Which is Better? The Maze Runner

Finally! This post series is back! The movie was on HBOGO for a while, but then was taken off, and now it was put back again! It was a double feature of this movie and Scorch Trials (which will be discussed in another post), and I was very much entertained by The Maze Runner.

I was very pleased with the adaptation of the novel. The Maze Runner was a straightforward YA dystopian novel where the end of the world happened, but it's a mystery through the eyes of a young protagonist. Usually YA have a female protagonist (the one) but this time it's a guy.

Who has the personality of a foot, but we'll continue on.

The characters are expertly cast with Thomas as the blandly handsome one who the audience is supposed to identify with and Mr. GOT and Love Actually as Newt. He has definitely 12 year old face but since they were looking for young actors, he suited the role. It took me a moment to recognize the actor for Alby (Sens8), but he did a really good job of playing "younger."

I thought the maze, the glade and and the Grievers were really well imagined. Dashner wrote vague enough so that the reader could imagine it in their own way, and the movie also rendered something that's not offensive. The maze is imposing and confusing with lots of foliage and dead ends, though I wish they kept in the parts where Thomas outruns the Griever and climbs up the vines, and then the Griever learns and follows him the second time.

Much of the book was condensed in the movie, but the major plot points were hit. It was even a bit suspenseful because even the movie altered some of the action scenes in the book to just major ones.  

I wonder if The Maze Runner would have been better as a TV show. I understand that it was a movie, but a lot of the personal relationships and the strengthening of these friendships fell by the side, so when that pivotal moment when Chuck jumps in front of Thomas and sacrifices his life for Tom, you don't really feel the awfulness that you do in the book. It would have been more emotionally wrecking to build up that connection to Alby, and him being ripped from the reader's hands two/thirds of the way through the book.

I really liked the way they characterized Gally. Someone who wants order and believes in how things have always been done, but isn't necessarily a bad person. 

Before I saw the movie, I couldn't imagine why, or how they would change the book for the movie, since it was pretty action packed and clearly visualized. Sure, there were some things that were changed and sped up, but overall, pretty good. 

The Scorch Trials by James Dasner

I listened to the first book, The Maze Runner on audiobook. Actually, it was my first book ever that I bought on audiobook and listened to it when I worked at Rite Aid. In a way, I will always look at that book series with fondness, even though I've heard better books since then.

Josh got me this book from the library, and in order to meet the deadline to return the book, I put aside another book to get started on this one.

It's a quick read for an adult, considering it's a YA novel. It's about a group of boys who are unwilling participants in some kind of government experiment in order to save the world. The first book ended with Thomas, Newt, Minho, along with a girl named Theresa, who activated the ending of the Maze, being "rescued." They are transported in a bus to a new location, fed, showered and shown their rooms.

However, not all is well for the group, and Theresa is whisked away during the night and replaced with a boy named Aris. Oh, Theresa, Aris and Thomas are telepathic, and can speak to each other. Aris reveals that there was a Group B, just of girls, and Aris was the activator to ending the Maze. Thomas assumes that Theresa and Aris were switched, though they aren't sure why.

A man arrives and informs them their task: to go to the surface and go North past the mountains. They are all infected with The Flare, a disease that has overtaken Earth. They all have it, but if they make it to the "Safe Haven," they will be given the cure.

This book is definitely a step up from the Maze Runner. There are more characters, and this time, there are girls, instead of just Theresa. It is centered around Thomas, who's best friends with Minho and Newt, but there women to identify with this time around.

To be honest, this book is also a bit scarier than the first book. So, Thomas and the other male gladers arrive to a run down city where the current government disposes people who are infected by the Flare, which makes people act insane. Thomas is separated from the rest of the gladers after an explosion but he's with a new girl by the name of Brenda. She knows the city and she takes Thomas under the tunnels to try and get out of the city to meet up with everyone else.

Well, since they are in the dark tunnels, of course people with the Flare, or "Cranks," track them down and want to kill them. It was terrifying, especially the part where Thomas and Brenda were hiding from them in a small cubbie.

