I've been excited to read The Maze Runner by James Dashner for some time now. I've heard a lot about it and was looking to remedy the emptiness of waiting for the third book in the Hunger Games series. I thought that this story would somewhat parallel The Hunger Games, and it sort of does.
Both stories involve teens who are being controlled by the dystopian governments in power. Both books involve these teens being placed in a controlled, artificial environment where death seems to be the only way to escape. Both books rely on mind control and brainwashing of some sort to convince the 'contestants' in the story to play along with the game that the government has designed. The main difference between The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner is that the government in TMR is very secretive and the kids don't know why they're there.
I did not love this book in the same way that I've loved the Hunger Games series. I did feel for the characters and want them to succeed, but I was not pulled into the story as much as I expected to be. I will probably continue to read the books in this series, but I probably won't be waiting outside the local bookstore on the day it's published like I do with the Hunger Games books!
