When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas can remember is his first name. But he's not alone. He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade, an encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there, or what's happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything to find out.

This book + sleep deprivation = TOTAL BRAIN SHOCK

After finishing this book my mind was utterly blown. Suddenly everything came to together in one epic final stand of the desperate Gladers and I would explain it to you in extreme detail, but I don't want to spoil anything so I'll shut up.

To be honest, it took me a while to get into the book. Thomas knew NOTHING and nobody would tell him what he wanted to know so I kinda ended up getting as frustrated as Thomas. This led me to...well, I gave up, and came back to it almost a month after I was effectively bullied into picking it up again by my Instagram followers. But from the minute I picked it up again, it was fairly obvious that I'd put it down at COMPLETELY the wrong time as I was suddenly thrown back into the action and I became desperate to know more.

The characters Minho, Newt, Chuck and Teresa (all important in their own right) were introduced and I began to feel the desperation and camaraderie of the Gladers as they worked together in one final push to solve the maze before they were all killed. I felt the urgency of 'The Ending' and I got the creeps just by thinking of the Grievers (the hideous creatures that roam the Maze by night). What I'm saying is, is that Dashner created the perfect mystery, but in a dystopian, futuristic setting with added telepathy, brain alteration and experiments.

So yeah, a pretty brilliant book there. SO EXCITED FOR THE MOVIE.

• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop

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