Perhaps I’m just driving myself crazy expecting the world-building of the recent crop of teenage dystopias to make sense. Perhaps in most cases the particular dystopia is just meant to be a hand-waving framework to explore normal teenage angst in an otherworldly setting. But The Maze Runner seems particularly egregious. Our protagonists are literally living in the middle of a puzzle that they, and we, are trying to solve. And when that solution comes and the broader context is revealed, it seems to make very little sense. And c’mon, “WICKED”?

FuzzyCo grade: B-