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Sunday, March 29, 2015

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson


Synopsis:

From the bestselling author James Patterson comes the stunning, breathtaking start to the blockbuster series! Six unforgettable kids — with no families, no homes — are running for their lives. Max Ride and her best friends have the ability to fly. And that's just the beginning of their amazing powers. But they don't know where they come from, who's hunting them, why they are different from all other humans... and if they're meant to save mankind — or destroy it.


Source for image and synopsis: www.goodreads.com


Kalee’s Review

I am a winged creature, mwahahahahahaha. That’s basically what this book is about. Despite the way I just made it sound, it was good. Really good. This was probably one of the first sci-fi books I’ve ever read and it blew me away. I really loved the concept of a band of winged creature, but now that I think about it more, the idea isn’t that original. The way Patterson set up the characters and setting really made the book. It’s not about mutant teenagers in some kind of ruined world, it’s about winged teenagers living in this day and age. They face problems like wanting to normal or living just to conceal their existence to protect themselves from the “School”. Each character has an unique personality and point of view. It makes for some very interesting scenes and makes decision making tough.
Although some characters seemed less developed than others, I loved all (okay, most) characters in this book. They had different backstories that worked in different ways in the story. Max(imum), is the main female protagonist. She is like the “mother bird” of the flock. She takes care of all of the others, who are Fang, Iggy, Angel and Gazzy. I like them all except Angel, but I will not go into detail about due to spoilers. I enjoyed reading from Max’s point of view, because (let’s face it) didn’t we all want to have wings at one point in our lives? Just as a character, Max is interesting to read about.
The other members of the flock were just as great as the main protagonist. Fang is the love interest in this book. He’s the kind of character that you want to learn more about, but because of his personality he doesn’t really reveal much. Once again, the other characters were great, too and it would take too much time to explain every detail of their greatness. You should definitely give this book a peak.


JC’s Review

So I read this book in . . . fifth grade? And despite my young age, I really liked it. Even as I grew older, I still loved the series, and I could read it and reread it over and over again. It’s exciting, it’s funny, and it has a really interesting concept: kids with wings.
Max was, and still is, one of my favorite book heroines. She’s totally tough, but she still cares about the other kids in her “flock.” The one thing that I didn’t like about this book was that I thought she could be almost . . . too sarcastic sometimes. Though that could just be me.
I would recommend this to people who like exciting books. The action doesn’t stop in this novel, and I was totally impressed at how Patterson managed to keep my attention throughout the whole book! I loved the characters, the plot, the writing--everything, basically. And I loved how original the idea was, too--I mean, kids who had been genetically mutated to have wings? It’s nothing like anything else that I’d read before.
I love shapeshifters--if you’d read my Nightshade review, you probably read my whole rant about shapeshifters and werewolves and blah, blah, blah--so this topic is really, really interesting to me. Lots of animals have many advantages that we don’t, so I think it’s super cool when people write about kids who have those advantages, too (not to sound like a total freak or anything, but honestly).
There’s something for everybody in this book--there’s action, and emotion, and even a little bit of romance between two of my favorite characters. I would definitely recommend it.


This next part’s for those of you who enjoyed our review and would like to know more about the book. Warning: *SPOILER ALERT!*



The Plot

Kalee: The main plot of this book was to get Angel back from the “School”. I thought this plot was pretty original. What do you think?
JC:  I thought so, too. The whole idea of the kids having wings was pretty awesome, too, don’t you think?
Kalee: I thought it was cool, when I first read it, but now I noticed that putting wings on creatures was pretty common. Patterson did give them other powers later though. I felt the powers made the characters a little overpowered, but not all the characters utilized their ability.
JC: I think that putting wings on people kind of goes along with that popular angel theme (Haha, angel, Angel. I just noticed that. Oh, the irony. Good job, Patterson.). But since this book was first published in 2005, I think that we can cut him some slack on the whole originality thing. Angels weren’t a popular theme for books then, were they? At least, not as much as they are now.
Kalee: I was thinking more Greek mythology, but other than that I guess not.
JC: Right. Did they put wings on people in Greek mythology? Well, Daedalus and his son, I guess.
Kalee: Kid Icarus, haha. (Ignore me) Anyways, did the reason why Angel got kidnapped seem clear to you?
JC: Um, because she’s supposedly more powerful? And . . . I think their experiments were failing, weren’t they? Like with the Erasers.
Kalee: I can’t really remember. I guess they wanted to learn more about her, but the reason why the”School” did experiments in first place wasn’t clear. Their excuse could be: it’s in the name of science.
JC: Because they’re evil masterminds, dude. OBVIOUSLY. No, but seriously, yeah, I think that’s why . . . the name of science thing. They’re craaazy. Craaazy geniuses. So what would you give the plot? I would give an 8.5 out of 10.
Kalee: I would give it the same.


