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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Re-read at Max's behest
Rating: 4/5
Pages: 372
Started: 18 January 2024
Finished: 27 January 2024
Summary:
When Thomas wakes up in the dark inside a grimly freight elevator, he has no recollection of who he is beyond his name. Though he knows what family is, he can't remember his own. He can picture an ice cream, but has no idea when was the last time he had one. As the elevator comes to a stop, though, depositing him in a glade occupied by a laborious yet suspiciously young band of boys, surrounded by a giant mechanical maze crawling with mechanical monsters, Thomas realizes his surroundings are oddly familiar. When a girl is sent up the elevator, with the message that everything is about to change, it becomes more and more vital that Thomas and his friends escape the maze.
Thoughts:
When I started this re-read, I underestimated what a fun book this is. It's exciting, engaging, written simply enough to be immersive but with enough grit and violence to be interesting. The plot twists were all very predictable and conventional, since the novel was written when YA Dystopian was still a new genre, but the details were fun enough that it wasn't a problem. The idea of a harsh and puzzle-like inner world actually shielding people from a chaotic and evil, even-more-dystopian outer world is very interesting (and was definitely recycled in Divergent, except there the timing was just confusing rather than interesting and well-paced).
Gender definitely played a huge role in this novel. The book centers an all-boys cast of characters, and it's not until Theresa arrives that Thomas realizes there are no girls. Theresa is also a character entirely separate from the rest of the boys; she has agency and Thomas has some thoughts about how she can fend for herself (the author's attempt at not making her simply a sexist stereotype on legs) but there is no sense of equality, and she only really exists in relation to Thomas--she does not feel like a real girl. The worst problem is the all-boys-bonding feel isn't played up significantly enough for the sexism to be worth it.
Despite this, though, this was a fun and exciting book, and I'd be happy to read more in the series. I had a vague recollection of how this book ended but I don't think I've ever read the other books in the series, so I'm very curious to see where the story goes.