The Maze Runner: A Review

Yesterday I finished reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  It is a sci-fi book for teens, the first of a trilogy.  I'm giving it a 2 star rating, but let me explain.  James Dashner obviously has a great writing talent.  The book was very well written with plenty of mystery and excitement.  It had that blasted sentence or paragraph at the end of each chapter that makes it impossible to close the book and move on with real life.  It was a gripping story, and I was guilty of letting my chores go a bit too much.  But as well as it was written, I simply did not like the story.  Thomas is a teenager who gets deposited into a community of boys who've all had their memories wiped.  They are trapped in an artificial world where their only hope of escape is through a maze that changes daily and where giant slug robots try to hurt and kill the "Runners" of the maze.  It wasn't pleasant.  I don't enjoy reading for hours about young men being tormented and traumatized.  The end of the book didn't resolve the feeling of angst I had for Thomas and his friends.  I don't intend to read two more books full of this stressful stuff to try and find a happy ending.  Dashner also included his own made-up curse words which are generously slathered throughout the book.  That bugged me.  If you like blood and horror, then this book is great for you, but it's not my thing.