The Maze Runner

           Summary: A boy named Thomas wakes up in a metal box, with no memory of the past, only his name. He wakes up on a type of farm, known as the Glade. There are many other boys living in the Glade. The area is surrounded by very high walls, like a maze. Every month a boy is sent into the maze. Supplies come through an elevator each week. Thomas learns that in the maze, there are these monsters called grievers. If one stings you, you go through a very traumatic experience called "the changing." He meets the leader Alby, the second in command leader named Newt, and befriends a younger boy named Chuck. He makes a rival/frenemy, I guess you can call it, with Gally, who is very suspicious of Thomas. And he meets Minho, a runner.The day after Thomas arrives, a girl comes, the first ever. Her name is Teresa. Thomas feels a strong connection to her.Thomas decides he wants to become a runner. When he saw Alby (who got stung) and Minho struggling to come out of the maze, he runs in, breaking one of the Glade's biggest rules. All 3 of them were stuck in the maze at night. They survive the night, making Thomas a hero for some, but really suspicious in others's eyes. Since he broke one of the rules, he is sentenced to "Glade jail." Minho allows Thomas to become a running trainee. Gally objects, accusing Thomas of being a spy. Teresa is still unconscious but she and Thomas begin communicating telepathically. She tells Thomas that they both had something to do with the making of the maze. After spending the day in jail, Thomas begins his training under Minho, and he learns how the runners map the maze. Then Teresa wakes up and tells Thomas that the maze is a code. Alby and Newt become very suspicious of her. That night, the maze does not close like it normally does. They all hide in a boarded up house, waiting for the grievers to come. Gally tells them that the grievers will kill one glader each night until they're all dead. Thomas and Teresa investigate the maps and discover letters that don't really have any meaning. Thomas then allows himself to get stung by a griever trying to remember the past. After recovering, he remembers that Teresa and him were forced to help the creators of the maze and that he knows a way out. They have to all go into the maze to escape. Thomas leads them and as they are escaping, they are attacked by grievers. Many die but the rest of them escape and come face to face with the creators. A woman comes to greet the Gladers and she tells them they have done well. She has a young boy with her. That boy is Gally. He throws a knife at Thomas, but Chuck sacrifices himself and jumps in front of the knife to save Thomas. Thomas attacks Gally, and suddenly a group of rescuers come and shoot the woman and take the gladers to a dormitory-type building. They finally feel safe. We later find out in the book that the gladers have not escaped. They have just moved on to the next step of the trials. The point of the experiment is to find people who are resourceful and intelligent enough to fight the Flare (a deadly disease) and rescue humanity.

          My thoughts on the book: I did like the plot of this book for sure. Sure it was like a typical sci-fi novel, where the main characters are under a simulation, but instead of fighting other humans like in Divergent and Insurgent, they were fighting monsters, which was a good change. I actually liked the movie more than the book. Part of the reason was because I think the book dragged on a bit, while the movie showed the whole plot and didn't leave that much out. Also the movie did a good job of showing how the grievers looked because if I hadn't known how they looked, I wouldn't really know what to visualize. Honestly, I'm just tired of sci-fi, which I know I've mentioned in my other posts. Over the summer and in the future, I want to read  a wider variety of genres. I really have been wanting to read Papertowns by John Greene. I've heard it's good and I liked The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska.