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The Maze Runner is a 2009 dystopian novel by American author James Dashner. It takes place in a world suffering from a coronal mass ejection and whose surviving civilians fight to avoid an apocalyptic illness called the Flare. It is written from the perspective of Thomas, a 16-year-old boy who wakes up with no memories inside an artificially produced maze but who is also the key to his friends’ salvation. An organization called WICKED controls the world politically and seeks a cure to the Flare and uses the youngest generation of civilians who have been found to be immune as test subjects.

The book received critical acclaim from major reviewers and authors. It won the All Library Association Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction for Young Adults Book award in 2011, is a #1 NYT Bestselling series and was on the #1 NYT Bestseller list for 148 weeks, and a Kirkus Reviews Teen Book of the Year. Moreover, The Maze Runner is a popular pick of educators teaching middle-age readers in schools.

The novel was published in 2009 by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House with cover art by Philip Straub. The Maze Runner is the first novel in The Maze Runner series, followed by The Scorch Trials (2010), and The Death Cure (2011). A film adaptation, directed by Wes Ball, was released in 2014 by 20th Century Fox and stars Dylan O’Brien as Thomas.

Reception

The Maze Runner is critically acclaimed. Kirkus Reviews wrote: "Hard to put down, this is clearly just a first installment, and it will leave readers dying to find out what comes next." Jessica Harrison of the Deseret Morning News labeled The Maze Runner "a thrilling adventurous book for kids ages 13+ that will get readers' hearts pumping and leave them asking for more." While she noted that it "starts out a bit slow," she says the pace ultimately matches Thomas's confusion, writing that "it's almost as if Dashner is easing the reader into what becomes a fast-paced, nonstop action." However, she thought a "drawback" was the "fictionalized slang," saying, "While it feels realistic and fits with his characters, it gets old pretty fast. On the plus side, however, it's used so often that the reader almost becomes desensitized and learns to ignore it."

The novel received awards for its excellence in the young adult literature category. It won the 2011 Best Fiction for Young Adults Award presented by the Young Adult Library Services Association. It won the Charlotte Award in 2012, an award named after Charlotte in E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, that is given to outstanding literature that encourages children to become life-long readers as voted on by students in New York State. It also won the Lincoln Award in 2012, sponsored by the Illinois School Library Educators, and for its notable encouragement of high school readers to read for personal enjoyment. Similarly, The Maze Runner won the Truman Readers Award in 2012 which encourages young readers between the sixth and eighth grades to express their voices through literary genres, collaborate with peers over young adult literature, and celebrates authors writing for young adults. The book received other awards as well, including the Evergreen Teen Book Award in 2012 and Georgia Peach Book Award in 2009. It was also nominated for Utah Book Award for Young Adults in 2009 and Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award in 2011, to name a few.

The Maze Runner is also a popular educational tool in schools. Dr. Christy Goldsmith from the University of Missouri notes that she used The Maze Runner in her secondary classroom to teach independent reading, how to interact with fiction, and that “reading doesn’t have to be painful.” In the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literary Review, Dr. Sara Abrams from Arizona State University recommends The Maze Runner to middle school students, saying “readers who seek adventure and are curious about living on their own will find The Maze Runner an engaging read” and compares it to Lord of the Flies, saying it is easier to read but just as entertaining. Sandra Bennet says the book is “an absorbing and tense novel which mid to older teens will devour” in The School Librarian.