The Maze Runner by James Dashner (the whole series, really)
Okay, okay, let the protests begin now. I can handle it. I'm ready for them.
In all seriousness, I am somewhat enjoying this series. I'm currently on the second book, The Scorch Trials, and I'm about 40 % of the way through it. The story line is extraordinarily creative and feels a little bit different from most of the dystopian novels I've read recently (Hunger Games and Divergent among them). I don't want to give anything away (although most of you probably know more spoilers than I do), but James Dashner does keep the plot twists coming, pretty much every chapter. That, however, is where part of my issue with the series comes from.
It's ALL conflict. Every single twist, turn, plot event, line of dialogue...there is NOTHING happy in this series so far. I understand the importance of conflict in a story, believe me. I am a writing teacher, and in Creative Writing I right now, we are talking about the absolute necessity of a well-developed conflict in our stories. However, we also talked about how you have to let good things (no matter how small) happen to your characters every now and then in order to keep your reader satisfied. Warning - potential spoiler alert ahead: For example, last night as I was reading, I thought maybe Thomas was going to be happily reunited with Theresa and maybe a teeny bit of joy could exist in Thomas' world for 10 seconds, but NO. Of course not. Theresa says to Thomas, "'Get away from me, Tom...all of you need to get...away...from me. Don't argue. Just leave. Run.' Her neck tensed with the effort to get those last few words out" (116). For those of you who would counter this quote and say, "but she's doing it to protect him!" yes, I realize that, but it's still not a happy situation for Thomas to have to leave her. So there.
Speaking of the conflict, here is the "official" movie trailer. I know lots of you have already seen the movie, and I'm looking forward to doing so myself soon!
I will definitely finish The Scorch Trials because I'm too invested NOT to at this point, but I don't know if I will continue on with the rest of the series. Those of you who have read it - give me your opinions! Should I keep going? Will I be rewarded with happiness at some point, or will I continue to be put through the emotional roller coaster that is this series? I look forward to your comments!
