The Maze Runner

When Thomas wakes up, all he knows is his name and the fact that he can't see a thing. When he's released, things only get stranger. Thomas finds himself in the Glade, a walled-in sanctuary in a giant maze that rearranges itself every night. Outside are walls without exits, a cliff jump to nowhere, and disgusting creatures called grievers. Inside, there is only a population of boys who remember only their names, who have struggled every day for two years to find a way out.

The next day, a girl named Theresa arrives in the Glade for the first time. Who is she? Why is she there? Why does Thomas feel so drawn to her? And more importantly, will any of them ever escape?

The Maze Runner was written by James Dashner, followed by a sequel, The Scorch Trials, involving the aftermath of the first book and the introduction of new friends and enemies. The final book, The Death Cure, was released in October 2011, introducing the context and ramifications of the previous books and concluding the story.


 * Action Girl: Pretty much every major female character.
 * After the End
 * Apocalypse How:
 * Arc Words: WICKED is good.
 * Big Bad:
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Big Good:
 * Bittersweet Ending: And how.
 * Body Horror: The Changing. Dear God, The Changing.
 * Bungled Suicide:
 * Card-Carrying Villain: WICKED just does not give a shit if lots of children die painfully. The cure is more important.
 * The Cavalry:  is this
 * Central Theme: Running.
 * Characterization Marches On: Jorge was introduced as a brute willing to commit murder for minor insults, and savagely beating on e of the protagonists.  and he's later a generally inoffensive pilot a sort of doting uncle to Brenda.
 * Closed Circle: The main point of the first and second books is the boys escaping from their personal circle.
 * Died in Your Arms Tonight:
 * Deadpan Snarker: Minho.
 * While not as immediately noticable, Newt also goes into Sarcasm Mode plenty of times.
 * And Thomas picks it up from them.
 * Double Standard: In-Universe. Group B, made up of a group of girls who had they're own maze journey, are quick to flaunt the fact that they rescued more people and killed more Grievers than the stupid ugly boys. The fact of the matter is that they were given much better equipment to do it with, not to mention actual supplies for the Scorch Trials.
 * Teresa's manner makes it obvious that she considers herself smarter than most of the men around her, by default. Although in her case, that's very much in-character.
 * Dwindling Party: Near the end of the first book the Grievers settle on a pattern of taking someone every day. The second book continues the trend with more diverse death-dealing implements.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The Grievers are small versions. Half mechanical, half organic killing machines. All mysteriously and frighteningly lethal. They represent the reality-bending phenomena surrounding the maze; their patterns are unknowable and their presence constant. Meeting one will result in the danger of painful death.
 * The Ending Changes Everything: Ava Paige's epilogue in the Death Cure shows that
 * Face Heel Turn: One of the more extraordinary examples in which  She was apparently on the fence, though.
 * Fighting From the Inside: Gally in the first book fights hard. in the third after he  but with mixed results.
 * * Five-Man Band: Once all the chaff of secondary characters, traitors, victims, and tagalongs were harshly weeded out, an unlikely but stable group formed. When all together:
 * The Hero: Thomas
 * The Big Guy: Minho
 * The Smart Guy: Brenda
 * The Chick: Jorge
 * However, since they get separated often, everyone gets a chance to play the role of The Lancer.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble:
 * Thomas: Melancholic
 * Minho: Choleric
 * Brenda: Sanguine
 * Jorge: Phlegmatic
 * Fun with Acronyms: WICKED,
 * Genius Bruiser: Most notably the Runners, who are quick thinking cartographers who make-maps while running marathons and have to stand a fighting chance against The Grievers. At a point before the main story, Thomas himself counted; he was a child prodigy  and extraordinarily fit and during the series proves to be a decent fighter.
 * Genre Savvy: Thomas and Minho, after the first book and a half or so. They start calling most of the stuff they're going to be put through and eventually manage to throw the omniscient WICKED for a loop by anticipating their tactics.
 * Gorn: The series features a lot of gruesome deaths.
 * The Heart: Newt.
 * Heroic Resolve: When freaked out and frantic, Thomas tends to will himself to overpower enemies or break out of holds.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:  dies saving
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Possibly Newt and Alby.
 * I Am Who?:
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate:
 * The Immune: Turns out and  are this.   In fact, being this is why
 * Informed Ability: The Gladers are picked for their intelligence from their childhood, though few of them actually show any real genius other then setting up a system of order in the Glade. The best real example is sort of roundabout, but Minho and Thomas coordinate battle tactics and formations on the fly during firefights despite never having used guns before. Otherwise, they're of average outlook and just above-average intelligence.
 * Instant Death Bullet: How
 * Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Sometimes in the second book.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Every Glader has had all his memories of his life before the Glade erased.
 * Love Triangle: One appears in the second book.
 * Meet Cute: Thomas, meet Theresa.
 * Mobile Maze
 * No One Gets Left Behind: Why doesn't want to
 * Oh Crap: Several moments; the best example is when  Another good example is in the final book
 * The Omniscient Council of Vagueness:
 * Ontological Mystery
 * Our Zombies Are Different: in The Scorch Trials, the people with the Flare virus are Type P.
 * The Plague: The disease known as the Flare.
 * Population Control: It's revealed in the epilogue that
 * Protagonist-Centered Morality: Teresa has a holy-shit leve bad case of this.
 * Properly Paranoid: Thomas and Minho are totally justified in being this, and it has saved their lives on a few occasions.
 * Psychic Link: Between Thomas and Teresa, and later Aris.
 * Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Teresa.
 * Reality Warper: What the WICKED organization can essentially do; the extravagant resources they've been granted resulted in skyrocketing technology levels and analytical capabilities to predict the outcomes of even ridiculously chaotic events.
 * The Reveal: There are a series of reveals throughout the books that, when strung together, give a coherent version of the backstory.
 * Sacrificial Lamb:
 * Sacrificial Lion:
 * Spanner in the Works: Thomas and Minho finally get in on some Spanner action [[spoiler: at the beginning of the third book. Everything previous to that was planned by WICKED and there was no point at which they were not under WICKED's control.
 * Strapped to An Operating Table:
 * Teen Genius: Sounds like most of the kids were something of one, but Thomas and Teresa take the prize. Most of them are not seen in action, though, making their genius something of an Informed Ability.
 * Theme Naming: The Gladers' names are
 * Unnecessary Combat Roll: Jorge pulls off one in his introduction.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Quite a few of them.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: Seems to be a main motivation of whatever organization is putting them in these situations.
 * Debunked in The Death Cure.
 * Welcome Episode: The first several chapters.
 * Wham! Episode: Around Chapter 17, when
 * What the Hell, Hero?: At one point in the story,  when Thomas recovers from the ordeal, he is understandably angry at Teresa, especially since she didn't try to find another way to go about things, as Thomas and his friends had on many occasions. Teresa believes she has nothing to apologize for and has the nerve to get angry at Thomas because he resents the way she treated him. Teresa acts like nothing happened and tries to continue their budding young romance, even kissing Thomas to shut him up. Thomas completely calls her out on her behavior

And remember, WICKED is good.