The Maze Runner

Dashner, J. (2009). The Maze Runner. NY: Delacorte Press.
YA Lit / Fantasy / Adventure / Thriller


This was a fast-paced page turner! I burned through this one overnight because I had to know the deal.  When I began realizing "the deal," it was reminiscent of Ender's Game to me, but different enough that I stayed interested.  The characters are pretty-well fleshed-out, and the convenient memory wipes of all the characters is acceptable to make the story work.  The violence was plentiful but the descriptions tame.  No profanity except the substitute words the Gladers have created; interestingly enough, by the end of the book, you feel like you're reading profanity! Might start using some of those words myself against slitheaded shucker. tee hee.

I may or may not read any of the sequels; I am pretty content with the ending of this first book and can guess that sequels will be a typical storyline of the young people trying to outsmart the adults, the evil adults.

The Graveyard Book

Gaiman, N. (2008). The Graveyard Book. NY: Harper Collins Publishers.
YA Lit / Fantasy

What a great story! It is a wonderful peek into the life of the dead, so to speak, and how they rallied around a young child less than two years old, who they name Nobody Owens, to raise him and keep him safe from the man who killed the rest of his family.

The story has layers of stories within it, each fascinating enough to be the subject of its own book, I think!  Silas (is he a vampire??), the ghouls, Mrs. Lupescu, Liza the witch, or any of the lives of the graveyard inhabitants would be great subjects around whom (which??) to build stories.

I highly recommend this book to anyone from 5th grade on up.