Nevermore (James Patterson)

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Final installment in the Maximum Ride series.  To avoid major spoilers for those who haven't read Nevermore yet, I'll be as vague as possible.

         After evading demented whitecoats and fighting evil, Maximum Ride and her flock are trying to settle into a normal life.  Fang is out of the picture, leading a gang of his own while leaving Max to fulfill her destiny, whatever that may be, with Dylan.  Right now, that means going to school and pretending to be average kids.  But the flock has never been able to stay in one place long without attracting trouble.  When events spiral out of control and it seems as though life as we know it is about to end, Max is presented with a way to save the people she loves - if she's willing to make other sacrifices to do it.

         I have to admit that I was a bit let down by Nevermore.  When I read the first few Maximum Ride books in middle school, I loved them.  They were action-packed and Max's dry humor was refreshing compared to my usual reads.  But as time went on, this series seemed declined quite a bit.  The books just weren't as good from The Final Warning on out.  Though Nevermore was better than some of the books from the middle of the Max series, it wasn't one of my favorites, either.  The ending was almost anticlimactic.  And kind of confusing and weird, as well.  I finished the book, and my first thought was: wait, what?  After everything Max and the gang had been through, it seemed like a cop-out to finish the way it did.  Nevermore was lacking in a proper resolution.  Sometimes, that can be okay - great, even.  But maybe the execution was a little off, because the ending seemed to be missing something.  On the positive side, I was relieved to find that the love triangle has been resolved.  (Although I wasn't a huge fan of that plot development in the first place.)  Despite the fact that it wasn't my favorite Max book, I'm still glad I read it.  And I'll probably end up reading James Patterson's next series, an excerpt of which was very helpfully included in the back of Nevermore.

Rating: 3/5
Completed: August 9, 2012

Ever been disappointed by a book series that you really loved?  Post in the comments!