Max (Maximum Ride, #5) by James Patterson

Max by James Patterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

When the planed faced destruction, they saved it. Now, Max and the flock have traded in Antarctica's subzero temperatures for sunny Los Angeles, where they're taking over the skies with their hair-raising air show. But far below, a deadly assassin watches their every move. waiting for the perfect moment to send them plummeting to earth.

Now the battle for survival rages on. Suddenly, the flock learns that millions of fish are dying off Hawaii's coast and that someone—or something—is destroying hundreds of ships. When they are confronted with the most frightening ecological catastrophe yet, they have no choice but to go deep into the murky waters. Now, nowhere is safe.

While Max and her team comb the depths of the ocean, a powerful enemy tracks them. He has his own plans for the flock and will stop at nothing until they're under his control.

My Review:

What am I doing? I must be a glutton for punishment because I keep reading on in the series. Yes, I love James Patterson, but this is just bad. I'm hoping it doesn't taint my overall view of his work.

Anyways, with that being said, here are the few many issues I had with this story in general.

1. Max went from being very confused about Fang's intentions and wanting to keep the brother/sister aspect strong to being head over heels in love. They are also only 14 years old. Plus, they live alone and travel together, I think it's time they have some supervision. In truth, I'm hoping for a teen pregnancy in a future installment.

2. Max repeatedly made mention of how under educated they are, but smart when it comes to the streets. That is fine and all, but while narrating, she used some big words that I didn't even use until college, and I was well educated prior to that. The writer doesn't necessary have to dumb down the narration, but they should make it a little more believable.

3. Total's storyline got super corny. Yes, I know he loves his dog friend, he is a dog too, but talking about marriage? Really? Even if he understands the concept, I'm sure his lady friend doesn't give a crap. She just wants to sniff his butt and be sniffed in return.

4. Angel was a complete pain in the butt. She kept putting herself and others in extremely dangerous situations. Fortunately for her, she kept getting away unscathed, but someone should discipline her in a way she'd get the message.

5. Jeb was there in the beginning, traveling with the Flock and Max's mom, but once she is kidnapped he disappears? That's strange. However, he does show back up after she is rescued. I'm wondering if that was a set-up for the next book.

6. Last but not least. In fact, this was my biggest peeve, all of Max's lists. She felt necessary to list everything, even if it didn't make sense.

Overall, I wasn't that impressed. Despite that fact, I'll probably read the next installment, just because I already have it checked out from the library, but if it gets much worse, I might have to draw the line. So bummed this is going down hill, and fast.

Favorite Quotes:

“I'm not Stubborn; I'm right!”

“Sometimes when you're at your most certain, that's when everything you know is wrong.”

“Irony sort of reaches up and slaps you in the face sometimes, doesn’t it?”

Read from March 25 to April 06, 2015

Top 5 Genres*: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Fiction
*According to Goodreads
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My ratings system
5 stars - I absolutely loved it
4 stars - Good book and would recommend
3 stars - Decent book, but wasn't spectacular
2 stars - Not good, but was able to finish it
1 stars - Did not finish (DNF) and I don't usually rate a book I haven't finished (just to be fair to the author)

View all my reviews