At a Glance
Thomas wakes up in an elevator with no memory of his past, arriving in the Glade — a sealed community of teenage boys surrounded by a giant, ever-shifting maze. He becomes a Runner, learns the maze may be solvable, discovers he has a mysterious connection to WICKED, the organization that built the maze, and ultimately leads a desperate escape. Teresa arrives with a message that everything is about to end, triggering a sequence that kills several Gladers and forces the survivors out through the Griever Hole — only to discover they've been subjects of an experiment all along.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Published at the height of the YA dystopian boom, The Maze Runner distinguished itself by centering a male protagonist and an all-male community — unusual for a genre dominated by female heroines (Katniss, Tris). It sold 10+ million copies worldwide, spawned three sequels and three films, and helped establish the template of the amnesiac protagonist as YA genre convention.
Diction Profile
Informal, direct — designed for middle-grade/YA readers but layered with implications that reward older readers
Low to moderate