A group of teenage boys live in a glade, surrounded by a huge maze, without any memories previous to their arrival at this place. The maze outside is crawling with dangers, namely the Grievers, myterious animal-technological hybrids.The boys are strictly organised to survive, plant their own crops, raise their own livestock. Some chosen boys go out to scout the maze every day, but the walls of the maze change every night. Thomas is the last boy to arrrive, and he instantly meets with hostility and friendship alike, but his multitude of questions stay largely unanswered. Why was he sent here? Why does everything change after his arrival? What is this place? Who constructed it? Who controls it?

Very interesting story set-up with huge potential. Sadly that potential remains largely untapped. The writing style is unbearable. The author does not succeed in creating any real atmosphere of the place. Instead he keeps spelling out again and again, how frightening the experience is for Thomas, how weird the place is, that the boys have no hope for escape or even survival. It gets rather unnerving after a few pages. Presumably to avoid being censored for explicit language, Dashner has the boys use some invented words instead of the usual swearwords (shuck for fuck etc.). Another unnerving feature. Thomas keeps asking questions of the other boys, but for some unexplained reason they never tell him what little they know. This is probably supposed to create suspense, but that did not really work for me. At some point Dashner takes rather ridiculous measures to avoid having to give real information about the place. When one boy suddenly seems to remember who Thomas was and why he is here and what the maze is all about, he beats about the bush for a while and then has a seisure just in time, bevor giving out any real information. After the seizure, the memories are conveniently gone. A no-go for me.

Bottom line: Nice story idea, horrible realization.