Another book that came highly recommended to me. It wasn't an awful book, not nearly so. But it wasn't great. I, like Thomas, was frustrated beyond belief at the lack of answers given throughout. I think this was supposed to build suspense, but... why didn't anyone want to give him answers? They have new kids come up the Box every month and none of them ask questions? Or when they do, they accept the BS "because I said so" line? It was weird and frustrating to be given no answers for no apparent reason. 
 Also, it was strange that when Thomas emerges from the Box, a lot of the boys are almost hostile toward him. Again, doesn't this happen every month? Why are they being such jerks to the new guy? Of COURSE he doesn't know what's going on, and since no one will give him an answer about anything, of course he's going to go try to find answers on his own! For supposedly being bright kids, they sure are dumb as rocks. 
 Then the girl shows up with an ominous note and warning. And again, the boys all seem to blame Thomas! They KNOW he can't remember anything, but since he showed up one day and she the next, it must somehow be his fault. Um, yeah. Whatever. 
 We learn bits and pieces about the maze, and run into the Grievers, the scary monsters out there. They... weren't really that scary. Which is too bad because there was a lot that could have been done there. And the maze itself could have been scary, except, that also was more frustrating than anything. Also, I just have to point out that again, for supposedly being so smart, these kids are dumb. Not ONE of the runners in the last TWO years put together the correlation between the signs out in the maze that they "no longer paid attention to" and the beetle blades with their marking on their backs? Even Thomas can't figure it out? It was RIGHT THERE! Idiots. 
 But really, this book wasn't all bad. I really liked Minho when he wasn't being all bi-polar. One second he's awesome and the next he's freaking out and throwing a tantrum and running away. When he wasn't in that second stage he was a great friend for our hero. And though a lot of people thought Teresa fell flat, I liked her too. Maybe because she was the only girl and I felt she needed a fan, but I thought she was pretty cool. Maybe a little too much of a plot device but overall I liked her. 
 I liked the IDEA of the maze. It was a pretty cool idea, but it wasn't executed well. It worked well enough to keep me interested though. The ending... well... it could have been a lot better. I will read the next one and the last (barring any crazy huge thing in book 2 to turn me off the series) to see how this plays out. Overall it wasn't horrible. I probably won't be telling people they HAVE to read this, but if someone asks me, I'll tell them it wasn't bad and to go ahead and try it.