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In general I do not enjoy James Patterson novels as I find them predictable and formulaic but for some reason I quite enjoy the Maximum Ride series. I found the characters to be interesting and I found the story to be fascinating. I liked how it was fantastical but also believable enough that it felt like the vents could maybe actually happen. The writing style is very readable if a bit simplistic. ( )

This final book was really good! James Patterson is really great at writing action-packed stories so it was fun to read.
But the love triangle between Max, Fang, and Dylan is so lame and stupid. (Also what kind of a name is Fang??? What is he, a vampire or something?)Anyway, Max finally made up her mind and chose Fang because blah blah blah Max&Fang 4EVER oh ho ho so adorbs.
Anyway, I liked this book but I don't think I want to read the ninth one. ( )

I won't say I was dissapointed, because that would mean that I was expecting something great, and I wasn't. Truth be told, I only read the book because I had read the entire series and had to know how it ended.
The plot was cliche, and so full of cliff-hangers that I was literally bored to tears (crying angrily in a Books-a-Million, not my best moment, I know).
In these YA books by James Patterson, it feels as though he is speaking down to the reader. It seems very condescending to me. Now, this may just be my opinion, but I don't feel that Patterson expects much from the teens reading his books. I feel almost disappointed in him.
The plot itself was un-realistic (though that's not really something new), but I am still slightly surprised that what I thought was going to happen didn't happen. So, Kudos to Patterson for creating a version different from what I expected to happen. What happened was worse than I expectated it to be, but hey, if that's the price for originality...
Also, what's with all the loose ends flying about? So Dylan just suddenly, for no real explained reason, stops loving Max? So Jeb is really a bad guy? How does the school have all these brainwashing technologies, and if it is so easy to brainwash someone, where can I buy mine? How did they brainwash whole cities of kids to do what they wanted in a cult-like fashion? Iggy's sight problem was never really explained. Total was in it hardly at all. Why is Angel so stuck-up all the time? Why does Max feel the need to string Dylan AND Fang along (One page she's a "strong independent woman" and the next she's crying because Oh no, TWO boys love her, what ever shall she do? Give me a break)? Why are all the adults untrustworthy? Hmm? I don't know if Patterson is just trying to appeal to an audience who doesn't like adults, but I find it kind of offensive. I happen to have adult friends, heck, I'm almost an adult myself, I don't like reading that whole, can't trust anyone over 18 thing the bird-kids have. With good reason. I can't remember reading, in all 8 books, a single adult who could be trusted completely. What's with that?
I shouldn't complain, because, like I said, I didn't expect much. I know that I myself am not going to read any more of James Patterson's YA (or any, really) books, but I hope for future readers that he grows up a little, stops talking down to the reader, explain things in the plots better (or at all), and for goodness sake, no more formula writing. ( )

So the end of the world. I'm not sure what happened to Maximum Ride, but she appears to have been replaced by a clone of something. She likes to remind us every few pages that she's not like other girls. She is torn between Dylan and Fang and spends most of the book obsessing over them. Maximum Ride used to be exciting and this book really wasn't. All the action that happened just left me thinking what the heck. The ending was bizarre. The series hasn't ever really explained itself, it would have been so much more interesting for the bird kids to find out more about their past and integrate into society. Instead we get this highly improbable tale, with people continually coming back from the dead, and continually switching sides. Ari, Jeb, Max's mum. Are they good, are they had? Who even knows. They aren't developed enough as characters to carry the nuance that would be required for us to really judge their actions.

And yet, I couldn't bring myself to give this book less than 3 stars. It was compelling and induced some nostalgia for the beginning of the series, when then books were far better. ( )