when you are stung by one you have to go through this process that brings back a bit of your memory, which is what happened to this dude. He recognizes Thomas as a horrible person that put them in this maze, and he also remembers the flare, and is thus against going out of the glade and into the real world. And that is my attempt at a summary without spoilers.

I honestly loved this book so much and it just gets better as you move on in the series. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world and you can see that more as you move along.
Here are some things of interest:

Thomas: He is kind of annoying at first, because he really just complains a lot. He gets a lot better as you move on though, so don't get turned off the book because you don't like him at first.

Teresa: I personally don't know how to feel about her, she is very assertive, which I like, but I can't really relate to her as much as I would have hoped. Though... I really like how her character is developed in the series.

The other bit more minor characters are pretty great. Even the ones that suck are great (like cold pizza...)
My only complaint about this certain book (not the series) is that it is a bit slow in the beginning. For the first bit you are pretty much following Thomas around as he angsts about everything, but things get more interesting as Teresa arrives, so stay with it even if you feel like its slow.

Overall, 8/10. I love this book, but compared to the other books in the series, it's not as great.
Reviews of The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure coming later :D

~Dani