Scrappy, orphaned Hawk can't remember her past, except for a few hazy memories of her vanished parents, so when a prisoner in the penitentiary next door begins dredging up eerily familiar secrets, Hawk's turbulent life spirals out of control. Written for a new generation of Maximum Ride fans, this post-apocalyptic fantasy features the remains of New York as the City of the Dead, a violent sprawl of death traps, masses brainwashed by potent street drugs, and alleys crawling with bloodthirsty thugs. Patterson deftly weaves the two stories of young, sailor-mouthed Hawk and fan-familiar mythical revolutionary "Max" Ride as they embark on quests to free the city and people they love from the heinous, Big Brother--like McCallum and his cronies. Fit among a colorful array of creepy characters, violent fights, and experiments on child "lab rats" is a tale of two brave, winged women attempting to unravel family secrets and find a sense of belonging in a cruel, dangerous world. Fans will indulge in this race toward inevitable peace or annihilation--or one by way of the other.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Now that he's a fixture in children's literature, expect Patterson's return to the Maximum Ride universe to soar to even greater heights than before.

Patterson and Charbonnet (the Crazy House series) reunite for this continuation of the Maximum Ride saga, set a decade after the events of 2015's Maximum Ride Forever. Hawk, 15, has eked out a scavenger's existence in the City of the Dead (a postapocalyptic New York City) for the past 10 years, hiding her wings and waiting for her parents to return. But when her found family, a band of mutant children, is kidnapped for further experimentation, Hawk encounters the Flock, winged freedom fighters bent on improving the world. Now reconnecting with her parents--including legendary rebel Maximum Ride, secretly imprisoned for nearly a decade--Hawk must rescue her friends and overthrow the City of the Dead's megalomaniacal governor, McCallum. For someone forced to grow up on her own, however, the hardest thing may be accepting a family she barely knows. This accessible novel offers a new entry point into Max's world of evil corporations and superhuman hybrids, splitting the narrative's first-person perspective between Hawk and her mother. While the novel doesn't bring anything new to dystopian fiction, it's a fast-paced, action-packed read, ideal for fans of the original series. Ages: 12--up. (July)