JAMES PATTERSON -- PRO WRITER OR AMATEUR? (definitely not clickbait. ha. ha. ha.)

JAMES PATTERSON

A review by Jeana To

★★★★☆

(4/5)

My relationship with James Patterson goes all the way back to elementary school... 

Mrs. Dilley: Class, I want to introduce my favorite book, written by James Patterson -- Maximum Ride. 

...when my teacher decided to use the first book of his Maximum Ride series as a read-aloud story. That was the first time I ever read anything by James Patterson and I found myself really enjoying the book. So I went on to read the rest of the series. The first few books of Maximum Ride were great and cool and awesome. At this point, about half-way through, Maximum Ride was basically my favorite series. Max is still up there as one of my favorites. I mean, she can fly, she’s super cool, she has blond highlights, she can fly, she’s awesome, she can fly, she kicks butt, she can fly, she has huge wings, and oh, did I mention, she can fly? But after that, the series took a turn. There were major plot twists that I didn't like, and the ending was horrible. (*MAXIMUM RIDE SPOILERS*) (highlight to read) The series ends with a literal apocalypse and teenage pregnancy. Like, what????

My second experience with Patterson began when I somehow ended up at the checkout desk with graphic novel adaptations of Patterson’s Daniel X and Witch and Wizard. And honestly? I loved them. I had so much fun reading about the adventures of alien hunter Daniel X and the powerful Allgood siblings. But the comic book adaptations of both books were new and way behind the original series. So, I decided to try the book versions. 

Honestly, I don’t remember much about Witch and Wizard, except that I kind of liked the plot but I decided not to continue the series for some reason that I can’t remember right now.

Daniel X, on the other hand, was a different story. I CLEARLY remember my disappointment when I read the first book. Mind you, this was in fifth grade, which is a very long time to remember for my prematurely aging brain. Stubbornness and willpower alone got me through the first and the second books, but after that even I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the third book. Here’s a quick run-down: Daniel watches his parents get murdered by aliens at the young age of three...so he does the smart thing and decides to become an alien hunter so that he can exact vengeance for his parents and also make the universe a better place. Oh, and he has the power to bring things in his imagination to life. The comic book was pretty good, although a little bit cringe-worthy, because it had good flow, drawings, and action. But the book itself just wasn’t written well that’s all. It might have been that my inner bar for the book had been raised so high for the comic book that I wasn’t able to properly appreciate the actual book -- I don’t know. I just didn’t like it.

No offense to all Patterson fans, but some of his books are just meh. That doesn’t mean that he’s a bad writer: I know that James Patterson has written some very good books. However, Patterson has also written so many books that I feel like it would be unlikely for him not to have a “bad” or a not-as-good book mixed in there. Here’s something to try: search up “how many books has james patterson written.” Google’s answer is “At least 47.” That’s enough to fill a small shelf! 

Overall, the reason I give James Patterson a 4-star rating is that he does come out with good content and good books that are fun to read. He has his occasional "bad" books (though whether the book is bad is debatable, it's your own opinion), but I do enjoy reading his books every now and then. He has a very wide variety of content as well, which is definitely nice. His books tend to have interesting plots, so if you're looking for something to do over the weekend or something, try him! He gets a lot of mixed reviews from readers so I'd be interested to see what y'all think. Comment down below! (ha why do I sound like a Youtuber)