This is a Mother-talk.com book review. Check out their site for more information or if you'd like to sign up to be a reviewer.I should be right upfront about things and state that I am not a James Patterson fan. I find his books to be poorly written with pointless plot twists and bad writing. Sadly, I wasn't disappointed with this latest Patterson oeuvre either.
Patterson has delved into the world of children's fantasy fiction. Children's fantasy, when done well, like the ubiquitous Harry Potter books or Madeline L'Engel's A Wrinkle In Time. This book is plodding, with senseless plot twists and bad dialog.
I wanted to enjoy this, at least. I love children's and young adult books when they're creative and well-written with great plots and good character development. This book had none of that.
I couldn't figure out why two side characters, who formerly wanted to kill Max, the female leader of this group of avian kids, have suddenly changed their minds. There wasn't much of an explanation for that. There were allusions that one of the group was a snitch, spying for this School who had designed these, and many other, mutant children. That never panned out. It was just haphazard, disjointed and random.
And I swear, someone needs to tell Mr. Patterson that half a page does not a chapter make. It's ridiculous. Also, you don't end a chapter and then start the next one with the next sentence in the conversation. Chapters are supposed to be capsules. Sure, they can be cliff hangers, but they need to be more than one page. It's like a kid padding out a writing assignment. "Maybe if I write bigger, the teacher won't notice my lack of content." More chapters does not a better book make.
This book was a huge disappointment. Read Phillip Pullman if you want some good YA fantasy.
