Review Detail

Honestly? Before reading this, I thought it was going to be a bit cheesy and kind of lame. I mean, genetically mutant kids with wings escaping from evil scientists and wolf guys? It sounded like one of those stupid TV shows that my brother always watches.

After reading this, I can definitely affirm that it is NOT cheesy or lame. I can't even really remember why I thought it would be. It was definitely fast-paced and exciting and full of action and kind of horrifying at some points. What's not to like?

Maximum Ride follows six children, who are 98% human, and 2% bird. (hint, hint: they've got wings) They've got kind of ridiculous names: Maximum (who IS a girl), Nudge, Iggy, Fang, Angel and Gasman. They live in isolation, because the evil scientists who created them are out to get them. Their caretaker, Jeb, has disappeared, but they all know he's (ahem) dead. One day, Angel is captured by the Erasers (seriously, erasers? it sounds like their pencil cases are out to get them) who are evil kind of werewolf thingies. So of course, Max and the rest of the flock fly off to save her.

I reckon that this should have been two books. One for rescuing Angel, and then another for being in New York.

At first I was really confused, because the book didn't actually clearly state that Max was a girl (or if it did, I missed it) so for the first, like, 30-50 pages I went on believing that she was a BOY, because Maximum sounds like a boy's name, which made me really confused because Max's "voice" sounded more girly. Then I saw the others referring to her as "she", and I was like "wait, she? Ooooohhh... Max is a girl." So yeah. Don't make that mistake. It's confusing.

I love Max's character. She's tough, witty, and caring, and violent and funny and daring (lol... that rhymes.)

I have some questions though, that weren't really touched on in the book. for example: how does the school get all this money? Is it government funded? Why do all the others have powers other than flying (e.g. mind-reading, breathing underwater) and Max doesn't? How did they get the bird DNA inside a human egg? Why the hell would you give up your child to be tortured and turned into a bird mutant?

Anyway, hopefully these will be answered in the next book. I would love to have wings, but I guess if I had to go through all they did to have them, it wouldn't be so fun. Still... Wings are so cool!

To sum it up, this was a great, action-packed book, and I can't wait to read the next one.