In the book Thomas wakes up in an elevator car with no memory except his name, he finds

he is part of a community of about 50 teen boys called "Gladers", their leader's name is Alby,
co leader Newt and their lives revolve around trying to solve the Maze. Entrances to the
maze automatically close at the same time every night, which protect the Glade from
"Grievers", have robot half animal that attack you if you are caught outside at the wrong time.
Chuck, the former "Greeni" in the compound, is assigned to Thomas to help adjust and later
becomes his best friend; Thomas spends his first couple of days learning the ropes and
various work positions, such as Baggers ( police, grave keepers), runners and
sloppers(farmers, cooks etc.) and that the group has been working for two years to figure a
way out of the maze Thomas notices that parts of his new life somehow seem familiar. Every
month, a new boy arrives in the elevator but on Thomas' second day, the elevator brings a
teen girl Teresa nearly in a coma, she has little memory remaining, and it is quickly fading.
Later, when Teresa emerges from her coma, Thomas discovers that Teresa can
communicate telepathically with him, and they deduce that they must have known each other
before their arrival. One evening, as time draws near for the walls to close between the Maze
and the Glade, two of the runners Alby and Minho have not returned as they had discovered
a dead griever the day before. As the walls nearly finish closing, Thomas sees the two
runners but realizes they won't make it breaking the No. 1 rule to never leave the Glade
Thomas steps out. Minho the keeper of the runners decides to split up and leave Alby to die
since he was stung by a griever Thomas couldn’t accept that and he tied Alby up dangling
above the ground tied to the wall. Miraculously Thomas and the other boy survive after
tricking the grievers off a cliff when he reunited with Minho it was amazing since they were
the first to survive the maze at night. The end to life in the Glade is triggered when they all
awoken one day to the absence of what was the sun, and they realized, they exist in a
simulated environment, Thomas decides the best way to solve the Maze is for him to get
stung and endure the Changing, to retrieve his lost memory. After Thomas goes through the
changing, he realizes that the boys were a part of an experiment, and they all had above
average intelligence, he also found out that their names weren’t really their names they were
given from scientist, like Alby is Albert Einstein. Thomas also remembers that he and Teresa
help develop and design the whole project but is unaware for the reason behind it saying "he
was forced to by the creators". Thomas comes up with a dangerous plan to escape, the plan
works, but half of the group dies their escape including Chuck, when they escape they’re met
by a rescue party and board a bus for a 2 hour ride to a new location. Book one ends with a
memo from the World in Catastrophe: Kill End Department (WICKED), known to the kids as
the Creators It says that what the teenagers just lived through was only the first stage of their
trial.
As you must know now
Thomas is the protagonist. He is about 5 foot 9 in and about 15 or 16 years old has he stated "I am
one of the older boys and around one of the tallest", he has brown or black hair with blue eyes.
Thomas is described as ugly "shuck face" by some "gladers" but I don’t think he is, Thomas is really
quiet saying "I feel strange and I don’t want to talk to anyone", brave "You think if you step outside
that glade it makes you a hero", and he has great work ethic.
In the story one of many memorable scenes was when Thomas, Minho and Alby were in the maze
after dark. I loved how Minho was the one I expected to act like a leader and be heroic decides to
leave the group and survive on his own. Just the determination of Thomas to keep Alby safe and the
way he led most grievers away from him was amazing. Out of everything my favorite part was the
climax of this scene when after about 3 hours of running and dogging grievers Thomas meets up
with Minho who is still alive! When they meet it is almost dawn but they were tired and weary not
expecting to see tomorrow, at that moment Minho creates a plan and Thomas and himself were able
trick the grievers into falling off the cliff. This was a very memorable scene because the characters
overcame all odds and when I was reading had my adrenaline going even though I was just sitting
down.
Out of everything and the "gladers" escape the only thing that would have made it a little better was
after the climax and the escape the "gladers" its continued for about 4 chapters a little bit too long in
my opinion for a bus ride.
Other people that would like to read this book would also be interested in a book series like Harry
potter. The readers would really be into adventure, mystery, and a will to survive setting. When you
read this book it keeps you hooked want to know what will happen next with amazing twist in the
story line. When reading this book you will need to understand what is going on feel the story and
plot and follow the story completely which I don’t think is too hard.
If you are going to read this book don’t spoil the story because you will lose interest and then the
book will become very boring. Overall I give this book a great 4/5 because it was entertaining, and
like I said kept me hooked on to read but it wasn’t perfect as in the beginning it is a little hard to
understand. All in all a good book and one of my favorite series!