Maze Runner

I know that I am sensitive to things but I really just can't continue on with this series. I totally got sucked into this book. It's such a page turner! I couldn't put it down and I read clear until like 4 in the morning to finish it and then I was so disappointed with the ending. I read the first two chapters of the next book because they were included in my book and I just got even more upset and decided I couldn't read the next one. It's about a group of boys who get dropped off into some unknown place and the only way out is a maze. Their memories have been erased and each month they get food and supplies and a "new boy." Everything is perfect and simulated. It kind of reminded me of "The Truman Show." You don't really know what's real and what isn't. There are some evil machines that will kill you if you are stuck out in the maze at night-called Grievers. What I liked about this book is that the boys built a community for themselves. Each boy had a specific job and role and they grew their own veggies and butchered their own livestock and so on and so forth. They had the "maze runners" who went out everyday trying to find a way through the maze. Well, the last two people to get put into the maze are kind of "special." One is a boy and the last...is a girl...the only one...who comes with a message. Basically it means that you have to figure out the maze or perish forever. Very adventurous and suspensfull and I found myself trying to figure out the maze along with them.

So the things I didn't like-it has a lot of violence and these are teenage boys. What is it with teenagers and violence in books?? The way that they figure out how to get out of the maze is totally dumb...all this hype and suspense and climatic things happen and then...really? That's how they get out and destroy the maze? Lame! Then you get to the very ending where you find out basically why they were put in the maze. Apparently the sun is too close to the earth and it's burning everything up and causing all kinds of diseases and destroying the world. These boys are the smartest, strongest, bravest-basically the best of the best. They are put into situations to see how they will figure things out and react and respond. The ones left standing will be considered the ones who will know how to solve this major problem with the world. So at the very end these adults who are controlling the environment for these teenage kids decide to have one of their own turn on them and kill a few of them so they can see what the reactions will be. I just don't get it. Then the kids get rescued but that's all a setup as well and all the rescuers get killed in the next book.

I DO NOT like having teenagers be the entertainment for the adults and that this entertainment is pure torture for the kids. I disliked it almost as much as I disliked Hunger Games for the same reason-too much violence involving teenagers who mostly don't want to be put in these situations.

My friend explained to me that this particular Genre is called "Dystopian" which is basically the opposite of "Utopian." Ok, so that makes total sense. Utopia is a perfect world where everything is total bliss. The opposite would be the world in total chaos. The worst case scenario of what could happen. I guess I don't like to think about that. I know the world isn't perfect but I hate to think that other people think the worst that can happen is that adults throw their own children into torture and watch them kill each other for fun. Maybe it's because I'm a mom and I'll have teenagers soon but really? Parents these days wouldn't want MORE for their children? They wouldn't fight to protect them? Even if it was a worse case scenario I don't think that I could let this happen. Maybe I'm thinking too much and reading between the lines too much. But I like to read for entertainment and to "get away" to new places and adventures...this book did not do that for me. I have no intentions of finishing the series especially because I talked with others who did like it and read them all and they told me it doesn't get any "better" as far as the violence is concerned and I will not let my children read this book!! So disappointed James Dashner. I expected greater things from you!