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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
I might come back to this one. But right now it's taking me too long to get through. It's such a struggle, so I'm abandoning it.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I recognize that I am definitely not the target audience for this book, so my review is going to be perhaps unfairly biased in that regard. This book was written for 14 year olds in 2005, so as a 28 year old in 2024 I really didn’t enjoy the writing style. I’m not exactly sure how much Patterson intended this, but I was repeatedly struck by the tragedy of Max being forced to take on a caretaker role and abandon her own childhood at the age of 14, at her taking on a mother-like role for all of the kids but especially Angel when she herself is still a baby. I know it’s a fun sci-fi adventure book for kids but it made me sad!!! I thought the plot got more interesting as it went on and will read the next two, as part of the “read the books that have shaped my psyche” pact that my wife and I are participating in, lol.
I expected this to be unreadable but it was SO funny and charming. I love the emo aughts cover <3. This was a fave in middle school & I'm rereading cause I'm giving my nephew the manga for Christmas. I really like Max still & the plot kinda reminds me of the stories I'd make up as a child with my characters how it's so off the cuff & kind of doesn't make sense in places. It's bad writing but it's tapping me into my younger selfs imaginitive side 💆🏻♀️. I enjoyed the begining SO much but it loses momentum after they rescue Angel
fast-paced
I read this book for our cousin book club, it was chosen as our “bad teen book” month theme… If I had read this in middle school? It would have been a 10/5 stars LOL.
This book was utterly lacking in any sort of talent, quality or originality. Pure pulp fiction for the young adult.
Rereading old middle school favorites as an adult is fun
The Angel Experiment, book one in the Maximum Ride series by James Pattison, is not a book that I normally would pick up, but it came HIGHLY recommended to me by a teenage girl I teach. After she brought her well worn paperback copy to me so that I could read her absolute favorite series ever I felt some obligation to read it. She was not the only to recommend this, so I read on with high hopes. What can I say about it now that I'm finished?
Well ...
I can totally see why she liked it. I can see why others have recommended it to me. It is a good story that is fast paced and intriguing in many ways. But, to be honest, this is written for a middle-school level reading audience. That is not to say that it can't be an enjoyable read for "older folk" like me. I did find lots to enjoy. But the writing style was a bit below what I enjoy in the books I read, so I never was fully invested in the story. I always felt like I was in a read-along with my middle-school children, reading simply to share the experience with them, not because I felt like the story was meant for me. Does that make any sense?
My thoughts:
First of all, the things I liked. You can tell that James Patterson has experience as a mystery writer because the intrigue and suspense of this story was top notch. I really was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out exactly what was going on with these experiments. Why did Ari say that they were the good guys when they were totally acting like the bad guys? What was Jeb's story? And then the revelation at the end about who Ari really was ... what's up with that? There was a lot of suspense to drive the reading, so I was driven to finish this in only a day. It is a VERY fast read. It sort of reminded me of Dan Brown's books like The Da Vinci Code because of the super short chapters, urging you to keep reading just one more chapter until, before you know it, you've finished the book. The action of the book was always there, and I never ever felt as if these kids were safe. The atmosphere and setting of the story was set up wonderfully so that I always was in fear of the next big confrontation, never feeling like I could let my guard down, even when the kids found a bit of reprieve from their dangerous existence.
Now for the bad. Well, it's not really bad, but it is just what kept this from being a higher rated book for me. Although I compared the short chapters and the fast read to a Dan Brown book, the reality was that the short chapters were really weird in many ways. I could never figure out why he was breaking chapters at the moments he did. They didn't usually end with cliffhangers, and they didn't even end at the end of a scene. They just ended willy nilly as if he just decided, "Hey. I'm tired of writing today. I'll pick this up again tomorrow ... exactly on the same scene I was on before, but with a new chapter heading." It made no sense. I think this would be helpful for a younger reading crowd, but for me it made the book more choppy than it needed to be.
The characters were nice enough for this one, but I felt like I was only seeing all of them on a surface level. Max and Fang are supposedly supposed to be the big couple, but NOTHING shows this at all until Max suddenly plants a kiss on him toward the end of the book. Why does she do this? It makes no sense, and nothing at all in the dialogue or action leads up to this moment. Several interactions between the characters seem this way. I guess my ultimate reaction is that Patterson is a master at creating the suspense of the plot, but creating characters and meaningful dialogue is not his forte.
My verdict? This is a book that many people will enjoy. I do recommend it to middle school and high school readers, especially those who are just getting into reading and would like a fast paced book that is interesting and heart pumping at times. The young woman who recommended this book to me? She is a girl who does not like school and shies away from reading normally, so the fact that this book inspired her to read shows that it is a book that would be great to have in a school library. I applaud Patterson for being able to inspire girls and boys like her.
Well ...
I can totally see why she liked it. I can see why others have recommended it to me. It is a good story that is fast paced and intriguing in many ways. But, to be honest, this is written for a middle-school level reading audience. That is not to say that it can't be an enjoyable read for "older folk" like me. I did find lots to enjoy. But the writing style was a bit below what I enjoy in the books I read, so I never was fully invested in the story. I always felt like I was in a read-along with my middle-school children, reading simply to share the experience with them, not because I felt like the story was meant for me. Does that make any sense?
My thoughts:
First of all, the things I liked. You can tell that James Patterson has experience as a mystery writer because the intrigue and suspense of this story was top notch. I really was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out exactly what was going on with these experiments. Why did Ari say that they were the good guys when they were totally acting like the bad guys? What was Jeb's story? And then the revelation at the end about who Ari really was ... what's up with that? There was a lot of suspense to drive the reading, so I was driven to finish this in only a day. It is a VERY fast read. It sort of reminded me of Dan Brown's books like The Da Vinci Code because of the super short chapters, urging you to keep reading just one more chapter until, before you know it, you've finished the book. The action of the book was always there, and I never ever felt as if these kids were safe. The atmosphere and setting of the story was set up wonderfully so that I always was in fear of the next big confrontation, never feeling like I could let my guard down, even when the kids found a bit of reprieve from their dangerous existence.
Now for the bad. Well, it's not really bad, but it is just what kept this from being a higher rated book for me. Although I compared the short chapters and the fast read to a Dan Brown book, the reality was that the short chapters were really weird in many ways. I could never figure out why he was breaking chapters at the moments he did. They didn't usually end with cliffhangers, and they didn't even end at the end of a scene. They just ended willy nilly as if he just decided, "Hey. I'm tired of writing today. I'll pick this up again tomorrow ... exactly on the same scene I was on before, but with a new chapter heading." It made no sense. I think this would be helpful for a younger reading crowd, but for me it made the book more choppy than it needed to be.
The characters were nice enough for this one, but I felt like I was only seeing all of them on a surface level. Max and Fang are supposedly supposed to be the big couple, but NOTHING shows this at all until Max suddenly plants a kiss on him toward the end of the book. Why does she do this? It makes no sense, and nothing at all in the dialogue or action leads up to this moment. Several interactions between the characters seem this way. I guess my ultimate reaction is that Patterson is a master at creating the suspense of the plot, but creating characters and meaningful dialogue is not his forte.
My verdict? This is a book that many people will enjoy. I do recommend it to middle school and high school readers, especially those who are just getting into reading and would like a fast paced book that is interesting and heart pumping at times. The young woman who recommended this book to me? She is a girl who does not like school and shies away from reading normally, so the fact that this book inspired her to read shows that it is a book that would be great to have in a school library. I applaud Patterson for being able to inspire girls and boys like her.