The Characters

Kalee: I like Max, bro.
JC: Me, too, man. She was totally righteous, you know what I’m sayin’?
Kalee: I hear ya, dude.
JC: Peace, man. And happiness, and love, and . . . okay, I’m done. Max was cool, though, seriously. She was very . . . superhero-y.
Kalee: She is a strong female protagonist that doesn’t need a guy to rescue her. She had her fair share of problems, but she still remained a likeable character. A lot of the time, I end up not liking female protagonist, where it seems likes the writer(s) are trying to shove her awesomeness in your face.
JC: Her whole personality wasn’t too original--strong, sarcastic, kind of closed-off but really caring and loving on the inside. But I didn’t mind that--well, the first time I read this, I didn’t mind because I hadn’t read too many books with this kind of character, but even now, I don’t mind. I like reading about these characters. What’d you think of the other characters, like Jeb and Fang? Or even Ari?
Kalee: I felt the strong urge to punch Jeb throughout the whole book. He had that whole, just trust me, even though I did all these horrible things. Fang was doom and gloom in the coolest way possible.
JC: Yes! Fang was totally cool, and I really wanted him to end up with Max. I felt really bad for Ari--mostly because he’s actually super duper young. And as for Jeb . . . oh, Jeb. I thought that he was just such a . . . argh. Just . . . no, Jeb.
Kalee: What do you think of Gazzy? He seemed like the least developed character. There were a lot of good characters in this book and he didn’t seem to fit in, because of his lack of … well, character. He was overshadowed.
JC: HE WAS SO GASSY. AND I LOVED IT. But Nudge was pretty underdeveloped, too, wasn’tshe? A lot of them were, actually. Even Iggy wasn’t the most interesting character.
Kalee: I think Iggy was wasted opportunity. He could have been a really amazing and I wish his character was more developed. The question, “What if Iggy ended up with Max?” could have given the story a big WHAT factor.
JC: HOLY FUDGEBALLS. Now that, you little Border Kalee, is an amazing idea. We need to go find James Patterson, pound on his door, and share this extraordinary concept with him. Seriously.
Kalee: What did you think of Angel? I found her kind of annoying. She always got her way and seemed pretty spoiled. I wanted somebody to give her a talking to.
JC: Like a know-it-all? Well, Kalee, she kind of does know it all. And she’s, like, six! Of course they’re going to spoil her. I bet that you wouldn’t have minded if she was spoiled if she actually acted her age. Instead, she seemed a lot older than she actually is, and maybe that’s why you think she seems spoiled. In my opinion, though, she shouldn’t have to be so wise and mature all the time. I think she’s allowed to be spoiled sometimes because she acts so old at other times.
Kalee: What would you give the characters? I say a 8.5
JC: I’ll give another 8.5.


The Conclusion

Kalee: The conclusion was pretty predictable. They rescued Angel. Then they flew off into the sunset, literally.
JC: I thought it was fairly predictable, too, but the way they did it was kind of interesting. I thought that Jeb’s whole “You killed your own brother” thing was great for building suspense for the next book. It kind of seemed to come out of nowhere, though. There was no real hinting at it or anything throughout the book; it just seemed kind of random to me.
Kalee: “JC YOU KILLED YOUR BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
JC: Well, that was random. See? Comes out of nowhere.
Kalee: Eggsactely
JC: What? What do eggs have to--ohh, Eggheads. Got it. I’m such an egghead, right?! So much so that I can’t even figure out a pun about our own name! GENIUS! (P.S. Sorry for all the fooling around in this review. We’re a little excited today.)
Kalee: Back on topic. Max and company broke into the school and fought their way back out.
JC: Great. Cliche. Exciting, though. Rating?
Kalee: Was that sarcasm, hmmm? I’d give it an 8.5.
JC: Mm, I’d give an 8.3. Adios, readers.


Overall Rating: 8.47 out of 10

 
 
P.S. For those of you who've read the Maximum Ride series . . . What do you guys think of James Patterson adding another book to the series (Maximum Ride Forever) even though he claimed it was already finished? We were just wondering, since some people are excited about it, and some people are suuuuper mad. Okay, thanks! Bye again!

4 comments:

  1. Yea, loved this book and I'm an old fart.

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    1. Right? Such an awesome book. And thanks for your thoughts on the book; it's really interesting to learn about what other people think about these books :)

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  2. Replies
    1. Neat! It was a great book
      Thank you for commenting ^^

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