The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

Thomas. A single name. A single thought. This is all that he knows when he wakes up in a portal in the midst of a settlement surrounded by a massive moving maze. Thomas has no memory of his family, where he came from or who he was, but he doesn't have much time to dwell on this memory loss when he is thrust into the night-mare that is the Glade.


He is quickly informed by all of the other occupants that he is nothing special and will be starting low on the totem poll. As a Greenie he begins to move his way around to the various lowly jobs, which seems hum drum enough, except for the fact that Thomas' arrival seems to have triggered a series of unexplained events in the Glade. 


A new boy has arrived in the Glade every month like clockwork, but when a girl shows up the day after Thomas' arrival everyone is on edge and looking to Thomas for an explanation he doesn't have. Nor does he know why he can hear Theresa's voice in his mind. 


Thomas disregards the sly looks as he breaks the number one rule and sprints into the maze to rescue Alby and Minho from certain death and as the gates close, it seems  that they will all have the same fate since no one has made it through a night in the maze. When the three walk out the next day, there is a mixture of disbelief and confusion as to whether or not punishment should be dealt. While Tom is to be locked up for a day, there is not a moment that he regrets his decision and while he doesn't win everyone over, Minho, the leader of the runners, is on his side, which instantly promotes him from tilling the ground to running through the maze. 


While this seems like simply a task of endurance it is much more. There are massive, long clawed, squishy, ferocious creatures throughout the maze and the maze itself is a puzzle that has yet to be solved, even after two years of tracking the various layouts of the ever-changing maze. Two years of the same sun rising, the same plants growing, the same maze changing, and the same maze gates closing each night. 


One day, the sun never rises and the gates never close and Thomas is leading the pack in desperately searching for a way out, an answer, an end. Dashner will having you dashing from one page to the next in this fast paced tale with incredible character development and a twist that will have you rethinking all that you've read. Get ready, set, go!