The Maze Runner

• Genre: Fiction; young adult speculative/dystopian
• Originally Published: 2009
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile HL770L; grades 7-9
• Structure/Length: 62 chapters, epilogue; approx. 375 pages; approx. 10 hours, 50 minutes on audio
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: Thomas wakes up in an elevator with no memory of anything but his first name. He finds himself in the Glade, surrounded by other boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the Glade is the Maze, an ever-shifting series of stone walls that prove deadly for anyone trying to pass. When a girl arrives with the message, “Remember. Survive. Run,” Thomas begins to uncover a worldwide secret that changes his life forever.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Ecological disaster, inhumane treatment of children, death, murder, suicide, violence

James Dashner, Author

• Bio: Born in 1972; American writer of books for children and young adults; one of six children; earned an MA in accounting from Brigham Young University; accused of sexual harassment during the Me Too movement after the publication of Maze Runner: The Death Cure and subsequently dropped by his agent and publisher; released his first adult horror novel in 2021
• Other Works: A Door in the Woods (2003); The Journal of Curious Letters (2008); The Scorch Trials (2010); A Mutiny in Time (2012); The Eye of Minds (2013); The House of Tongues (2021)
• Awards: ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011); Young Reader’s Choice Award (2012)