Their reminiscences are used both for comic effect and to show how the geopolitical situation has changed, but also how nostalgia has blotted out the horrors of war. But you have to admit that his practice of creating three- to five-page chapters is a brilliant ploy to get people to keep reading. An example of this is when the telling of the story alternates between Max and the people who are following her.

On the third day, misreading advice given in government leaflets, they come to believe that they must stay in the fallout shelter for just two days rather than two weeks. Genetic experiments on babies produce flying children and when things start going wrong, people with inside knowledge vanish one by one. On the fourth day, Hilda's gums begin to bleed, and she finds blood in her diarrhoea, which they mistake for haemorrhoids.In this book a lot of genetic experiments took place and things such as flying children were produced; however, there were parts of the book such as when Frannie discovered some children in cages and dead/decomposing babies that was hard to read emotionally. He pretends to be kind to Matthew and Max to try to find out information or lure them back to the school, but is cruel if they refuse to cooperate. I'm starting to wonder why Patterson is such a popular author, I'm thinking perhaps his earlier works were better. The plot is an absolute mess having to do with the secretive genetic manipulation of a little girl and the two protagonists who find themselves tangled up in the whole scheme and whose mission becomes to free the girl from her experimental captivity.

This demonstrates the strength of the author's writing as he manages to keep numerous perspectives flowing simultaneously without confusing the reader. The book flashes in and out of first and third person perspective, among three people, one of them being Max, the girl with bird wings.Her fear became mine, every word of every sentence helped my imagination expand and draw out exactly what was happening in the story. The programme won the Broadcasting Press Guild award for the most outstanding radio programme of 1983. I keep wondering why I come back to this author but his style is very easy to read and the stories imaginative if unbelievable.