UPDATE: January 9, 2017 I have since completed the original trilogy. If you are considering buying, borrowing, or in any way investing yourself into this series, stop. Seriously, STOP. Because it is not worth your time. This series is incredibly terrible. The first book was bad. The rest of them are even worse. Overall, this trilogy is not even worth one star. 
 Original Review: April 18, 2016 
 Errrrr.... 
 Once again, I seem to be missing something in the realm of book reviewers, because I thought this book was average, whereas everyone else and their moms thinks it was pretty good to fantastic. 
 I picked this book up because it was a huge deal- everyone was talking about it, it was being made into movies, it was supposed to be big like The Hunger Games because it was a YA dystopian. But in reality, this book is a baby compared to the big wig Dystopian YA fantasies. Of course, this is all just my opinion. 
 Here is ten reasons why I think The Maze Runner wasn't all that and a bag of chips: 
 1. The made up slang terms of the Gladers. I felt that it was rather redundant and silly, but I guess it makes sense that a bunch of young boys would start calling each other "shuck-face" and "slinthead". 
 2. The Grievers. Maybe it's because I can't really get a good picture of them in my head, but I felt neither impressed or fear of the monsters of the Maze. Sure, they sound grotesque and dangerous, but I really didn't care for them or understand how they could have been created in the first place. (view spoiler)[ Especially when the world is in turmoil. Like, oh, the world is in disaster, but instead of fixing it, let's build monsters to hunt little boys in a maze like lab rats. What? (hide spoiler)] 
 3. Woah, look- a GIRL! The first girl in the Glade, ever! (view spoiler)[ The greatest thing about this was the one boy that shouted "I've got dibs!" Why? Because it was so real, and was the finest line of realistic dialogue because it was exactly what I would expect a teenage boy to say in that situation. Besides that small bit, there was nothing special about the girl showing up. She showed up, delivered her message, and went into a coma for half or more of the book and she didn't wake up until much later. (hide spoiler)] 
 4. Super powers! (view spoiler)[ Speaking of Teresa and Thomas, this was the most unrealistic thing about the book. Teresa shows up and can speak to Thomas in his mind. Why? How? This takes place in the future, and I get all the kids are geniuses but what does telepathy have to do with it? Makes. No. Sense. (hide spoiler)] 
 5. There is no character development. At all. (view spoiler)[ Really. Thomas is disoriented, angry and scared at first. Then once he realizes that he has something to do with the Gladers and the maze, it's like a switch is flicked and he is being all tough and smart- and then he repeated flicks back and forth from angry Tom to fearful Tom. Then he gets all noble and gets stung by the Griever and basically turns into a walking memory of info dump. (hide spoiler)] 
 6. The not-so-good romance. (view spoiler)[ The relationship hinted between Thomas and Teresa was ridiculous to say the least. Neither has real memories of the past- just a sense of familiarity of each other. That, and the telepathy that connects them. Oh, and the fact that Thomas just ogles at her. All. The. Time. He spends more time staring at her and thinking about how pretty she is and wishing he could spend time with her than actually making a relationship with her. Honestly, I felt this whole thing was cheap, and was silently shipping Newt/Alby because there seemed to be more love and history there than these two. (hide spoiler)] 
 7. The amounts of klunks I give about the characters: Zero (view spoiler)[ There is exactly two people in the book I care about. Newt and Chuck. Whenever a Glader dies, I literally did not care. Why? Because we never really shown many characters, even though there is a large congregation of them with plenty of opportunities to meet and know others. And even when we did, the characters were usually annoying or boring. Other than Newt and Chuck, Frypan was OK, but that's where it ended. Plus, we ALL knew Chuck was doomed when Thomas made his promise to get him home safe. Instead of feeling all the feelings, I felt frustrated because I knew he would die, and upset when he did because WHAT WAS THE POINT IN HIS DEATH? Just to make Thomas snap? To kill off the best redeemable character for no real apparent reason other than to cause drama is just sad. (hide spoiler)] 
 8. The Writing Stlye. I felt there were sometimes that Dashner gave good descriptions. But overall, I felt as if I was being TOLD instead of shown the characters feelings, the world, etc. 
 9. The flow and progress of the entire book. (view spoiler)[ The entire first half of this book was ridiculously slow. Then Teresa wakes up from her coma, and klunk hits the fan and the book has thismuchroom to pick up the pace and increase the tension. By the time the action really started, I had already been dragged through the story and was bored and pretty much uncaring. Then, there was the end. (hide spoiler)] 
 10. The end. (view spoiler)[ Congrats! You got out of the shucking maze. What's waiting for you? Some weird woman, an observatory, the worst character from the Glade that you thought was dead (just to spice things up), and nothing good. It wasn't even a real escape. All their effort was pretty much planned- they are still trapped. Until a dash of fate has some rebels raiding the observatory -only minutes after the death of Chuck, not before, God forbid his life be spared- and giving the remaining Gladers a chance to escape in a world where sun flares have destroyed everything and cause people to be covered in boils, insane, and quite zombie like/flesh eaters? I don't even understand. And then the Epilogue. What? So, what happened to the remaining Gladers? (hide spoiler)] 
 Overall, this The Maze Runner earned a 2.75 stars from me because while the plot was interesting it just didn't seemed that well executed, and the characters didn't hold the story together. This book has nothing on The Hunger Games/Divergent/other popular Dystopian YA fantasies. In all honesty, you are probably better off watching the movie instead of reading the book. 
 On a side note: I bought the four book boxed set in paperback from Wal-Mart and I am not sure if I got a faulty set (even though it was sealed and never opened) or if the books are just that cheaply made because the pages are falling out of my book. They are not ripped or torn. A couple just clean fell out as if they weren't binded properly. I didn't even take the book out of my house, and I never abuse my books as they are all in perfect condition. I recommend that if you want to read this book, borrow it from the library or a friend first. If you like it, buy it in hardback or ebook form to ensure that this doesn't happen to you.