Reading "The Maze Runner": Chapter 9 & 10

[terresdebrume]

✗ OTHER MAZE RUNNER TRILOGY LIVEREADS
{All}

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.
Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.
Everything is going to change.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
Remember. Survive. Run.

✗ OTHER MAZE RUNNER CHAPTERS
{All}{...}[5] [6] [7+8]

 

Chapter 9

The chapter starts after Newt read the “terrifying message” to the boys, who are left speechless because… well, because there’s a girl involved, apparently.

(Boys, if you’re reading this, get insulted. No, really, get angry, because this is painting you as collectively incapacitated just by a girl’s presence within 100m of you. Also it’s assuming that 100% of you are straight while having more accidental gay subtext than any other ya book I’ve read so far.)

(Granted the context makes it an easy record to break but still.)

So they finally call the Med-Jacks, which is obviously constructed from the word “Medic” and also linked to the fact that there’s a sick girl in the Homestead, but Thomas doesn’t link the two. Show don’t tell doesn’t reign here.

One of the makeshift medics finally starts looking for a pulse (because they couldn’t have done this before. Priorities, these boys have them.) and we get this:

“Who said Clint had first shot at her?” someone yelled from the crowd. There were several barks of laughter. “I’m next!”

She’s sick, possibly dying, and you guys are worried that the guys in charge of saving her are actually touching her. PRIORITIES. THESE BOYS HAVE THEM.

Also Thomas feel sick that the boys are joking about who gets to touch the sick girl but considering he saw a presumed corpse and thought “oooh sexy” I’m not really impressed.

Alby’s eyes narrowed; his mouth pulled into a tight grin that didn’t look like it had anything to do with humor. “If anybody touches this girl,” Alby said, “you’re gonna spend the night sleepin’ with the Grievers in the Maze. Banished, no questions.” He paused, turning in a slow circle as if he wanted every person to see his face. “Ain’t nobody better touch her! Nobody!”

It was the first time Thomas had actually liked hearing something come out of Alby’s mouth.

And once again, nobody cares whether or not she might want to be touched/talked to/anything. Also I could understand this as an attempt to protect her but the fact that Alby is grinning while threatening the boys with a death sentence (and apparently, a horrible one) kind of kills that hope.

(Not so friendly reminder that the only character who has been suggested to actually enjoy violence so far is the token black character. This keeps getting better, doesn’t it?)

Thomas’s gut clenched. He knew that he and the girl were connected somehow. They’d come a day apart, she seemed familiar, he had a consuming urge to become a Runner despite learning so many terrible things…. What did it all mean?

Wait, so your basis for why the two of you are connected is because… you’re a hothead who wants to risk his life for no particular reason? How does your mind even work, Thomas?

Thomas starts angsting about how he’s being accused of things (which he hasn’t, except maybe by Gally earlier, I’m not sure) and then Newt and Alby ask him if he knows the girl again which… they’re still all suffering from laserpoint amnesia, remember? Asking the first time was somewhat understandable, because you never know, but this time it’s just clinging onto thin air.

It’s repetitive and useless and therefore annoying.

“Chuck, what’s a Gathering?”

He looked proud to know the answer. “It’s when the Keepers meet—they only call one when something weird or terrible happens.”

“Well, I guess today fits both of those categories pretty well.” Thomas’s stomach rumbled, interrupting his thoughts. “I didn’t finish my breakfast—can we get something somewhere? I’m starving.”

Chuck looked up at him, his eyebrows raised. “Seeing that chick wig out made you hungry? You must be more psycho than I thought.”

Thomas sighed. “Just get me some food.”

Weird, I’ll take. Terrible? I didn’t feel it. Fail on your part, Dashner. Also I’m sorry Chuck but I think you’re forgetting how all of you guys were slobbering over the girl even when you thought she was dead. -_-

 

The kichen has all the appliances of modern life that allow you to put less work into taking care of a kitchen (which I love irl but would love to see taken out of the equation here, just to see how Dashner describes these boys washing the dishes.) and a couple of tables, which need to be pretty large if they’re going to seat fifty boys or so (which, btw, is more than there should be. Didn’t do the math right away but two years of one boy/month equals 24 persons in the Glade, not 50+)

 

Thomas gets mad that he’s remembering empty places with no faces, I get mad that the book assumes I haven’t understood that yet, nothing new here. Then Chuck tells us Frypan doesn’t like it when people come around outside of meal hours, again, and Thomas vaguely starts to ask questions only to have Chuck refuse to answer again. It’s chapter 8 and we’re still mostly going in circles.

Woah.

The sandwiches are very white, like industrial bread (as opposed to homemade bread), and the carrots are very orange, like carrots. This is either too much time spent on an irrelevant meal, or not enough time spent describing unusual food tbh.

Thomas decides he’s gonna quit whining and deal with things! And I’m barely paraphrasing here, just in case you were wondering. Whining, at least, is a verbatim quote.

Back to pulling Chuck’s metaphorical teeth and this time, we’re acually talking about runners who… apparently don’t have trial times, even though all the other jobs do. I’m starting to expect you need some random moment to show you have “the guts” to do it and then welcome to Runnerland.

We also learn that the Runners run, amazingly enough, which Thomas had… not figured out, apparently.

“Chuck, what if we’re all criminals? I mean—what if we’re murderers or something?”

“Huh?” Chuck looked up at him as if he were a crazy person. “Where did that happy thought come from?”

“Think about it. Our memories are wiped. We live inside a place that seems to have no way out, surrounded by bloodthirsty monster-guards. Doesn’t that sound like a prison to you?” As he said it out loud, it sounded more and more possible. Nausea trickled into his chest.

