Books like The Maze Runner
What should you read after James Dashner’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- James Dashner
- 2009
- YA dystopian
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after The Maze Runner
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchDivergent
Veronica Roth
Teenagers dropped into a testing system that will kill the ones who fail, and a heroine working out who built it. Same machinery, more character work.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Survival by sprinting
- Short chapters, fast plot
- Romance takes real space
Great matchThe Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Children put in an arena and watched by the people who built it. The best-written book on this list and the one the rest are answering.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Survival by sprinting
- Televised, not secret
Great matchThe Giver
Lois Lowry
A boy discovers the calm community he grew up in is maintained by something monstrous. The reveal structure Maze Runner uses, in its cleanest form.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Waking up with no memory
- No action or running
Great matchThe 5th Wave
Rick Yancey
Post-invasion survival, a training camp for children, and a narrator who cannot tell who is lying to her. Faster and nastier than Dashner.
- Survival by sprinting
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Built on an alien invasion
Great matchLegend
Marie Lu
Two fifteen-year-olds on opposite sides of a state that has been testing children for years. Tight, propulsive, and better on character than most here.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Short chapters, fast plot
- No maze, no memory loss
Best for the experimentEnder's Game
Orson Scott Card
Children put through escalating war games by adults who won't say what the games are for. The smartest version of this premise anyone has written.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Boys running their own society
- Survival by sprinting
- 1980s prose and attitudes
Worth a look — with a warningThe Selection
Kiera Cass
Here for the sorted-society shelf rather than any real resemblance: a palace competition with romance as the point and nothing chasing anyone.
- Short chapters, fast plot
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- No survival stakes at all
Great matchRed Queen
Victoria Aveyard
Trials, a hidden power and a betrayal you will still feel. Swaps the maze for a court, keeps the sensation of being played by everyone above you.
- Short chapters, fast plot
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Fantasy court, not a maze
Great matchThe Scorch Trials
James Dashner
The direct sequel, and the obvious next read: out of the maze, into a burned world with a new set of rules nobody explains.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Survival by sprinting
- Invented slang
- Only works after book one
Best for the invented slangThe Knife of Never Letting Go
Patrick Ness
A boy fleeing a settlement where every man's thoughts are audible, in a voice built out of its own dialect. Ness does the language thing properly.
- Invented slang
- Boys running their own society
- Survival by sprinting
- Emotionally brutal in places
Worth a look — with a warningMatched
Ally Condie
A controlled society and a girl who starts noticing the seams. Quiet and thoughtful, which is the opposite of what most people come to Dashner for.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Waking up with no memory
- Very slow pace
Great matchEnclave
Ann Aguirre
Teenagers running their own brutal hierarchy in a subway tunnel, with monsters outside the walls. The Glade's social order, moved underground.
- Boys running their own society
- Survival by sprinting
- Gorier than Dashner
Worth a look — with a warningDelirium
Lauren Oliver
A state that operates on your brain at eighteen and a girl who runs before her date. Strong writing, but the engine here is romance, not survival.
- An experiment you can't see the edges of
- Waking up with no memory
- Romance is the whole plot
What should you read after The Maze Runner?
The Maze Runner by James Dashner works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is Divergent by Veronica Roth — teenagers dropped into a testing system that will kill the ones who fail, and a heroine working out who built it. Same machinery, more character work.
If what stayed with you was an experiment you can't see the edges of, read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins instead: children put in an arena and watched by the people who built it. The best-written book on this list and the one the rest are answering. The Giver by Lois Lowry is the other strong option — a boy discovers the calm community he grew up in is maintained by something monstrous. The reveal structure Maze Runner uses, in its cleanest form.
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