That's basically Maximum Ride.
Looking back, even that intro seemed sporadic and nonsensical - How come the erasers didn't find them before? Why isn't there some psychological conflict about the lab (I mean, if they lived there since infancy, you'd think they'd have a lot of propaganda from that place still in their heads?) - but at the time when I found it, it sounded worth a shot. And that's how I wasted several months of my existence. Reading these books.
Here's a rundown of why I don't really like these books anymore:
1. It makes literally no logical sense.
You say that the flock can hide their wings under jackets? But just a couple chapters ago you said that the older ones have huge wing spans! To add to that, erasers being able to hide among regular middle-school/high-school students? You clearly established that they have no shape-shifting abilities and are huge, hideous monsters in appearance! The villain lures Max and the flock into a lab just to have Max fight an evil clone of herself and when she wins he just lets them go? Just like that?!?!? The voice in Max's head is literally someone else speaking into her brain? And the mentor/villain can do the voice, but isn't the voice? First off, this technology was never presented earlier and never appears afterwards, so it's VERY unbelievable, but overall it just has no point. Bringing me to number 2.
2. There's no significance to anything.
(Please note evil clone scene stated above.) No matter what happens, none of the characters change, nothing about their situation changes for the long-term (they stay with a woman for a few weeks and go to school, but this doesn't change their perception of the world or anything, except they get a talking dog.) And to crown it all off, 98% of the series is about the flock running from scientists who torture them to learn things about them and treat them like animals, and in the end, what does the flock decide to do while this company is still strong and at large????? Become mascots for an environmentalist organization.
3. Nothing is ever explained.
Weird things happen, villains show up, etc, and we're given no explanation at any time of how or why.
4. Every plot point and plot twist is sporadic and nonsensical.
It's as if the author drank about 78 espressos then just shot off whatever his delirious mind came up with to the publishers, who somehow thought that it was a good idea. It's like, "hmmm, the plots sort of boring now. I know! I'll make the little angelic character seem to betray the others and have this whole plan with the villains, but THEN I'll reveal that it was a plan between her and the main character for about... hmmmmm ONE HOUR. YES!!! I am so smart!!!!"
That literally happened.
You can get away with a lot of things in writing a series - being biased and making blanket statements about people groups (J.K. Rowling - Slytherins,) characters being super-competent (Eoin Colfer,) heroes having no flaws (Brian Jacques - Redwall) - and have it pass as a pretty good series. But if you just write as if you're on drugs, vomiting out plot twists and doing nothing to explain your world or develop your characters at all, nothing good is gonna happen. I feel like this series could have been really good, but as it is, it was thrown in the garbage by the 3/4 mark of book 1.