“I’m probably twelve years old, dude.” Chuck pointed to his chest. “At the most, thirteen. You really think I did something that would send me to prison for the rest of my life?”

“I don’t care what you did or didn’t do. Either way, you have been sent to a prison. Does this seem like a vacation to you?” Oh, man, Thomas thought. Please let me be wrong.

Chuck thought for a moment. “I don’t know. It’s better than—”

Thank you, Chuck, for being the voice of reason. Also, not thank you, Thomas, for forgetting that Criminals are usually called that because they do things. (Even if those things can be morally right, that’s a slightly different debate.) Anyway, Thomas sends Chuck aways because the kid served his purpose, and then goes exploring.

Do you know what we’d say about Chuck in French? That he’s a bouche-trou, a “fill the hole” friend aka someone you only go to see when they can be useful/none of your actual friends are available. If you have one, congrats! You’re an ass.

(The paragraphs, like the chapters, are awfully short tbh.)

Anyway, everyone is back to normal (but the girl ins’t gone! How do they do that???) someone smiles and waves at Thomas, which is apparently shockingly nice, and he goes on to think not everyone in the Glade can be a jerk, which he should probably have figured out sooner but whatever. The interesting part is when he starts thinking maybe the place (which he described as a prison moments ago, and where kids die regularly) isn’t so bad.

I can’t figure out if the diametrically opposed states of mind are here on purpose (because of whaever happened to Thomas pre-Glade) or if it’s just… accidental.

The smell wasn’t quite as nice as the crops, but still, he imagined it could’ve been a lot worse. As he explored the area, he realized more and more how well the Gladers kept up the place, how clean it was. He was impressed by how organized they must be, how hard they all must work. He could only imagine how truly horrific a place like this could be if everyone went lazy and stupid.

Alright so, I know teenagers aren’t stupid or useless, but my question is: how does a bunch of teenagers without real experience manage to get this organized? Also, what about the Homestead (you know, the house made of rubbish where they decided not to sleep for no particular reason) strikes you as neat and organized?

He looked down just in time to see the sun flash off something metallic—a toy rat—scurrying past him and toward the small forest. The thing was already ten feet away by the time he realized it wasn’t a rat at all—it was more like a lizard, with at least six legs scuttling the long silver torso along.

A beetle blade. It’s how they watch us, Alby had said.

He caught a gleam of red light sweeping the ground in front of the creature as if it came from its eyes. Logic told him it had to be his mind playing tricks on him, but he swore he saw the word WICKED scrawled down its rounded back in large green letters. Something so strange had to be investigated.

Thomas sprinted after the scurrying spy, and in a matter of seconds he entered the thick copse of trees and the world became dark.

1. How do you confuse a rat and a six-legged lizard?

2. Nothing made any sense so far, and yet the fact that there’s something written on the beetle-blade is impossible because it’s illogical? Or is it just the word that makes you tick?

3. I knew we were going to see that graveyard one day. Why a so-called smart kid like Thomas had to be led there by a string of coincidences rather than his brain, I have no idea.

And thus the chapter ends, on a semi-cliffhanger, just in case we didn’t want to go on.

Chapter 10

The forest housing the graveyard turns out to be creepy, but in a pretty way, and we lose several paragraphs describing exactly what Thomas does to follow the beetle blade (like pushing a branch, dodging another etc) before the beetleblade gets away and Thomas gets another occasion to use the Glade’s slang.

Fun fact: Teenagers do not, actually, turn to salt when they swear, or read swear word. If you want to swear so bad, swear. Otherwise spare us the hassle. Also, I would find Thomas’ sudden use of the Glade’s slang more believable if he’d talked with others a bit more. As it is, it’s strange to me that he’d show such a sign of immersion… although of course, since the author keeps telling us it’s plot-induced, I probably shouldn’t be surprised.

Reminder that Thomas’ amnesia is totally a plot-point.

The Graves are marked with crosses, because the Glade may have invented a brand new slang and unnecessary names for ordinary jobs, but Eru forbid we think any of those boys could be anything but Christian.

Graveyard continues to be creepy enough for birds and insects to know they should avoid the place, Thomas takes a look at one of the crosses with the name Stephen on it and…

What’s your story? Chuck annoy you to death?

Va te faire foutre, Thomas.

Anyway, there are only a dozen other graves, which would indicate the Maze hasn’t been around very long if not for the fact that math hasn’t been a big concern in this book so far. Even I bother to do some math when I write fic damnit, and Eru knows I hate maths.

Thomas keeps exploring and comes across the grave of the kid who was cut in half, which has a window through which you can see the rotting corpse, which is a) gross and b) so disrespectful I can’t even.

Completely creeped out, Thomas leaned closer to get a better look anyway, curious.

Usually when people are creeped out by something, they tend to get away from it, not closer. Fail, Dashner.

Also there’s a message on the window:

Let this half-shank be a warning to all: you can’t escape through the Box Hole.

So the guy died to know if they could escape the Glade through the Box, and they reward him by calling him a half… shit? Fuck? Idk, I don’t really want to bother learning all their slang, but either way it’s pretty fucking shitty of them tbh.

Aaaand Thomas feels like snickering. Why am I supposed to like him again? Alright so he feels guilty for it. Okay. Slightly less bad.

He’s attacked by a crazed boy who bites him in the shoulder and turns out to be Ben, the boy who’d been stung by a griever back in chapter one.

And the chapter ends.

.