Patterson Huffs and Puffs and (Tries To) Blow Your Mind Away
Written: Jun 18 '04 (Updated Jun 18 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great character development, a “feel as if you’re there” quality
Cons: Longer chapters than normal, slow, repetitive, boring ending
The Bottom Line: For Sci-Fi, conspiracy, and medical thriller fans only.
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| Tigerlily137's Full Review: James Patterson - When the Wind Blows Books |
Not being a huge Sci-Fi fan, I was extremely skeptical about James Patterson’s When The Wind Blows. Sure, I read the rave reviews, and I’m fully aware that this is his most successful novel to date, but still I put this book off until I read all of his other novels, with the exception of 2 others that I’m also critical of. It wasn’t until I received The Lake House as a gift, and realized that this was a sequel to When The Wind Blows that I finally gave in and bought a used copy.
Veterinarian Frannie O’Neill is plagued by her husbands murder, and has since thrown herself into her work, even moving out of her house and into the clinic she owns. Soon comes along Thomas Brennon, an undercover FBI agent going by the name of Kit Harrison, who rents Frannie’s old house. His story is very similar – he blames himself for the death of his family in a plane crash, and also has become obsessed with work. Along with these 2 characters, we also have Max, an 11-year old girl who can, believe it or not, fly.
I know that this is a pretty bland book summary so far, but that’s how I feel about the story itself. Here are the questions plaguing your mind to keep you reading this book: Who created Max? How? Why? Are there others? What exactly is Max? And that’s the basic plot of this entire book.
Patterson switches between these three character viewpoints in different chapters, as he’s well known for, and the reader gets a lot of “background information” the first half of the book. It’s not even until this point that Frannie and Kit discover Max, so it’s a pretty boring storyline thus far. It doesn’t help the fact that the author is drilling the same crap into our heads chapter after chapter.
The second half picks up slightly when Max is discovered, because we should be closer to solving our puzzle, but Patterson only tantalizes us with tiny morsels of info along the way.
There are several main faults to this book. One is the editing. This book is far too long for all of the repetition thrown in. Two is the plot itself. It’s a semi-interesting premise, but there is so much more Patterson could have to done to make the story much more interesting. The ending is quite predictable, and not at all outrageous or extravagant as one would have expected, or as he leads you to believe.
His last major fault is his writing style itself. Gone are the short, choppy chapters that intrigue the audience; replacing them are longer chapters that drag on and on with the same boring facts.
Patterson does redeem himself with his character development, however. Our leads range from dark and charming to beautiful and mysterious, and all throughout the novel I feel as if I’m by their side. James Patterson’s strongpoint always has been his ability to create new and interesting characters that the reader can identify with…keyword being new. There comes a point where some should just be left alone, but that’s a whole other review.
There is one other thing that really bugs me about Patterson’s books, and that’s the fact that he always has to include a love story in every single one. It just ends up being stereotypical and redundant. Overall, this book is pretty close the bottom of my favorite James Patterson novels.
If you’re a fan of government conspiracy novels, Sci-Fi, or medical thrillers you might enjoy this book. Personally, I would recommend Michael Palmer’s Critical Judgement, or Patterson’s older novel Black Market.
My Other James Patterson Reviews
3rd Degree
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Tigerlily137
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Member: Amanda ~~~~
Location: San Diego, CA
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