There's a lot of hype around these series and it's recommended to everyone who loves a good YA dystopian novel, which I totally do. So, I decided to give this one a try and I didn't quite like it.
In the first book, The Maze Runner, a boy named Thomas wakes up in this strange place, remembering only his name and nothing else. He is surrounded by a lot of boys who are in the same situation as him. They don't remember anything at all, except their names. They are located in the central part of a maze, which everyone calls the Glade. The maze outside is ever changing and the boys are trying to map it out so they can find a way out. They are organised by the type of job they do and the ones that go out in the maze to find a way out are called the Runners. But, there is a great danger lurking outside of the maze, hence the runners (because they have to run in order to avoid being caught). Also, right after Thomas appears in the lift of the Glade, a girl comes. The first girl ever. And she delivers this scary and weird message to the boys and they start to work together on getting out.
When I read the plot summary, I thought it was fascinating. And it was. But that is the only thing that's good about the book. I don't really like the style of writing in this book. There was zero characterization. I couldn't relate to Thomas at any point in the book. You can read that he is sad, or scared or confused, but you don't feel it. I thought that the secondary characters were a lot more interesting, like Minho, who is a fellow runner, or Newt who is kind of the leader of the group, but they were pushed aside as secondary characters even though they had a lot of potential. The female lead, Teresa, was awful. She is described as this smart and pretty girl, but you don't really see that, which is annoying, so she kind of becomes this stereotypical female character that hasn't got anything special about her. None of the characters are developed.
The plot was interesting enough, and even when I didn't like the first one (which I found the best out of the three), it ended on such a cliff-hanger that I had to read the next one.
The second one, The Scorch Trials, was really strange and jumbled and nothing really happened. There were a lot of new, confusing elements which were supposed to begin to explain the plot, but they were kind of bleak and didn't really tell anything new. I liked this one less than the first, but now I was deep into the story and again it ended on a cliff-hanger so I had to pick up the last one too.
The last one, The Death Cure, was just plain disappointing and annoying. I didn't get any satisfactory conclusion or explanation to the whole story. I don't even think there was one. Nothing was quite thoroughly explained. The ending was a total cliche, starting a new, better life and all. I was quite angry with it. I kept reading in order to get some kind of closure on the plot, but I was left empty handed.
All in all, I don't get the hype around it. It was enjoyable enough, but it can it even get close to the other YA dystopian novels that I read. The plot was intriguing, but don't expect the ending to be this huge revelation, because it's not. I wouldn't say that you can definitely skip this book, but I also don't think that you will be missing out on anything. Nevertheless, there is a movie coming out that is based on these books, so I am looking forward to seeing how well executed it is.
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