I finally read this one after a very long time of having it on my tbr list. I had watched the movie before and I kind of knew what it was about. I have to admit that I preferred the movie and I think that the movie is objectively better than the book, however, I enjoyed the book quite a lot as well and went on reading the whole series.
I had heard many different reviews and opinions about this book, some were very good some were very bad, so I didn't know what to expect. The main problems that were pointed out to me were the simplistic writing style and the overuse of slang and made-up words. Personally, I didn't mind either one of these two. Surely, there's quite a lot of slang and made up curse words that are a bit annoying at first, but I could ignore them and by the end, I had gotten used to them. The writing style admittedly is simple and not the best you'll see, but it's easy to read and I didn't find it too bad.
Some of the strong points of the book... The set up is very good and the worldbuilding is great, you can see the Glade and the Maze right in front of your eyes, the world draws you in, the images are very vivid and the setting even if it is dystopian and fantastical still has a strong and strange sense of realism. The action/adventure scenes are very powerful and I believe that this kind of action-packed writing is probably Dashner's stronger point as a writer. He knows how to make it interesting but still easy to understand and not get lost into the craziness of the moment. It's probably his simple style of writing that also helps for such scenes, while the same kind of writing can be seen as extremely weak and lacking in scenes of dialogue or moments of character and relationship development where there's not much action.
One of my problems with the book had to do with the characters and how they were portrayed. Most of the characters seemed underdeveloped and one dimensional, while in the movies you get to see more of their personalities. It seemed to me that the characters in the books were always very angry, always in a bad mood and ready to curse or get in a fight -even in situations where there seemed to be no reason- and not much of a personality other than that. In the movie the characters are portrayed much better, you can clearly see that they are smart, strong, they take initiative and they move the plot forward rather than the plot moving them, which in my opinion is probably the biggest difference from book to movie. In the book, things happen to the heroes and they react to them and that's it for most of the time, but the movies are much more character-driven, the characters make choices and move the story. The movie gives the heroes more dimensions and angles and overall makes them more realistic and interesting. I also feel that the relationships were not as nicely fleshed out in the book as they were in the movie.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD***
Another thing that bothered me was that the plot as it unravels in the book doesn't make much sense, at least not as it does in the movie. In the book, it mostly feels that many of the problems magically disappear or they solve themselves, whereas in the movie the problems are solved by the characters who fight and make choices. Thomas just remembering what and how to do it was disappointing and even more the fact that he could talk about it while other Gladers could not talk about their memories. It doesn't make much sense and I much preferred the movie version. Also, I preferred the movie version of Teresa, how she wakes up, and how she acts rather than book Teresa. One thing I completely hated was the existence of the "telepathy" between Thomas and Teresa. Seriously what was that? No. No. No. It was horrible in every way I can think of and I was glad it was not in the movie. Gally's storyline was also much better in the movie.
The book definitely suffers from sagging middle syndrome. It starts very nicely with a good pace, very interesting setup, worldbuilding and descriptions that paint vivid images, it draws you in immediately. Around the middle, it gets very slow and a little bit boring and repetitive at times where they just talk over and over again about a solution that can't be found. At the beginning of the end, the solution is found within a couple of pages through Tom's memories. Thankfully, after this, the book picks right back up and becomes more interesting by each page and the pace from that point till the end is excellent. The last few chapters really grabbed my attention and I couldn't stop reading. The ending was very exciting and interesting and left me eager to start the next book.
***END OF SPOILER SECTION***
To sum up, even though I had my problems with the book, I still enjoyed it very much. It's an enjoyable read and the book is a page-turner. The world draws you in and you experience the adventure alongside the heroes. It is an exciting and promising adventure and I hope the rest of the trilogy lives up to my expectations. There were many moments that I didn't want (and could not) stop reading, the action scenes were well described and strong and the worldbuilding is quite good. I hate that I compared it s much with the movie, but I just couldn't help it, the comparison of each book with the each movie as well as the comparison between books of the series were inevitable for me. I had rated it 4* when I first read it, but after I read the rest of the series I had to re-rate this one and give it 3*, since I found myself preferring some other books of this series to this first one. Now that some time has passed and I have thought about it I think that the actual rating stands somewhere in the middle of my two ratings, so more like 3,5*.
I'll soon be back with the reviews and thoughts for the rest of the books in the series...
(...to be continued...) 😉
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