Short Take: The Maze Runner--James Dashner

A trifle, not good enough to be a bon-bon, but perhaps a good crumpet.  60 teen boys trapped in a glade that is surrounded by a maze filled with murderous amorphous cyborg animals.  Their task--well, they don't know.  Who's doing it--well they don't know that either.  Enter our hero Thomas, one of the boys who is delivered once monthly to the glade.  And the day after, the first girl ever.  And after that--the deluge.

Vulgarity substitutes for thought--although the vulgarity is disguised by being in a language made up for the glade.  Plot holes that would give Ms. Rowling a run for her money, and characters that are both inconsistent and not particularly well-drawn.

All of that said, however, this is a dystopian thriller and it does deliver--non-stop.  If you're in the mood for some very light, very fast reading this may be the book for you.  While it is marketed YA, and certainly has the age group interests in mind, I would most definitely NOT recommend it for that age group.  There are much better-written pieces out there.  But if you just can't get enough of that old dystopian rag--this may be the book for you.

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