Readers Journal
I generally enjoyed the story, but it was your typical dystopian book just like the hunger games. Like many such stories, there was a "chosen one" teenager. One particular area it suffered deeply was with character development. Partially since he had no past to develop from, Thomas was a weak protagonist with nearly no original or interesting characteristics. He seems brave at times, but everybody in this book is. He seems smart at times, but so is everybody else. To me, he is almost a blank slate designed to move the story forward. I cannot list one original characteristic about him - other characters say he is interesting, but that is not the conclusion I came to - if the story didn't follow him, he would blend in with the rest of the characters.
The other characters were also an issue. Other than Minho and Chuck, I had a hard time picturing any of them or even telling them apart. Alby was the typical reckless group leader. Newt was the typical nicer more rational second-in-command. Teresa was a typical plain-Jane female side character designed to make the plot actually go somewhere. Minho was interesting, but Dashner could have developed him further than he did. And Chuck was a potentially interesting character, but Dashner killed him off for no reason.
It would have been very difficult to develop any of these characters to a great extent, though, since none of them have histories or memories outside of the maze. Because they all have heavy amnesia, they don't even remember who they are - thus, they cannot be deeply developed. They are just a bunch of people trying to get out. I have to wonder if Dashner himself had fleshed his characters out any deeper than this by this point of the story.
The other characters were also an issue. Other than Minho and Chuck, I had a hard time picturing any of them or even telling them apart. Alby was the typical reckless group leader. Newt was the typical nicer more rational second-in-command. Teresa was a typical plain-Jane female side character designed to make the plot actually go somewhere. Minho was interesting, but Dashner could have developed him further than he did. And Chuck was a potentially interesting character, but Dashner killed him off for no reason.
It would have been very difficult to develop any of these characters to a great extent, though, since none of them have histories or memories outside of the maze. Because they all have heavy amnesia, they don't even remember who they are - thus, they cannot be deeply developed. They are just a bunch of people trying to get out. I have to wonder if Dashner himself had fleshed his characters out any deeper than this by this point of the story.