Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever

This article is about the book series. For the upcoming film, see Maximum Ride (film).

Maximum Ride

First UK edition cover of Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever.
Author	James Patterson
Cover artist	David Perry, Pete Turner & Rob Matheson
Language	English
Genre	Young Adult Fiction
Publisher	Headline Little, Brown
Publication date	May 23, 2006
Publication place	United States
Pages	416 (hardback) 368 (paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-316-15559-4
Preceded by	Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
Followed by	Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever is the second book in the sci-fi action-adventure series Maximum Ride by James Patterson, published by Little, Brown. The book was released in the US and the UK on May 23, 2006. The series is set in the near future, and centers around the 'Flock', a group of human-avian hybrids on the run from the scientists who created them.

The series is similar to When the Wind Blows and The Lake House, which are also by James Patterson.

Plot summary

The book continues on a day later from the events that occurred in Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. Ari, Jeb's seven year old son-turned-Eraser (wolf/human hybrid), is brought back to life, after Max accidentally broke his neck back at The Institute in New York. Shortly afterwards, Fang gets seriously injured after a fight with Ari, and it becomes clear that they will need to take him to hospital. As expected, the doctors soon discover their 'unique abilities', but the FBI arrive, and begin to investigate and question them. Fang soon recovers, and Anne Walker, the head of the FBI, offers the Flock her home as a safe place to stay while they fully recover as long as she is allowed to examine them in a non-painful and non-invasive way.

Blubbery and reluctantly, the Flock agrees, and spends a considerable amount of time at Anne's home, where they spend time relaxing and finding out more about their parents, using the notes that they had acquired from the Institute, which are now mysteriously scrambled into what is most likely a computer-encrypted cipher. In total, the Flock spends about two months at Anne's place throughout the book.

Anne enrolls the kids in a normal school without considering the Flock's wishes. Nevertheless, they reluctantly consent to go. Max, who perceives herself as the leader and motherly figure of the group, begins to feel jealous of Anne, as if she is taking over her job. In between the days of going to school, Max tries to find out more about the scrambled documents of their background and parents. Fang also has a romantic fling with a girl named Lissa. One day at school, Max sees Fang in an empty classroom. She is about to go in to talk to him about a file she finds, but notices that he is not alone. Lissa is with him, and Max watches as Lissa kisses Fang passionately. Fang pushes her closer to him, and kisses back with much enthusiasum, which angers Max. She runs into the bathroom, while the Voice tells her to consider having feelings for Fang.

A short while after, Max goes on a date with her classmate, Sam. During the date, Ari shows up for a brief moment and gives her a "predator grin". Standing next to Ari is another Max, but at first Max just believes that it is just her reflection. After Sam's older sister drives Max home, Max and Sam kiss passionately for a long time on Anne's front porch. Fang sees them out the window, and gets extremely jealous. Max then explains how she saw Ari outside the window, then with sudden recognition, realises that she saw a duplicate of herself with Ari. In relation to this, she then confesses to Fang about seeing her reflection in a mirror as being an Eraser. Fang half-heartedly jokes about it but reassures her that he would know her no matter what she looked like.

Through some luck, Max is able to find Iggy's parents, and after a tearful departure, the flock, an Iggy short, return to Anne's home. Anne gets quite hysterical, threatening to report them to the school, but they defy her anyway. Before Iggy left, he and the Gasman found out that the school was once a mental institute only two years ago. Not long after he left, Max soon discovers that the school is run by the same people who ran the School, although it is apparent not all the teachers knew of this. Max has a brief encounter with the headmaster, Mr. Pruitt (who was with the whitecoats), before flying back with the rest of the group to Anne's place just to pick up Total, where they surprisedly meet up with Iggy again, who regretfully explained how his own parents would sell him out to be a sideshow freak. After a joyful reunion, Max decides to intercept what seems to be an argument between Anne, Jeb and Ari. It turns out Anne is actually Jeb's boss. Max flies away but Ari sends Erasers flying after them, who are now much less clumsy than the first lot they encountered. The flock splits up through the woods. Max catches Ari alone and surprises him, expecting him to attack her. Instead, he sits back on a tree branch and says he wants to chat. Ari asks Max to disappear with him, drop off the map and be safe from Jeb and the whitecoats. It turns out that Ari is really in love with Max, but in a sick twisted way. He wants her all to himself, so that they could end up being soul mates. But Max turns the offer down, replying that she could never leave the flock (however thinking about what Angel had 'heard' earlier on - Ari loves her). Ari launches at her, but she manages to get away, only for him to reappear again, but Fang attacks him, getting revenge for the fight they had on the beach.

Shortly after reuniting with the rest of the Flock, they decide to give up on finding their parents and instead turn their focus back onto saving the world. On instruction from the Voice, Max goes with Angel's suggestion to head to Florida. On their journey there, they find out that Itex, which is a major multinational involved about everything, is going to blow up the world, either intentionally or unintentionally, based on what Angel overhead when she was kidnapped back in the School. They reach the Itex headquarters, but have to stay overnight in a motel before they can do any more. During that night, Max is kidnapped by Itex workers, and is replaced by the other Max (aka Max II). The original Max is placed inside a sensory deprivation tank at the Itex headquarters.

The next day, the rest of the flock and Max II set up a plan to 'break in' to the Itex headquarters. They go to Itex to show how bad a company it was, before they were captured and exterminated, but things do not go quite to plan. Nudge, using her skills to sense what other people have been doing in the past, through leftover 'vibrations', is able to hack into the network but goes past the video that they were meant to see. She instead finds information on herself. Max is able to trick her captors into taking her out of the tank by acting dead, and immediately springs into action and escapes. She goes back to the motel to prepare herself, before returning to Itex to save the rest, relying on a newfound skill of being able to track where the others had been. She arrives just in time to see the flock with Max II, Ari and Jeb, and pursues to fight with Max II. Max II ignorantly reasons that they don't know that the other Max is the real one, but Angel retorts by saying she is, and that she can read minds. Max then fights Max II and eventually gains the upper hand and is on the verge of killing her, but stops, explaining how she won't sink to their level and won't play their game anymore (the whitecoats). The Gasman tells her to duck, and she does, just in time as he set off a bomb. The flock is able to escape through a hole made by the bomb and the book closes with them flying off, the fate of Max II unknown. It is later said that Fang knew right away that Max II wasn't the real Max when she offered to cook in the morning.

Soundtrack

See Maximum Ride Soundtrack.

References

• Book Review