It helped this time that I read the book instead of listening to it. I was able to read as fast as I wanted, and I was able to get through the book in a few days, instead of a few weeks.

Josh and I are going to watch The Maze Runner and Scorch Trials this weekend, so "Which is Better?" posts are coming up!

Audiobook Wednesdays: The Maze Runner by James Dasner

So, my job changed and I spend about an hour in the car each day. It's not a tough drive (mostly back roads) and I don't mind the drive, but as I spend more time in the car, I figured I should listen to something I love.... which are books!

I never got into audiobooks. I thought it would be hard to follow with my hearing loss, not seeing the words on the page. However, I really liked listening to the audiobook last year with To Kill a Mockingbird with Sissy Spacek with my 9th grade students.  I decided to give it a try with the free trial on Audible.

And I just have to say, audiobooks are really expensive. I had no idea how expensive they were! I just wanted to buy one on itunes (which, yes, I know isn't the best gauge in pricing)  but as I researched other audiobooks sites, they were all pricey! Wow!

I think out of all of them, audible has more bang for your buck (you can choose different memberships with different fees and different credits) and they give you discounts on other audiobooks. After my free trial is over, I'm going to strategize which books to spend my credits on, and which books I will buy. Usually the "older" books are cheaper, and the "newer" books are more expensive, but 1 credit will buy pretty much whatever audiobook it is, no matter the cost. As you all know, I'm always trying to save a buck!

For my first book, which I also want to do a "which is better" review, is The Maze Runner. I was never interested in it before, but since it was free with my trial, I figured, why not? I listened to the book and finished it within the week. I listened to it for 25 minutes to work and back, along with listening to it while I worked out.

Alright, first impressions... Lord of the Flies with a science fiction feel. All boys in the jungle with no way out (and trying to find one) as told through first person point of view.

Yawn. So over the sausage fest. Even though there are more strong female protagonists, I would love to read a book where there are a bunch of women working together. It seems like there are no room for more than 1 female in books such as these, and sometimes even those female protagonists are very hard to identify with. There is lots of diversity in the novel (boys, at least), so I was glad to read boys of color and different backgrounds have their own opinions and places in the book.

The story opens with a boy enclosed in a box. He has no idea who he is or where he is, and suddenly, the box opens to reveal boys looking down at him. He arrives to a sort of forrest and he realizes there are huge walls surrounding their paradise, with a maze on the outside of it. He's confused and scared and his memories have been wiped.

Dasner does a good job of building up the mystery to where the listener wants to know where all of this is going. It's maddening when the boys don't tell him much of what the place is about, and as the reader (listener?) is just as frustrated as he is as he tries to figure out what his place in all of this is.

The boys are trapped inside of a maze and the boys have been trying for 2 years to solve it in order for an exit to open. The Glade is a functioning society and the leaders, Newt and Alby, state that everyone needs to stay busy in order not to lose hope. There are many personalities and characters in the book, and the first person that befriends Thomas (the boy in the box), is Chuck, who was the new boy before him.

After Thomas' arrival, crazy things start happening. Another new person arrives, and it's a girl this time. She's unconscious and she has a note in her hand. She tells them all that it's going to change and that she's the last person to arrive. Everyone is alarmed and suspicion befalls Thomas, who seems to be the catalyst of all the strange occurrences.

There are antagonists in the book, but Dasner purposely misleads you. At first the reader thinks it's Gally, who hates Thomas immediately, and has the stereotypical villain sneer. However, it soon reveals that it's not Gally, but something more sinister and much more inhumane.

I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook. It's straightforward and simple, which I think was appropriate for my first ever dip into the world of audiobooks. I'm interested in watching The Maze Runner and doing the comparison.

There is a second novel and movie and I'm not sure if I'll get to it right away. I'm not sure if I liked it that much to spend an audiobook credit on it, or to spend money on the book. If someone has the novel that they want to loan me.... HINT HINT. I'll be happy to read it.

So, if you want to start an audiobook, but do not want something so complicated, this is a good place to start.