School's Out—Forever , by James Patterson

Hardcover, 409 pages

Published May 23rd 2006 by Little, Brown and Company

ISBN

0316155594 (ISBN13: 9780316155595)

edition language

English

original title

School's Out Forever (Maximum Ride, #2)

series

Maximum Ride #2

characters

Maximum Ride, Fang Nightshade, Jeb Batchelder, Ari, Iggy

setting

United States

literary awards

ALA Teens' Top Ten (2007)

 

In this eagerly awaited follow-up, brave bird-kid Max and her flock are discovered by an FBI agent and forced to go to "school." There is no such thing as an ordinary day as Max deciphers how and when she's supposed to save the world, and she faces her greatest enemy--a clone of herself. Little, Brown and Company

 

My Review

In my opinion this is so far a series that can not really be knocked. James Patterson is surely an author with talent, who knows how to write in a format and style which engages the reader into this sense that they are a part of the story and that they are with the characters. He writes with a style that is almost hypnotic and so much so that you can not and will not take your eyes of the page. I was looking forward to reading the next book despite the fact that my boyfriend looked at the size of it and raised an eyebrow at me. I think for me this is perhaps a unique story that is cliche at the same time and yet has something very new within it. It seems to almost be a jumble of different thoughts and opinions placed into one, but you get this feeling that Mr patterson is not afraid to actually put his thoughts onto the pages and that he is always willing to take a risk in the need of gaining his readers acception.

 

I think for me I really wanted to find out more about Angel, don't ask me why, or tell me why if you have already finished and read the series, but there seems to be something a little mysterious going on with angel which made me wonder what actually happened to her back at the school in the first book. Did something occur behind the scenes? Her character just does not seem to fit the first idea that we got off of her at the beginning, where she was sweet innocent and young. She almost seems so much more mature now that she is scary, controlling and wanting everything her way. It just leaves you itching with this sort of intuition that something else is occuring and its something that is either meant to distract you or to be missed and just slipped in within the pages. I suppose the big surprise here within the book was the second Max, we had after all, only just got use to the first max and now we are seeing a different one, except this one is a formation of the bad guys, meaning that max is left wondering, is she turning bad. I loved this thought provoking essence of the book because it almost seemed to give the impression that nothing is what it seems and that there are always new challenges to face which will make us question who we are and what we are.

 

The guys here do seem to face many different challenges. They are always on the run, always needing to watch out where they are going and who they are running into, but on this one they are also searching for the parents. I think at that point I was actually screaming at the book telling them not to be stupid. of course any parent would either be freaked by the fact that they are not human, or they are going to want to make there monies worth out of them. The book for me just seemed to have a lot going on with it. there was ari who seems to have come back from the dead and yet we never really seem to find out how this comes across, then he also seems to have his agenda. the book was just amazing, and its actually left me rambling in my own reviiew because of the fact that there was just so many good things going on, so many different characters all with there own storyline and plot. I loved it. Usually I hate a book that has more than one plot to it, but James patterson has made it work well. you just can not knock it.

 

I am ashamed of my library who does not seem to have the next book in the series so I am currently looking for it so that I can continue the series. However for this novel I am giving it a worthy five star rating. there was just nothing here that I could really knock because it all flowed in a way that actually worked , in that you were never lost or confused and you were always aware of what was happening adn who was included in the scenario. its just an amazing series and he is an author I am suddenly loving and enjoying.

 

My rating