The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner

James Dashner

374 Pages

"You get lazy, you get sad. Start givin' up. Plain and simple."

Thomas wakes up in an elevator-type box. He doesn't know who he is, where he comes from, where he's going. But he knows his name. Thomas. As in... Edison. When the elevator-box finally stops moving, he is pulled out by the hands of Alby and Newt, the leaders of what is called the Glade. He quickly learns of the many jobs that the boys take care of, the Maze that surrounds the Glade, and that everyone hopes is their passage home, and the terrors known as Grievers that come out only when the doors to the Maze close safely at night, but at times venture out into the Maze during the day, terrifying the Runners. Even before Thomas understands what a Runner is, he feels that it is his destiny to become one. When, just a day after Thomas' arrival, the very first girl shows up in the Glade, the Gladers know that life as they have come to know it will never be the same again. After that, Thomas makes history by being the first boy to ever survive a night in the Glade. And when the sun disappears from the sky and the Doors stop closing the Maze at night, a promise of one dead boy a day, Thomas knows he must figure out the key to getting home, before they all suffer from the hands of the Grievers... and the Creators.

I was very, very excited to read this book. Overall, it was a very quick read, without much challenge, but every now and then it's good to read a book like that. This next part is kind of a spoiler, so beware. I totally called the 'code' for the Maze. When I very first read the part about the Runners making Maps at the end of every day, I knew that they had to just stack the Maps on top of each other. I didn't know exactly how, or exactly what it would reveal, but I knew that it was how they would find their clues. The end of the book was all nice and hopeful, but then there's the epilogue. And it justcrushed all my hopers for a happy ending because it just gave a complete 180 from the original ending, and it kind of broke my heart. I didn't actually know that they were making a movie out of this book, but while talking with a friend about it she mentioned their strange casting, so I am now super excited to see the movie, and also to read the other three books that go along with this one.

Pages this Semester: 8338

"Even if it's a dumb story, telling it changes other people just the slightest bit, just as living the story changes me. An infinitesimal change. And that infinitesimal change ripples outward- ever smaller but everlasting. I will get forgotten, but the stories will last. And so we all matter- maybe less than a lot, but always more than none."

So... That's it. Just over 8000 pages. I definitely didn't read all of the books on my list for this semester, but I read a lot of them, and I read a few really good books that weren't on the list. So many books, not nearly enough time. And... that's the Story of my Life.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

552 Pages

"Don't make me happy. Don't fill me up and let me think that something good can come of any of this. Look at my bruises. Look at this graze. Do you see the graze inside me? Do you see it growing before your very eyes, eroding me? I don't want to hope for anything anymore. I don't want to pray that Max is alive and safe. Or Alex Steiner.
Because the world does not deserve them."

Nazi Germany. Death is very busy. The first time he meets Liesel Meminger is when her brother dies. Standing beside his freshly dug grave, Liesel rescues a small black book, The Grave Digger's Handbook from the snow, her first act of thievery. Her mother drops her off with her new foster parents, and though Liesel sends her many letters, she never hears from her mother again. Liesel grows to love her foster parents, especially as her papa teaches her to read. As a Young Nazi, Liesel attends a march, and rescues a book from burning flames. Soon after, her family takes in a Jew, tempting fate by hiding him in their basement. Liesel joins her best friend Rudy in brilliant stealing sprees, and officially becomes the Book Thief when she takes books from the mayor's library. Her life has been tough, but it only gets worse from there.

This book was just absolutely amazing. I had heard so many raves about this book, I had to read it. Being told from the point of view of Death was absolutely genius on the part of Zusak. It brings the whole situation that Liesel was going through into perspective, instead of just her immediate feelings. I loved the foreshadowing, the stuff put in there that was even more than foreshadowing. I would say it was "spoiling" the story, but it wasn't. It actually made me even more anxious to get to the end, and even more devastated when it did actually reach the end. I cannot wait to go see the movie.

Pages this Semester: 7964

"It's the story of my life... And time is frozen."

-One Direction

Shiver

Shiver

Maggie Stiefvater

390 Pages

"For once in my life,
I was here
and nowhere else."

When Grace was a very young girl, she was attacked by the wolves. She didn't fight, but for some reason the wolf with the yellow eyes stepped in, saving her. After that, even when she couldn't remember the attack, she felt a connection to that wolf, watching at the window for it every winter. 

Sam was a wolf, but he was also a boy. When the air became cold, he would turn. Even though he didn't know who the girl was when he was wolf, he stared at her from the cover of the trees.

After the wolves attacked a popular high school boy, seemingly having killed him, a group of angry men set out to kill the wolves. Grace steps in, not wanting the wolf she considered hers to be killed. When her wolf is shot, he changes into a boy, making her crush on the wolf into a tangible thing. The two fall quickly in love, and fight to find a way to keep Sam from returning to his wolf form forever.

I was actually very disappointed in this book. Maybe I built it up too much in my mind, but it ended up being a lot less amazing than I had imagined it would. It is mostly just an "Oh, I love you, don't leave me" kind of thing, which honestly kind of annoys me in a lot of books. I think the subplot with Sam's pack members might have saved it a little, but overall it wasn't a great story, and I probably won't read its sequel.

Pages this Semester: 7412

"Hard to accept the end of a story 

that won the villain against heroes."

-Toba Beta