where to begin... i believe firmly that a GOOD young adult novel should be readable and enjoyable to anyone, especially a sci-fi novel. well, dashner can generage an interesting idea... but just seems unable to deliver a readable story around it. everything seems primitive, boring and cringy with "the eye of minds". does repeating "firewall" and "coding" over and over and over make a good cyberpunk read? the characters have no depth, in fact the tree youngsters seem identical, it's impossible to get attached to any of them. the story is as linear as it gets. the author is even forced to explain what happens in the end because the story itself doesn't lead the reader to get it on his own! seriously, i've read children's stories with more interesting plots than that. i don't think i'll be reading any dashner anymore.