Maximum Ride: The Final Warning, by James Patterson

age group: 13 and up

rating: 8 until I finished the series and marked it 5

For those of you who don't know, this is the fourth book in the Maximum Ride series. I loved the series the whole way through until I finished this book today. :( The series is about 14-year-old Maximum Ride and her human-avian "flock." Basically, Max and her mis-matched family were born in a secret evil scientist's lab that mutated wings onto their backs. To make a long story short, they've been on the run and doing whatever they can to survive and get back at the company of mad scientists.

The books are mostly written from Max's point of view, which I absolutely love. She is clever, brave, and hilarious. Her flock are all keepers. Each of the characters have unique personalities, and sometimes it's a bit hard to believe they're not really flying around out there somewhere. But their life is no picnic -- every scene was either filled with action or suspense. There were so many twists and turns; I truly could not put the book down.

But in the end (SPOILER ALERT!), none of the questions have been answered, and the story takes a sharp turn into an unwanted direction. A mysterious "Voice" in Max's head appears in the first book, telling her that she was "created to save the world." So Max and the flock eventually find a huge corporation filled with evil scientists planning to destroy half the earth. They fight, good triumphs over evil, and then they forget about shutting down the company and not making sure the "Director" of the company is behind bars somewhere. Instead, they fly off to stop global warming. WHAT?! Turns out, Max's mission to "save the world" was really to give a huge speech to everyone, persuading them to help stop global warming, which is why I give this last book a rating of 5 out of 10. Nothing was explained, and it wasn't really Max's character to simply give a speech and be done with it. Everything was wonderful, but the plot needed work.

Conclusion? Forget this book and enjoy the first three. This series had so much potential, but Patterson has squandered it.