Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment- By James Patterson

Maximum Ride- the Angel experiment is a book for a slightly older audience than the books I usually tend to read. I would say it was geared towards people from ages 11-14. There is a little bit of puppy love and some bad language, so you parents out there, heads up. All in all, I do not think it was too bad as far as adult content.

As far as liking this book- it was really interesting. I can honestly say, I have never read another book quite like it. I guess the author James Patterson took one of his adult novels and turned to into a series for a younger audience. I have not read the book it was based on, but the series was recommended to me by a friend I made on paperbackswap.com. Paperbackswap.com is a place where you can post old books you no longer want, and then ship them to someone else who does. You then earn a credit and are only out the cost of shipping. I highly recommend this site to anyone who has books they do not want anymore, and would like new ones for little cost. I have met some really nice people on the site who share my love of books and have made excellent book recommendations.

I read every book in this series. I do not know if it was because I liked the story so much, or because these books were so out there. The main character is called Maximum Ride- a name she picked herself. She is 98% human, and 2% bird (I know, sounds odd) and she can fly. She was created by scientists who are pushing the bounds of science experiments and combining human DNA with that of other animals. She also has friends named Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel who also have wings and are members of her flock (even weirder, I know). Now, the flock has to be on the lookout for other half-human half-wolf mutants that sort-of lust after their bird-human blood.

In this story, Max and her friends are trying to track down their parents and determine whether they were abducted from them, or given away as babies to be experimented on by the scientists who turned them into bird mutants.

In all honesty, I can say that is one of the strangest book series I have ever read. Having said that- I did read the whole series. It was so far-fetched and so weird that I had this compulsion to finish all the books. They are all pretty much written from Max’s point of view, with a few of the other main characters occasionally offering their point of view. Max tells the story in a funny, but exciting way that makes you want to keep on reading.

But was this a really good book? I am honestly not sure because I neither liked nor disliked this book. It felt very outlandish to me and I’m a huge fan of science fiction. Some of the aspects were completely unbelievable- but I still felt it was worth reading, even though I had trouble believing it all. That may be because Max and the rest of her flock are such fun, likable characters. All in all, this series was pretty good for people who find government conspiracies and human experimentation interesting.