Forget Team Edward. Join Team Fang!

Maximum Ride:  The Protectors:  Fang by James Patterson
(Young Adult/Teen and Up)

This is by far the best book that James Patterson is writing currently; has written in the past decade; has ever written.  Take your pick!

This installment is the 6th one in the Maximum Ride series, a series that must be read in order. (The Fugitives:  #1.  The Angel Experiment; #2. School's Out-Forever; #3.  Saving the world and Other Extreme Sports; The Protectors: #4.  The Final Warning; #5. Max; #6. Fang.)  It is about a group of 7 young people who were created in a laboratory, the results of a scientific experiment to merge avian DNA with human DNA.  Max, of Maximum Ride, is the main charcter and is a bit hard to get used to.  She is extremely abrasive, violent, sarcastic and blunt--a girl after my own heart.  After escaping the lab, Max just wants to keep her flock safe but the evil scientists won't have it.  They come after the flock and want to use them as weapons.

In this book in the series, Max and the other 6 kids have almost formed some type of home; Max and Fang are now a couple; life seems to be finally getting some balance.  Enter Dylan. Dylan was created as the perfect mate for Max.  Enter another evil scientist. Enter genetic engineering and mutation.  Enter chaos.

Another great read by the master of thrillers!  Without giving too much away of the surprise ending, this was the best installment yet in the series.  Team Edward has nothing on Team Fang.  The developing romance between Fang and Max is fraught with misunderstanding, miscommunication and all those other mis-es that make difficult relationships so fun to read about.

And so addictive.  This series is one of those I wait anxiously for and I devour each one as soon as I get it. 

My favorite story about this book actually comes from one of my students, who was behind me a few chapters.  When she discovered that Fang might not be around anymore, she took a vow of silence!  For one entire day at school she refused to utter a word until she read the ending of the book.  That is the most powerful recommendation I can give.

Read it!

Today if you can!