Dear James Dashner,

(Yes, there is an enormous possibility that he might just stumble across my blog, so back off all you realists)

Dear James Dashner,

Let me first begin by saying: You are genius. I'm totally not sucking up, because as per my recent I Will Not Let An Author Make Me Feel Like I'm Not Good Enough Epiphany, it would seem totally like I was reverting back to my former self. I am not. And I will not.

Anywhoo, I bought your book over the summer, not having a clue what the book was about, due to my slight issue of feeling the need to buy every and all YA books so that I can read them and then possibly build a house out of them. (That'd be a pretty cool idea, huh?)

Your book wasn't the first on my list of To-Read, I will be honest, but for some reason, when I started to dig through the hundreds of books, it sort of called to me. It said: Tiffany! Read me!

And so I did.

And I tore through the book in a way I've never done before. I found that you put me so far into Thomas' character, to the point that it was scary. I felt like I was in his shoes the entire time. I was thinking the same things he was thinking, I was questioning the same things he was questioning, I was feeling the same way you described him to be feeling. It was crazy!  I can honestly say that I have never read another book that had me so one with the main character. Really.

I don't want to spoil the book for anyone who hasn't read it, but I'll just say, I felt as if I had a memory wipe like Thomas did, and so I tore through the book, following Thomas on his journey to figure out what in the world was going.

And the new language was all sorts of amazing, good that? I mean, for you to create a new language and then to make it totally believable and not forced was so great that I now speak in that language. Even though no one seems to understand what it means when I call them slintheads and klunks. Oh well. Maybe they should read the book...

Then the ending. The ending...if you want to call it that. As if it wasn't enough to have me so immersed in your crazy Maze world, where I had no clue what was going on, you go and leave me TOTALLY hanging at the end and make me run out and buy The Scorch Trials THE NEXT DAY, in  which I tore through that book only to find out that I STILL have hardly any of my questions answered. Not to mention the fact that you yet again left me hanging.

I would normally have a deep hatred for you and your cruel ways. To leave an obsessive girl like me waiting around for another year just to find out what in the world is going on in that crazy mind of yours...it's just plain wrong. But, instead, I feel this need to take what you taught me through your books and use it to make my writing better.

So even though I contemplated, at one point, stalking you, kidnapping you, and then forcing you to tell me WHAT IS GOING ON, I've decided to take the high road. Probably, mostly because I am not in the mood for being arrested. I realized after reading your book that the ability to put a reader into the main character's head is the most invaluable thing an author can do. I mean, I already knew that, but I don't think I had ever read a book that had done that so well.

So, thank you Mr. Dashner, for your amazing books, and inspiring me to find a way to connect my readers to my main character in a way that makes them feel like they are truly going on a journey with them. So, how 'bout an ARC of The Death Cure? Pretty please?? I'm not so sure I can keep my promise of not hunting you down for a whole year...

Love,

Me (Your #1 Fan)