Dystopian novels will always be a fun read. They serve as a reminder that it could be worse.

Life may seem to suck now, but at least you aren’t trapped in an arena with kids trying to kill you. Or, like Thomas in “The Maze Runner,” trapped in an experiment by adults trying to kill you.

“The Maze Runner” is the first novel of a trilogy written by James Dashner and was released in 2009.

Thomas wakes up in an elevator. He has no idea where it is taking him or why he is in it.

He doesn’t even know his own last name.

When the elevator opens, Thomas finds himself in a strange place surrounded by teenage boys. These boys more or less welcome him to their community they call The Glade.

Every month a new boy is sent to The Glade. Nobody knows anything except that they want to get out. This place is far from natural.

They don’t know where their electricity comes from. Their water comes from pipes in the ground, but they don’t question it.

Supplies are sent from the elevator. They are aware that they are being watched.

The Glade is surrounded by a giant wall that opens during the day to reveal a maze.

During the night, the wall closes. This is when the maze shifts and the monsters come out.

The day after Thomas’ arrival, the boys get a surprise. A girl is sent to them, and everything goes awry.

This is a plot-driven book full of mystery and originality, but I’m not sure if I liked this book.

The plot is the only thing that kept me reading. Almost every chapter ended with a cliffhanger. Out of 62 chapters, that really says a lot.

Everything else fell flat.

The made up slang in this book just seemed sloppy.

The boys are learning to run their own community so it makes sense that they would develop their own phrases. It adds charm.

The slang is nothing more than substitutes for curse words. When Thomas is called a “shuck-face” it’s pretty obvious what that’s supposed to mean. It sounded cheesy like much of the dialogue.

The book doesn’t evoke real emotion from me. When a certain loveable character dies at the end I did feel sad, but I don’t think it was the kind of sad that Dashner was hoping for.

It was a fun read, but a good book should be more than that. I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.