The Maze Runner by James Dashner: First Look

“If you ain’t scared… you ain’t human.” - James Dashner

As most of you can probably figure out by now, I love dystopian themed books. From the Hunger Games, to Divergent, to Feed (the book I just finished reading) and now the new book I am going to read, The Maze Runner. As I was in the movie theater getting ready to watch The Giver, which is another dystopian book, the trailer for this movie came up (shown on the left) and I was like: 'I have to watch that movie!'. Later on, I figured out that it a movie based on a book, and I was like: 'whoa, guess what is the next book I am going to read!', and for the looks of it, maybe even become my next favorite book.

In the beginning of the book there is a kid who wakes up in an elevator with no memory of his past except that his name is Thomas. After roughly half an hour, the top door opens and he sees a bunch of teenage boys doing what seems to be like mocking him. One of them says, "Nice to meet ya shank ... Welcome to the Glade." (Dashner 4).

In my opinion, the author does a really good job at describing the first scene. "A courtyard several times the size of a football field, surrounded by four enormous walls made of gray stone and covered in spots with thick ivy." (Dashner 5) We are then introduced to Alby, who seems to be the leader of the 50 teenage guys. Although he seemed mad that Thomas showed up, he yelled at the other boys to stop taunting him. 

Throughout the first couple of chapters, you have to keep in mind that Thomas has no memory whatsoever. Even a little hint of his age or something of the sort would help, but no one would talk to him. Another new character named Newt shows him to his room and explains the basic daiy routine. But, after he leaves, Thomas collapses and wishes that he can wake up from this "dream".

Feed by M.T. Anderson: Titus and Violet

“My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits.” - M.T. Anderson

Every book or novel that exists in the world has a main character, also known as the protagonist. It can either be a well thought out character, or a poorly made character. In my case, the book Feed has very well thought out character. The main character in this book is Titus Boyus Ordinarius. The name says it all, Ordinarius. Titus is a very ordinary, normal character as opposed to the other characters in the book. He is a very-good looking boy and has many friends. As mentioned in my second blog post, in the book Feed, almost everyone on Earth has a feed implanted in their brain, and of course Titus is one of those people. 

And just like any many other books, Titus also has a love affection for some girl he has never known. Her name is Violet and she is the main reason for this whole story to unfold. Just like in the very famous books The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Divergent by Veronica Roth, someone does not agree with the way that they are living and they revolt against the currently placed government. Building on the parallels, the Katniss and Tris in this book is in fact, Violet. 

"They're also waiting to make you want things... it's all streamlining our personalities so we're easier to sell to... they try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing... and gradually, everyone gets used to everything being basic, so we get less and less varied as people, more simple. So the corps make everything even simpler and it goes on and on."(M.T. Anderson 97). I think this quote shows that Violet is starting to figure the feed and the government out. The corporations like things easy, and they like to be able to standardize their products, which makes it easier to sell things and implant them into the feed. 

Eventually, people will take what's offered without thinking about anything. Think about McDonald's. They have the same menu in every restaurant, no matter if you are in Maine, Nebraska or California. Yet, they are one of the most successful restaurants in the US. This is what the government in Feed is essentially trying to do. For now I will close by saying that Titus joins Violet and we will see what they will now do together. 

About the Author: M.T. Anderson

"It's insulting to believe that teens should have a different kind of book than an adult should. If we're going to ask our kids at age 18 to go off to war and die for their country, I don't see any problem with asking them at age 16 to think about what that might mean.”

For the past two blog posts, I have talked about the books I have either read, or I am reading. So know, I want to mix things up a bit. Therefore, I am going to give you a little background information on the author of Feed, M.T. Anderson. M.T. Anderson is a 41 year old author who is mostly known fro his children and young adult books. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and attended Harvard College and the University of Cambridge. His most famous book, Feed is the one I am currently reading. He won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2006 for The Pox Party. Before becoming a writer, he had other jobs like a burger flipper, a department store cashier, and a radian DJ. He has written over 60+ books with Feed being his first young adult book. Some of his previous books include Thirsty, a book about vampires, and Burger Wuss, a book about revenge on fast food. As you can see, these books were based off of his previous jobs. They were essentially his "inspiration". No one would ever think someone who is flipping burgers would eventually be as successful as this man. The most extraordinary and spectacular book he ever made is probably Octavian Nothing. It is a two-volume young-adult novel that runs 900 pages and is about the American Revolution. He also put the story in 18-century English. He really made it like it was from that time period. As you can see, this author is arguably one of the best in the young adult genre these days, and is constantly defending teenagers' intelligence level as appose to adults.