Maximum Ride 2 - School's Out Forever

School's Out - Forever - Maximum Ride Series 2 - James Patterson

Well, I have dove back into the Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson.  With a series like this, I usually get bored around the 3rd or 4th book so I'm trying to force myself to stay focused. 

So far, so good.  The series is written for a teenage audience and is an easy read and right now is keeping my interest with the action and our six winged kids staying on the move.  In this book the flock finds themselves whisked away by a government agent who tries to get them to live like normal kids.  Predictably, she turns out to be one of "them" and the flock is once again on the run.  But before that happens, Max has her first date, which makes Fang jealous.  Fang has a little admirer which makes Max jealous, and we see the introduction of Fang's blog which plays a major part in the plot in later books. 

The teen romance between Fang and Max is blossoming nicely and we have many mysteries introduced, such as, who are their real parents and will Iggy's parents come back in later books to try and exploit him again.  Angel develops more and more talents like being able to breathe under water (I think all these special skills with come handy in the future).  We also discover that Ari (Max's supposed brother) is still alive even though she snapped his neck in the last book.  And Ari has some secrets of his own, like a voice in his head as well.  Who is the voice, or I should say voices, that keep telling Max and Ari what they should do next? 

I can't wait to start reading the next book - Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports .  I give it a 4 out of 5 overall for keeping my attention, but not doing a great job of surprising me.

Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment

Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

I haven't really kept the promise I made to myself.  I wanted to write a little review about each book that I read, directly after I finish reading it, but I have read 3 books since completing this one.  I hope to do better in the future.

Alright, to get right in to it, this book REALLY freaked me out.  My husband Doug came home one day describing to me this book series from James Patterson about a bunch of kids that had wings among other powers.  The reason this freaked me out so much is, when I was 19 I had an extremely vivid dream about a group of kids that were destined to save the world.  In my dream, which extended over an 8 year period, the kids were given special powers along with instructions from unknown persons on how to defeat their evil enemies and save the world from becoming hell on earth, literally. 

I thought there was no way that James Patterson could have written about something I dreamt about 15 years ago.  That was impossible, right!?!?  Well, I started the book and discovered that they were completely different, or so I thought.  The lead character, Maximum Ride, or just Max for short, was a fourteen year old boy who was the oldest of a group of six kids who all have wings.  Well, a few chapters in I realized I was wrong, Max was a GIRL!  The same as in my dream, although I can't remember what my lead heroine's name was after all these years. Still, the similarities just kept getting weirder and weirder.

In The Angel Experiment, Max gets instructions from a voice in her head that leads her to certain discoveries about the groups past.  They are constantly being hounded (ha ha) by the Erasers, which are genetically enhances kids who can change into werewolves.  Max and her group of flyer's have adventure after adventure, trying to escape capture and imprisonment at a laboratory nicknamed "The School" while striving to discover who they are and if they have parents out there somewhere.

After the initial shock wore off, I started to wonder how James Patterson came up with the concept for the series.  I would love to contact him and ask, but I don't want to come off as a crazed fan, or worse yet, a person that thinks he stole my idea.  That would have been a nifty trick since I never told anyone but my husband.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the books just to see if I can freak myself out some more.  I would give this book a 5 out of 5 overall.