By Jordan Sunkel
Round Table editor

Imagine you’re in a pitch-blank box. Imagine you don’t know where you are. Imagine that all you know is your first name, and that is all. Imagine the box opens, and you’re surrounded by almost fifty other boys. Imagine you’re in a world where no one knows the answers to the questions you ask. Imagine this is your world.

This is Thomas’s world in The Maze Runner by James Dashner. He doesn’t know his age, what he looks like or even what his last name is. All he knows is that he’s on a farm, and that no one will answer his questions.

Thomas soon learns the chain of command. Their leader is Alby, and his right-hand man is Newt. There are also Keepers, who are in charge of each job in the Glade.

The Glade is where these boys live. There is a homestead, gardens, a slaughterhouse and a forest that holds the graveyard. On the outskirts of the Glade is giant walls, and outside of the walls, when the door is open, there is a Maze.

The Gladers believe that inside the Maze is the way to escape from this life. Every day Runners go into the Maze and search for the way out. They’ve done this every day for two years.

After two years, they know there’s a pattern, but there’s no way out. The walls change every day, and they can’t find an exit. After every day of running, the Runners come back, right before the Doors close.

The Doors close to protect the Gladers from the monsters, called Grievers. To be stung by a Griever would cause death, if not for the Serum, but it causes extreme pain and memories of their past lives.

Usually one new person arrives every month and supplies after every two weeks, but after Thomas arrives, the unexplainable happens. The next day, a girl arrives, and she’s in a coma. For a few short moments she wakes up and says a few haunting words, “Everything is going to change.”

Suddenly the Glade is turned upside-down. A Griever is found dead, people get caught in the Maze and then suddenly the Doors stop closing, the Gladers are no longer safe.

Thomas knows what he must do to find the way out of the Maze. He must do what no one else has before, and he must convince the other boys to trust him after what he’s found out about himself.

Dashner’s story is addictive. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down. Every few pages there are twists and turns that keep the reader begging for more.

All the events make sense to the plot as well. None could be predicted, but all fit perfectly into the world that Dashner has created.

The book also plays on all of the reader’s emotions, from fear, to sadness, to happiness and joy. All of the characters have their own distinct personalities, with their own quirky sayings and humorous banter.

Naturally, a book such of this one ends in a cliff-hanger, promising for a second book, which was released on Oct. 12, and is called The Scorch Trials. From what I’ve started, the second book is just as amazing as the first.