The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Thomas wakes up to find himself in a a dark, moving box with no memories of himself except for his name. When the box comes to a stop and the door opens up, he finds himself in the Glade--a large open area surrounded by giant stone walls--surrounded by a bunch of teenage boys who also have no memories of themselves except for their names. He comes to discover that some of the boys had been in this place for 2 years and that outside the walls of the Glade is a giant Maze that they haven't been able to solve in that time. 

Thomas is different than the other Gladers. He feels that the place is familiar and he has a desire to be a runner, like he was born for it. He's the first new Glader that didn't act terrified for a few weeks after coming out of the Box. Everyone is suspicious of him, especially those that have gone through the Changing--something that happens after being stung by monsters in the Maze that gives them some memories back. 

It only gets worse when the first girl ever shows up in the Box, the day after Thomas did. And she shows up with a message that everything is going to change and that she is the last one. That's when all chaos breaks loose. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was really fast paced and kept my attention the whole way through, but there were some weird points. It took a while for me to be okay with the weird lingo they use in the Glade. I still don't like it, but I learned to basically tune it out. There were also some magical parts of this book that were explained as being scientific but were kind of unbelievable. Apparently, there's just some really amazing technology in this future world. 

I felt that Thomas was a pretty good main character. He kept a level head about himself most of the time. He wasn't perfect, especially towards the end, but I really liked that. I thought that Newt, Minho and Chuck were good secondary characters as well. I didn't really like Teresa, but I have a feeling that we weren't really meant to. 

There wasn't really a good explanation about why these kids were thrown into the Maze and I feel like the full explanation isn't really going to make much sense. I do plan on reading the rest of the books in the series, so I guess I'll see where it goes.

I give this book 3.5 stars.