I was given a free copy for an honest review

This book is a parody of The Maze Runner, which I never read but saw the movie. It is a short book, so things aren't explained very well. I'm sure some women will be offended by the Heavers. There are a lot of sex and peen jokes, but these are frat boys so that's to be expected.

Overall a decent parody. ( )

This parody made no sense whatsoever when I first began reading it. Probably because I did not read THE MAZE RUNNER series - a trilogy of titles, THE MAZE RUNNER, THE SCORCH TRIALS, and THE DEATH CURE; YA Books (grades 6-10) written by James Dashner. There is even a prequel and a film.
I decided to read a few summaries of THE MAZE RUNNER to see if I could make some sense of the parody ‘plot’. “Thomas wakes up in an elevator, remembering nothing but his own name. He emerges into a world of about 60 teenage boys who have learned how to survive in a completely enclosed environment.” Okaaaaaay.
THE MAZE RUNNER series seems to appeal to fans of these proliferating YA series - THE HUNGER GAMES, DIVERGENT, THE CITY OF EMBER.
I am far from being a member of the YA set, so sue me if I sound old-fashioned (which I am), but these stories are so dark and dismal and depressing and utterly joyless. They aren’t allegories or morality plays, just dark, depressing fantasy mumbo-jumbo.
The more I read about THE MAZE RUNNER, the funnier Mr. Lookner’s parody, THE MAZE BUMMER became.
Mr. Lookner’s parodies are so crass, so tasteless and so hilarious. I love his dragging of pop culture icons in the dirt. THE MAZE BUMMER takes THE LORD OF THE FLIES premise of THE MAZE RUNNER and writes the main characters as frat boys stuck in a psych experiment designed by a ‘fat’ psych professor and her assistant in order to punish these boys for their ‘insensitive’ sexual harassment of college girls at their frat house. (very timely subject)
I am sure Mr. Lookner will come up with his own sequels. Maybe he should write a movie script to parody THE MAZE RUNNER film? He has certainly found his forte with his parodies. I love them - quick, funny reads that makes this bibliophile yearn for a good Nancy Drew mystery. ( )