Max Ride and her five friends grew up in a science lab/prison called the School. They were created as an experiment. An experiment where they ended up only 98 percent human. That other 2 percent had a big impact. These children are pretty special. But when an ‘experiment’ this secret and this special has escaped from the School, the scientists are pretty keen on making sure the world never finds out about them. Soon, Max and the other children find themselves on the run in an adventure beyond even their wildest dreams. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE Do not put this book down. I’m dead serious – your life could depend on it. I’m risking everything by telling you – but you need to know.

STRAP YOURSELF IN for the thrill ride you’ll want to take again and again! From Death Valley, California, to the bowels of the New York City subway system, you’re about to take off on a heart-stopping adventure that will blow you away…

YOUR FAITHFUL COMPANIONS: Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways – except that they’re 98% human, 2% bird. They grew up in a lab, living like rats in cages, but now they’re free. Aside, of course, from the fact that they’re prime prey for Erasers – wicked wolf-like creatures with a taste for flying humans.

THE MISSIONS: Rescue Angel from malicious mutants. Infiltrate a secret facility to track down the flock’s missing parents. Scavenge for sustenance. Get revenge on an evil traitor. And save the world. If there’s time.

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For me this book wasn’t that great but it doesn’t mean that for you it won’t tick all the boxes. It had such a high rating so I gave it my best to like it but maybe it was the dialogue, maybe it was the story line, maybe it just was the weather outside making me not enjoy what I was reading.

Maximum Ride follows the adventures of six children, each of whom is the product of a genetic experiment: they are 98% human, 2% bird. These characters (each bequeathed with atrocious names that are supposed to be hip – Maximum, Nudge, Iggy, the Gasman, Fang, and Angel) spend 422 pages being chased by “Erasers” while trying to discover the secret of the School, the institution responsible for their mutations. 422 pages for what could have been a novella, nay, an essay.

Unfortunately, Patterson’s creativity as a writer is strictly limited to half-baked and poorly described battle sequences, so Ride’s introspection is relegated to heinous platitudes like,

“It was like I had just lost my baby sister. And like I had lost my little girl”

Because Patterson has made a career out of writing awful books for adults, he has convinced himself that he knows how to write for teens, and, more horribly, like teens. In fact, his writing reads like an old man trying to sound young: “Angel stared and stared and stared at Jeb Batchelder” is writing worse than the output of most 2nd graders, and “Then, in a burst, she leaped up, sprang off the table, and practically crashed through the fire door. The Gasman was practically glued to her back.” makes me practically tired of bad writing.

Other bad books from the same author: James Patterson * Mistress and James Patterson * Witch and Wizard