Maximum Ride and the rest of the flock, including a talking and flying pup, are back in the fifth adventure in Patterson series of books for teens that are a spin off of two of his popular adults. This time they are not so much in hiding as they have joined forces with the Coalition to Stop the Madness (CSM), and environmental organization that was founded to try and bring the focus of the world on its environmental troubles. Now, the bird-kids are traveling the world to call attention through their visibility.

After being offered a chance to go to a special school that will help them best achieve their education, the kids are drawn back into danger, when Max's biological mom is kidnapped by an evil Chinese businessman named Mr. Chu, who is home that CSM will back off on its message. He is particularly concerned with the fact that CSM seems to be particularly harmful to large businesses.

All hopes of a new normal life are dashed, when Max and the flock must join forces with the US Navy on a rescue mission that leads them to Hawai'i, where they find out that there is more to things than just a kidnapping. It quickly becomes clear that there is some sort of environmental catastrophe happening as large fishkills and boat sinkings related to large, mysterious whale-like creatures.

Now that Max is 14, we are starting to see romance taking on new levels of attention. She and Fang, a flockmate she has been good friends with since they were first held in cages as younglings, are flirting with a possible relationship. Though, the interest of a young, redheaded scientists seems to force them to decide what their true feelings toward each other.

I have to say that I am glad to see the series seems to be back on track. It was originally designed to be a trilogy, and found the fourth book to be struggling with plot and interest. With that said, Max unites all of the elements that made the earlier books popular: action, humor, interesting "superpowers," and strong teen voices. While the character development is not huge, that is not necessarily found in an action tale