Chance Norton

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

3 out of 5 Stars
This book by James Patterson has an interesting plot, and also an interesting idea behind it but was written in a childish way. The emotions of the characters, their motivations are simple; nothing is complex in their thought process or actions. The book is also written in James Patterson’s unique style, with a new chapter every three or four pages which can be refreshing but can also be a little annoying if you are not used to it.
This book's saving grace is the fact that the children in this book, the flock, have a very cool ability. They can fly. Throughout the entire book I was thinking of how cool it would be to be able to do the things that the flock does. Another plus is a plot twist regarding their beginnings (which was sort of skipped over in this book) that I cannot tell you because it would ruin the best part of the book. On the other side, a negative is the enemies of the flock. Erasers. Man-Wolf creatures. This is an example of the childishness of the novel. There are more inspiring names for enemies as potentially frightening as these than something you wipe up chalk with.
All in all this is a book which has potential to be good but needs a lot of work. Giving the characters more depth, making the book as a whole less predictable, and writing it at your audience’s reading level would help Patterson immensely. I would recommend reading this book but only because being able to fly would be really cool.