Maximum Ride (manga and novel)

Short review: Experimental kids with wings have adventures! A heroic action-type story. But it feels disjointed and doesn't explain the characters very deeply, plus being winged isn't treated in a consistent manner... sometimes the people are happy to be winged, sometimes they hate it, without any feeling that they reconciled these two things or thought of them at the same time. It seems like whatever emotion they have is used to drive the plot along. Plus it treats being winged as a negative thing and an excuse for drama and emotional pain too much. I don't recommend it.

Writing: Not so good... I felt it had a clunky feeling. The book tries to have a friendly first-person style but it feels awkward. The plot is not too imaginative (in the first book anyway) and the heroes and villains are very stereotyped.

From a winged person's perspective...: There are some nice descriptions of the feeling of flight, but it's not enough to buy the book for. There's too much negativity and focusing on human as the best thing to be.

Trigger warnings: Experimentation on children, using terms like "freak" to describe non-humans

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Mail-Order Wings

Short review: A fun book about a girl who orders a pair of "Wonda-Wings" from her comic book that turn out to give real flight, with a good writing style and some nice descriptions of flying. Some parts are very realistic, others are not and might make you laugh. At the end though, I'm not sure what the story is trying to say, if anything. It ends sort of out of nowhere and it didn't really feel finished. It wasn't good or bad in message... it just didn't have one. I don't know if that's good or not... it just left me with an odd feeling. Better than a bad ending. It felt jarring though.

Writing: It's well-written and it moves along quickly. Some silly stereotyped plot at the end... but it can also make you think. The end was weak, but the book is strong in writing other than that.

From a winged person's perspective...: There's a lovely extended description of flying that lasts for some pages. The main character seems to have an affinity for birds and flying that comes out in the reason she wants wings. The sorrows and joys that she has mostly seem to be right from my perspective... though she seems to be uncomfortable with transformation also which many otherkin will find strange. Some of the bird behaviours feel accurate. She has a negative reaction to food made from birds too, which feels realistic. Some things about the flight are not realistic though.

Trigger warnings: ( May spoil the story )

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Self-Portrait With Wings

Short review: A young ice-skater girl ends up with wings, leading to some strange experiences on the ice rink. It doesn't feel like much of a "winged person" book, more a story of a human girl's trials with unexpected wings, and any actual winged people will probably be disappointed at how human it feels. But it's very well-written as a story... just probably not the type of story most people want.

Writing: I really liked the writing. The plot isn't any big shocking thing, but in terms of just the prose, it was joyful to read, describing things well, but not overwhelming. Just as a story by itself, without the winged person element, I liked it... although since it is a typical kind of story also I probably wouldn't have read it if not for that.

From a winged person's perspective...: It's not really a book about a winged person but a book about a human with wings. Like all the books I've read so far there's a good scene about the joy of flying though. The main character does seem to feel a little affinity for wings, but soon gets tired of the trouble they cause. The wings almost seem to have some small personality of their own, which some winged people might have noticed. The girl tries to be anatomically correct while creating her imaginary wings.

Trigger warnings: Lots of wing injuries, tearing and stabbing. Talk about wing amputation. Use of words like "mutant" in reference to non-humans. A description of how "some types of wings aren't anatomically realistic" which might bother some people; it's a bit species-ist? ( May spoil the story )

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Animorphs #3, "The Encounter"

Short review: This is obviously part of a large series yet it can be enjoyed on its own. It's a short and fast book in a series involving shapeshifting teenagers and alien enemies. In this particular book, the main character is trapped in the body of a hawk. He struggles with the pull between being hawk and being human, but his end decision is a little thoughtful.

Writing: It felt a lot like a better version of Maximum Ride. The plot is similar in sound and structure (but the narration is not so annoying!) and even the warning in the beginning about how "This is my true story, and it could really happen to you, so be careful!" is the same. I wonder if Maximum Ride was based on this book. The villains also feel quite typically evil, but that may be just for this book. It feels like there are more complex things going on behind the scenes though. It's more fun to read, less clunky.

From a winged person's perspective...: There's a lot of description of how it feels to be part bird, but mostly the description seems to be presented as a frightening thing, showing how the protagonist's mind is changing in ways he doesn't want. It's also a little shallow on description. A very short mention of "I always looked at the sky and wondered what flying would be like, and now I know" but it's left at that. There's some actual flying description but compared to other books I've read, not as much and it feels more brief. The end has some interesting philosophy though, worth a second look.

Trigger warnings: Horrors of war. Protagonist being depressed all the time and temporarily losing his mind. Use of words like "freak" and "living nightmare" to describe non-humans. ( May spoil the story )

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