What would you do if you had been genetically mixed with a bird and the mad scientists responsible were now about to take over the world by way of genocide? Fight to save the world, obviously! In the third and final installment of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series his heroine Max is a plucky (pardon the bird puns) teenager determined to save her Flock of friends who are being hunted down and killed because they have been deemed mistakes.

Maximum Ride is a speedy read, clipping along as a fast paced, action based piece of young adult fiction. It is a fun book to escape into as long as the reader doesn’t question any of the scenarios, madcap science experiments, or explanations. Typical of much science fiction geared toward this age, Maximum Ride is a fantastic story, but totally unbelievable. Young teens will enjoy the smart aleck dialogue, the unique hybrids of man and animal and the constant plot driven action and mind games. This book takes several unexpected turns, and although it sails through many stereotypical places and people (mad scientist promoting genocide - obviously German) time and time again it will have the reader laughing and feeling genuine concern for Max and her friends.

Some fun elements of the book include the supporting male character Fang, who blogs about his adventures to unite the children of the world against us mindless, heartless, clueless adults who would allow two thirds of the world to be exterminated without a backwards glance (why do teen books never give adults any sense?). Angel, whose telepathic skills save the Flock on many occasions provides much of the truly intense drama as the reader is left to constantly guess where her loyalties lie. My favorite character was Toto, the talking dog, who had one of the most believable voices out of the entire book, and who was dead funny.

In short, Patterson weaves a very original tale in his latest book, and I give it three stars out of five.

Reviewed as part of the Mothertalk network.

I know, here I tell everyone I’m designing for Quickutz now and I don’t even show you anything I’ve made! So, the new September releases just came out along with some artwork I’ve done with the new dies, so here they are:

Quickutz likes their examples a little more on the clean and simple side, so it is fun for me to keep things more clean- not my usual method lol! Now I’m actually mid project with a few things from the upcoming Memory trends show- I’ll show them off when they are released!