REVIEW: Nevermore by James Patterson

Title: Nevermore (Maximum Rise #8)

Author: James Patterson

Publication Date: August 6th, 2012

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 368

Rating: 3/5

Blurb: One last chance…
For Max, Fang, Angel, Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy.
Before it all ends.

Are you ready for the final chapter? Are you ready for the ultimate flight? Because THIS IS IT. One last incredible, explosive adventure with an astonishing ending that no one could have seen coming.

Review: As it seems to have become a bit of a usual part of my reviews, I decided I’d give you a little backstory on how I got into Maximum Ride in the first place before I tell you my thoughts on the last book. In Middle School, one of my best friends (the very same who suggested I read Halo, and Cecilia Ahern whom has become one of my favourite authors ever) suggested that I started this series way back when the fifth book- ‘Max’ was just coming out. As usual, I doubted this friend’s opinion, a fault which I completely apologise for now. However, once I got into the series I quickly finished all five books within the week and became connected to all the characters and their stories. Hence, if I were to give advice to those of you who have never read the series I would beg you to pick it up because I’d be sure that you’d enjoy it. And that concludes the little backstory, so onto the review.

From here on, I cannot be assured that there will no lie any spoilers from any of the books including Nevermore so be warned. 

From here, I’m going to break it down like Chami’s review which you can find here. If you have yet to read it, (this also contains spoilers).

Characters:

Maximum Ride has been in my life since I was about thirteen so of course throughout that time I’ve grown closer to the characters and started to believe that I really knew them and could almost predict their reactions to certain situations. However, in this book I felt like these were entirely new characters being presented to me and I felt like I could no longer connect with them - almost like this was a fanfiction (certainly not an insult to any fellow fanfiction writers) where the characters were a little bit too out of character. Honestly, I love Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel and even Dylan at some times but it felt like James Patterson had completely lost touch with his characters. 

Plot:

To be honest, the previous book - Angel, was when the plot became to loose my interest. Things started to become too…weird, for lack of a better word. For one, Maya infuriated me and while I know some people quite liked her, personally I thought the idea of a Max clone that Fang went off with to be just terrible. I was really hoping that James Patterson was really going to pick the whole thing up with the book and finish the series on such a high note that I would feel content with the ending but sadly, it just didn’t happen for me.

Overall:

I know this review might sound a little like I’m calling James Patterson a terrible writer or something, which is not true- I am a massive fan of James Patterson but I feel like he didn’t put enough into the writing of this book, it really felt like he wasn’t committed to this book or that he’d lost his passion for the series and the characters. 

BEWARE OF SPOILERS FILLED REVIEW/RANT BELOW.

**

 

As I said up above, I wasn’t really a fan of Maya so I have to admit, while it seems cruel, that I didn’t mind that much when she died, however the whole Fang’s new flock betraying him sort of thing just drove me crazy. We’ve seen a fair amount of betrayal through this series from flock members and those outside the flock and so I almost felt like it had begun to repeat itself. On the topic of repeating, I was very disappointed that Ari made another appearance in this book not because I don’t like Ari as a character but because I felt like James Patterson could not just leave him alone. I felt the same way about Jeb and Dr Martinez, I believe those three characters are only ever bought up when James Patterson had completely run out of ideas. 

Finally, I’ve got to ask- what was that ending? I just can’t even fathom the right words to describe how I feel about it and honestly I would have been much happier with the first ending rather than that bit added on.

Anyway, thank you if you actually made it through this insanely long review I promise reviews won’t be like this in the future- of course, if you prefer reviews of this length then please let us know.

x Ely

REVIEW: Nevermore by James Patterson

Title:  NEVERMORE (THE END OF MAXIMUM RIDE)

Author: James Patterson

Publication Date: 6^th of August.

Publisher: Little Brown

Format: Ebook

Pages: 368

Rating: 1/5

Blurb: One last chance...

For Max, Fang, Angel, Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy.

Before it all ends.

Are you ready for the final chapter? Are you ready for the ultimate flight? Because THIS IS IT. One last incredible, explosive adventure with an astonishing ending that no one could have seen coming.

Review: First of all, lets get this straight. I love the Maximum Ride series with all my heart. I love the Characters and I love James Patterson as a writer, and so I’m expressing my opinion without previous judgment. I am on both team Dylan and team Fang and my rating does not relate to Max not ending up with one of them, vice versa.  I am reviewing this book on how much it feels like a completion of a series and how it was wrapped up as a single book. Therefore, I am extremely disappointed.

Analyzing Language:

The way I see it, James Patterson does not care for this series. He just wants to get it down and over with and throw it away to focus on his bigger stories involving crime and justice. I adore his way of writing, as it reflects his characters perfectly with their witty comebacks and thoughts.  Some of his language is nicely written throughout the series, but overall it is satisfactory. In most places, he writes it like an amateur writer would (like stereotypical fanfiction). Like it’s his very first draft and that it must be good enough to just throw out into the writing world, and truly, I expected better.

Characters:

James Patterson has a way with characters that we cannot describe. It doesn’t even seem like he is the one writing this and that you’re actually inside someone else’s head. He creates memorable characters that stick with you forever, which has personal traits that personally I could never forget. Nudge, Gazzy and Iggy are amazingly created characters, which I would like to see more off. Angel, I do dislike. She was so stuck up herself that I wanted her just to be gone and done with it all. And I hated it how Max called her her “baby” which was totally unlike the character of max anyway. I understand that all characters change, but really, I fell in love with the first Fang, not the emotion expressing weirdo he has turned into now. I kept going between Dylan and Fang and I also realized that I do not like it when a character ends up with someone at the very start of the novel. Dylan’s character was sweet and kind but he did nothing to gain Max. Max just threw herself on him sometimes and I thought that was just ridiculous.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE:

Dylan, (spoiler) after he went rampaging in the town angry at seeing Max and Fang together, he came back and didn’t do anything to win Max’s heart even after Angel, (Who came to be surprise and a disappointment as the voice) and at the very end of it all, he just shrugged and gave Max to Fang and that was all, along with all the other stupid cliff hangers involving the other characters.

The only thing I was happy about is when Maya died. I didn’t want Dylan to end with Maya and I was hoping that James Patterson wouldn’t do that and I’m glad he didn’t, because I would seriously kill him.

Max was supposed to save the world and so a tsunami came and they basically stood up and won over it, and she started as the new max and allowed the world turn into a human death parade.. She was supposed to harden her heart and she barely did anything to it.  I am so disappointed with this novel. It seemed more like a middle book than a last book to a series I loved.

PLOT:

Horrible. Just stop please. You did not answer any questions and the ones you did answer weren’t even completely rational answers, or good for that matter. Fang being immortal? Really. Do not bring immortality in with cheesy titles such as Nevermore. Please Patterson, do not write the books u won’t end up falling in love with, because truly, you ripped this up badly.