By James Patterson
Review by Béibhinn Whelan
This week I took the Maximum Ride journey and dived into Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by the international best-selling thriller writer James Patterson. As the name suggests reading this book is the maximum Ride for a reader as there is lots of action and it’s quite unusual. I know the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is used a lot but in this particular case it’s really important to read a little into the book than just the illustration on the front because I think the illustration doesn’t do the book justice. However the tagline ‘These kids don’t need broomsticks to fly’ immediately catches a reader’s attention. It is curious as 1) broomsticks don’t exist and 2) the fact they don’t need broom sticks brings the question “How do they fly then?” which is the whole purpose of it.
This is a fictional thriller book and people who have an interest in the area should read the book. There are six main characters in this story, they are; Max the eldest girl aged 14 and from whose point of view we see most of the story in, Fang two months younger than Max a very private young boy, Iggy a blind boy of 14 also who despite his inability to see is an amazing cook, Nudge an eleven-year-old dark skinned girl who is very talkative, The Gasman a boy of eight who was named because of his bowel movement and Angel the six-year-old who can read minds together known as the flock. They are not normal human beings. They are known as ‘bird kids’ by scientists who raised them in a lab and experimented on them. They are called ‘Bird kids’ because unlike other their D.N.A. contains two percent Avian D.N.A, which means they can fly. Their bodies are aerodynamic and they all have wings of about eleven to fifteen feet wingspan however they try to keep this a secret. For years they lived in ‘The School’, which is a secret scientific base in Death Valley, California, but they escaped and now live on the top of a mountain alone. That is until erasers, which are another DNA recombinant made up of Human and wolf, attack them.
Patterson’s style of writing is very unique and he holds suspense excellently as his concise chapters make the reader want to keep reading and reading. His character descriptions are so vivid that you can picture them standing before you. We easily get an understanding of each character as they are introduced. What he has managed to do in this book is what every readers dreams of; an explanation to what’s happening. As there’s a moral to every story I think this story’s moral is Trust Nobody, Not Even yourself. Which is a very valid point as sometimes your own mind can be fooled. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone from 12 upwards and quite possibly less than twelve. There are another seven books in this series (six of which are published) and the entire series is most definitely worth picking up.
Review by Béibhinn Whelan
This week I took the Maximum Ride journey and dived into Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by the international best-selling thriller writer James Patterson. As the name suggests reading this book is the maximum Ride for a reader as there is lots of action and it’s quite unusual. I know the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is used a lot but in this particular case it’s really important to read a little into the book than just the illustration on the front because I think the illustration doesn’t do the book justice. However the tagline ‘These kids don’t need broomsticks to fly’ immediately catches a reader’s attention. It is curious as 1) broomsticks don’t exist and 2) the fact they don’t need broom sticks brings the question “How do they fly then?” which is the whole purpose of it.
This is a fictional thriller book and people who have an interest in the area should read the book. There are six main characters in this story, they are; Max the eldest girl aged 14 and from whose point of view we see most of the story in, Fang two months younger than Max a very private young boy, Iggy a blind boy of 14 also who despite his inability to see is an amazing cook, Nudge an eleven-year-old dark skinned girl who is very talkative, The Gasman a boy of eight who was named because of his bowel movement and Angel the six-year-old who can read minds together known as the flock. They are not normal human beings. They are known as ‘bird kids’ by scientists who raised them in a lab and experimented on them. They are called ‘Bird kids’ because unlike other their D.N.A. contains two percent Avian D.N.A, which means they can fly. Their bodies are aerodynamic and they all have wings of about eleven to fifteen feet wingspan however they try to keep this a secret. For years they lived in ‘The School’, which is a secret scientific base in Death Valley, California, but they escaped and now live on the top of a mountain alone. That is until erasers, which are another DNA recombinant made up of Human and wolf, attack them.
Patterson’s style of writing is very unique and he holds suspense excellently as his concise chapters make the reader want to keep reading and reading. His character descriptions are so vivid that you can picture them standing before you. We easily get an understanding of each character as they are introduced. What he has managed to do in this book is what every readers dreams of; an explanation to what’s happening. As there’s a moral to every story I think this story’s moral is Trust Nobody, Not Even yourself. Which is a very valid point as sometimes your own mind can be fooled. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone from 12 upwards and quite possibly less than twelve. There are another seven books in this series (six of which are published) and the entire series is most definitely worth picking up.