Keep reading... or not? James Dashner

This is the 96th episode in a series usually called Doorlezen of niet? The concept is as simple as this reviewer is lazy: I read the first 50 pages of a new book – any kind of book – and based on my reading experience I decide whether or not I’ll keep on reading. Since today’s book is American and I read it in English, I might as well write this episode in English. 

Dutch readers: a translation of this novel, De schroeiproeven, will be published by Q, a shameless Querido imprint, and become availabe on the 18th of this month. 

Today: The scorch trials by James Dashner, a Young Adult novel (Chicken House Books). 

Who? James Dashner, accountant-turned-writer, specializes in ‘speculative fiction’ for children and young adults. Since his debut in 2003 he’s published at least one novel a year.

Buzz? The scorch trials is the second part of a Young Adult trilogy (+ prequel), currently turned into a series of movies. The maze runner, part 1, is in theatres now. 

Today's prejudice? When a friend with a love of silly blockbuster movies, dragged me to see The maze runner, I decided to roll my eyes once, then sit back and let the silliness wash over me. The maze runner is a Hunger Games-rip-off. This time, a group of male teenagers, all suffering from amnesia, are dumped on a paradisiac plot of land, surrounded by a vast maze. Finding the exit came with quite some bloodshed, since the maze had part-mechanical, part-biological giant spiders haunting it. 

After the movie, we spent a highly enjoyable thirty minutes summing up the many logical flaws and idiosynchrasies of the movie – the biggest one being, how could thirty teenage boys live by themselves, without girls, under highly charged circumstances, and not have sex with each other? Hello, open air prison?! 

Then we had a drink, I went home – and ordered part 2 of the trilogy online. 

What was that you asked? Why waste more time on this? 

The first fifty pages... I find the Young Adult genre fascinating. On the box it says that it wants to be a bridge between children’s literature and books for adults. In reality, however, it looks more like a publishing ploy to get young people hooked on thrillers and pulp as soon as possible. The scorch trials is a thriller with underage characters, a thriller minus sex. The language is more limited than my English, the dialogue awful – especially when Minho, a supposedly ‘smart-aleck remarks’-spewing character opens his mouth and comes up with stuff like ‘We don’t have time for that kind of klunk. So shut your hole’. The chapters are short and invariably end with a cliffhanger that is, admittedly, hard to resist. 

The big reveal at the end of The maze runner was that the atrocities the boys underwent were part of a psychological test – something to do with the development of a drug to fight a disease (the Flare) that makes people go insane (they become ‘Cranks’), then kills them. Blah-blah, who cares as long as the action keeps going?

Part two has more of the same. The boys who survived part 1 find that their safe haven is not safe at all. They are told they have been given the disease and that a cure of some sort is waiting for them on the other side of a scorching hot desert, in the middle of which is a city in ruins, peopled with Cranks. New level, same game, go! 

Read how? I find myself reading this for the nuts and bolts of storytelling. Allow me to explain.

Thomas is the hero of our story. He’s not the leader, but when it really counts he behaves heroically, as if that sort of behaviour was a kneejerk-reaction. Despite being the main character, he tends to bring up the rear. This is great for the author, because this way, the reader is always the last to find out what new horror has already befallen the rest of the group. 

It’s these little things that keep me reading. Not so much the story – lots of smoke and mirrors, never a definite answer –but the author’s tricks and cheats. You’ve got a thin story with crudely drawn characters: now, how to keep this going? How much backstory do you provide, and how much do you withhold, so the enormous plot holes can provide you, the author, with the deus ex machina you need to get your heroes to the next installment of the series? 

It’s Storytelling 101, the barest minimum of literature. And surprisingly addictive. 

Keep reading? It’s shameful really, but yeah, I will. 

Volgende aflevering: 

doorlezen of niet in Oud-Loosdrecht van Sipko Melissen?