Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Quite fitting, isn't it, that the first book I read after Trump's victory is a dystopian? Because as this tweet says:

I foresee dystopian novels enjoying a sudden resurgence in popularity.

— Xen Sanders/C McCade (@thisblackmagic) November 9, 2016

Legit fear for the future aside, though, rereading The Maze Runner allowed me to turn the clock back not fifty or a hundred years, but more like five. Back to a time when Obama was in the White House and things were getting better, though to hear my parents talk about it, you'd think otherwise. Back to a time when dystopian YA was the next big thing because it came with timely social commentary but wasn't exactly predicting the future for us...right?

At least in this case, the dystopia isn't entirely man-made.

I first read this book in my senior year of high school, in the spring, a few months before The Death Cure hit shelves. I remember reading this one while sitting in the car waiting for my parents to get the van out of the service department at the dealership, baking in a little leather-lined greenhouse - which actually kind of helped set the mood for the Glade's tropical-type environment, as best as you could approximate it in the Bay Area.

Now that I'm rereading it - I think for the first time after seeing the movie - it still holds up very well, although I still like the movie a bit more.

I want to keep hope alive. Let's not allow fear to rule us all and drive us into a true dystopia.

Because after all, WICKED is not good, and don't let them try to convince you otherwise.

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