NOVEL SUMMARY

​In the first book of the Maximum Ride series (which totals 8 books) you are introduced to Maximum Ride, a fourteen year old firecracker who doubles as the narrator and the protagonist of the story. As you read on you will come to know her flock, a group of kids that go by the names Fang (14), Iggy (14), Nudge (11), The Gasman (Gazzy/8), and his biological sister Angel (6). It doesn’t take long to realize these kids aren’t normal everyday children and their problems do not consist only of homework and chores. Even with their names taken into consideration it’s quite obvious they’re special, they are 98% human and 2% bird. No kidding, you didn’t read that wrong! Each one of the six is gifted with large wings and the ability to fly! Not to mention the little talents they find themselves attaining over the series, like little Angel’s ability to mind read. It’s insane! It sounds like a blessing at first but once you learn more about how they became it is evident that their gift is not a ray of sunshine, and they are being hunted.



Warning : The rest of the summary may consist of spoilers for the book. 
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Max and her flock live in a secluded house in the middle of nowhere. When they were younger they were experimented on by an institution called the School, where scientists (referred to as Whitecoats) did tests on babies mixing their DNA with that of an animal’s (or other). This explains why the Flock has wings attached to their back and strong endurance skills, being able to tolerate more than the average human. They would have spent most of their life in the School until they died off from too much experimentation or a project gone wrong, fortunately for them that was not their fate. They were taken by Jeb Batchelder, a scientist at the School, and brought away to the house they live in now. Jeb was like the father figure they never had and focused a lot of his time on them, eventually coming to neglect his biological son that he left at the School. He wasn’t around for long however, two years before the book starts Jeb goes missing and is believed to be dead by the flock.

For the past two years the Flock has been on their own, Max as the oldest being the leader and at most times a mother figure to the younger ones. For now everything has seemed normal, they have been safe for quite a while.  Though there has always been fear of threat they never knew when to expect it. That doesn’t apply to Max of course, who has recently been having nightmares about a pack of Erasers (lupine-human hybrids from the School) chasing her down. Little did she know her dreams would prevail.

The Flock is attached by an array of Erasers that are the School’s army; among those Erasers is a very familiar face. It was the face of Ari, biological son of Jeb Batchelder, and the boy who was left behind only for the School to preform testing on him as well turning him into an Eraser. Ari’s main goal is to kill Max, but his hostility goes deeper than him just following orders.

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The Flock puts up a good fight but eventually the Erasers leave, not empty handed though, because they seemed to have taken Angel with them. Now it’s up to the Flock to save her, and Max won’t let her baby girl get hurt. Throughout their journey of trying to determine where the school is, how to get Angel, and having to fight off anything that gets in their way, the Flock faces many disrupting dangers and unexpected turns of events. At one point in the novel Max finds herself in a neighborhood watching a young girl get bullied by two bigger people and though there is not much time for lollygagging Max finds it in herself to stand up for the girl. We later find out the young girl’s name is Ella and she takes Max back to her home so her mother can patch up Max’s wounds. It is not of Max to trust easily, but in these people she finds a home. The Flock also goes about sleeping in parks and trees and stealing money from someone who has left their card in an ATM. They do what it takes to survive and put their brains together to do what’s necessary, even if what’s necessary is hotwiring a car.

No matter where they go they are constantly being tracked by Ari and the Erasers, having to frequently flee and fight for their lives. Along the lines the Flock has many questions about their origins, they want to know who they truly are and if they have any family. At some point they come across papers with codes on them that might have clues of their beings, and a picture is found of a woman holding a baby with pretty blonde hair. The Flock becomes very injured at different points and in different aspects; Fang, who is basically Max’s right-hand-man, undergoes a brutal beating himself. Not only are they physically hurt but emotionally scarred as well, being betrayed by people they once trusted. I know what you’re thinking, “that’s an awful lot to save just one girl”. Yes, it is, but sooner or later Max finds out that getting Angel back is the least of her worries. She also has to save the world.