Title: Angel Author: James Patterson
Series: Maximum Ride (#7)
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Publication Date: February 14, 2011
Publisher: Pageturners
This entire series is now ON PROBATION for me.
I fell in love with Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, School's Out Forever, and Saving the world and Other Extreme Sports. After The Final Warning, I started to have second thoughts. After reading FANG, I threw up and smashed my head against the wall.
Now, I know that's not a very good note to start on for a book review. But this book was HEAPS better than the last book, Fang. After reading Fang, I felt as if the author was milking it. Patterson, my man, I love you- but even I can tell this is just for the money. The book series came to an end in Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports- they saved the world, after all, which was the goal. But then, we figured out that NOOOO, they totally still haven't saved the world. Which is obvious for, "I know, I know, I already wrote the final book, but they're so famous that I better keep going and drag it out." Even after reading Fang, which is not only the worst book in the series but is actually amongst one of the few that I rated one-star, I felt obligated to continue and read ANGEL, seeing as how the characters feel like my friends now and I care for them (except, Angel sort of scares me now). I did not make a mistake. Angel is TWO AND A HALF STARS better than FANG, and honestly, everything was almost back to normal. I did say ALMOST back to normal. Of course, Fang is still running his cirque de freak gang, whom I want to kill with a malet very badly.
Let's start with the plot. The plot, as I said, is still dragged out- but I feel like this is one of those books where the author suddenly comes up with a brilliant, fresh, exciting new idea that will make the next book better. I feel like rather than being boring and plotless, James has come up with a new idea for the series, which will be revealed in Nevermore. Therefore, the plot wasn't as washed out, bland, and pointless as in the last book. I mean, it was a lot of sitting around and I miss the action we had in the first three books, but they had some good action bits and I enjoyed how it seems to be setting up for something big. The book also consisted of less action than the first three books, but I think it was a lot more fascinating and action packed than the last two books. Another thing that MAJORLY saved this book for me: The fact that Angel is back to normal. The first three books, Angel is sweet, and Max just loves her. She's smart and very loyal to the flock. Then, for some JACKED UP REASON, Patterson turned her into a demonic bird child that keeps trying to control everyone and get Max kicked out of the flock. In this book, Angel is a lot more like her old self. She's sweeter, calmer and she seems to support and stand behind Max like she did the first few books. I don't know if she's just planning to earn our trust and then kill us in our sleep, but she was the peacekeeper between Fang and Max and she was very good and more like her old self, which i was grateful to see. Which brings us to another point, something I didn't like and that I am sure nobody did: Max and Fang's relationship. They absolutely hate each other in this book. They can't seem to get along for longer than seven and a half seconds. They each have their own new little love interests, which we all know they are using to make one another jealous. How did that HAPPEN? They were disgustingly in love last book, and now they seem ready to snap eachother's heads off. Yes, that is mostly Max, but I just feel that it's unfair and too big of a change. From love birds to fire throwers. How the heck do you make THAT leap, Patterson? And not only is Fang crushing on Max's clone, the annoying and obxnoxiously girly Maya, but he has his own flock now. And I hate all the people in his new flock. Sure, I get it- they're just people. But I feel like he's trying to replace the flock, the way a poor person buys cheap knockoffs of purses in New York. It annoys me endlessly, and none of the flock members he has are deep or complex in anyway. They are mindless hooligans and honestly, if they all got on a boat and it sunk and an octopus served them for breakfast, I'd be okay with that. I'd also be okay if Fang went with them, seeing as how he isn't acting like himself and is actually spraying people with Cheeze Whiz now. I want to smack him upside the head, hang him by his feet and poke him with sharp sticks, which I also want to do with the annoying, obnoxious, dense, singing, Gary-Stu we call Dylan. It's not RIGHT for Fang to be apart from the flock, to have his own group. It's messed up and I just can't read it- it seems awkward and sticks out in the worst ways. I hope Patterson fixes it by Nevermore. Now, the Flock...I think it's safe to say that in the last book, they were falling apart. Max isn't a great leader anymore. She's weak, uncertain, and too focused on other matters besides her Flock to be a strong leader anymore. She was the best leader in the first three books, but the more books that are published, the worse she gets. However, she had a few redeeming moments in this book that made me think maybe not all hope is lost.
Overall, I think the way I felt about Max is the way I felt about the rest of the book. Like it was falling apart and that it was very weak, but there were a few moments or chapters that reminded me of the first three books and that helped the book go from one star to three. This book had a few redeeming moments and I think that, by the end of this book, everything could be much more normal. The only thing I truly hated was that the Flock used to be a family, and now they are like strangers to each other. I feel like I don't know anyone anymore except Iggy, and that they're falling apart, and it breaks my heart. I miss how close they used to be, how united they were, in the first two/three books. However, they seemed more like a family at the end, and hopefully in Nevermore, Fang's stupid gang will be vanished (along with Dylan and Maya), and everything will be back to normal. I really hope so. If not, I might have to die unhappy and hang James Patterson by his feet and poke him with sharp objects while forcing him to read his own book and eat spoiled bananas. It breaks my heart to rate this book a two. -Astrid
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