The Maze Runner Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for James Dashner’s The Maze Runner (2009) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

The Maze Runner book club questions · readeasy.app/book-club-questions/the-maze-runner/

1. 1. The Gladers build laws, jobs and a council inside a prison. Is the order they built - Gally's enforcement, Ben's banishment - courage or complicity with their captors?

2. 2. Thomas feels an unexplained certainty that he belongs to the Maze, and it turns out he helped design it. When did you first suspect it, and did the reveal make him a better or worse protagonist?

3. 3. Gally's warning - don't go back to the real world - reads as villainy until the last chapters. Was he right about anything the heroes got wrong?

4. 4. The Creators erase the Gladers' memories but leave them language, skills and vague feelings. What does the book argue about which parts of a person actually make the person?

5. 5. Chuck is the youngest and the sacrifice, and his death is framed as the price of the exit. Did the ending earn that trade, or is Chuck a device the plot spends?

6. 6. WICKED's premise - test the brains of the immune to save the species - is monstrous and possibly sincere. Where should the book have let you decide whether the ends justify the means?

7. 7. What did The Maze Runner make you feel that you didn't want to feel?

8. 8. If you had to cut one plotline from The Maze Runner entirely, which goes — and what does the book lose?

9. 9. Whose story in The Maze Runner deserved its own novel instead of a chapter?

10. 10. The first line of The Maze Runner — does the book keep the promise it makes? Where best and where worst?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

The Maze Runner runs about 112,000 words - roughly 374 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the The Maze Runner quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like The Maze Runner list is the handout.

Taking the club through the whole author? Our James Dashner books in order guide orders the full shelf.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

1984 questions, Animal Farm questions, Brave New World questions, Lord of the Flies questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

Frequently asked questions