Fang is the sixth book in the Maximum Ride YA series by constantly-on-the-bestseller's-list James Patterson.
So, anybody who has read my blog for a while now knows that I was a HUGE fan of the first three Maximum Ride books and then was VERY disappointed with the fourth and fifth. If you haven't read the series you should avoid this review for spoilers - and go pick up the blockbuster Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment.
Thing is, as much as I was upset with the turn the plots took in The Final Warning and Max, I still held out hope that maybe, just MAYBE, Fang could get the series out of its preachy, overtly overtoned with environmental issues rut.
And... it did!!!
Okay, I'm still not sure that it was AS good as the first three. But in this one we get a bit more romance between Fang and Max (which is shockingly better than what I felt were painfully awkward scenes in books three and four), and besides a brief humanitarian mission at the beginning of the novel - more focus on the flock!!!
Fang puts more of the plot on the horrible experimentation that caused Max and the flock to have wings in the first place, the threat of more tests, and a newly created winged boy - the incredibly good looking and apparently perfect Dylan - whom Max is told was made for her as her other half.
Yep. Max doesn't take that too well.
Besides that, I don't want to go too much into the plots because there are actual TWISTS and TURNS that I don't want to give away! Some other comments I can give, though are:
Max had been lacking her original feisty, tough sass that made her an irresistible protagonist in the first three books and it is back! Her sarcasm and lack of trust have returned, bringing back the level of paranoia that always gave the Maximum Ride series an edge.
When my hope really started to flourish, however, was when an awesomely funny scene with a doctor experimenting on himself occurs - you'll know what I'm talking about when you read it. My happy vibes start humming when the flock leaves all the "saving the world one person at a time" slosh behind to go home again - where their independent streak kicks in and more mystery is introduced beyond the stuff that's been the focus in the, in my opinion, very weak The Final Warning and Max.
There was actually breathless excitement and shocks, oh my! And some of the stuff that happens (my lips are sealed) was actually painful to me, because I was actually CARING again!!!
Fang launches Maximum Ride back to its cinematic beginnings and was actually... cool! And it actually made me look forward to Angel, the next book! Maybe you'll disagree, but I'm thinking you won't. ;)
*I received a review copy of Fang from Hatchette Book Group. Their generosity in no way influenced, nor sought to influence, my opinion of the novel.
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