We’re now in part 4, apparently. And Jimmy gives it a cute name ‘new yawk, new yawk’. See, it’s funny because those people out on the east coast have hilarious accents. Don’t let Jimmy travel south of the Mason-Dixon line or else he’ll have a chapter on how funny southern accents are.
Anywho, Max and them are just flying along rather unconcerned. Unlucky for them a Boeing 747 passes overhead and sucks Angel into an outlying engine. Then Max decides she must get revenge on those monsters at in Kansas for not putting a grate over the intake. Or they just kind of glide along without any kind of goal in mind.
Blue, blue sky, above the clouds. The air is colder, but the sun is warmer up this high. The air is thin and light, like champagne. You ought to try it sometime.
Yeah, no problem Max. I’ll just go up there where my human lungs can’t enough air to operate properly. Speaking of which, how in the hell do Max and them manage to fly at such heights? Oh, that’s right. The magic of genetic engineering makes it possible. I guess that also helps them overcome the drag of their clothes as they fly along.
Max is also extremely enthused about having Angel back in the group.
I glanced over at her—she was still a mess. It would take her a while to heal after what they had done to her. Every time I thought about it, chains of anger tightened around me, till I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Sensing me looking at her, she turned and smiled. One whole side of her face was green and yellow—a healing bruise.
Yeah, with all the cruel things they did to her. Why she can barely move, let alone cruise at twenty thousand feet. Which is also funny because Jimmy made a point of saying that Angel was having trouble flying at the end of the last chapter so Max had to give her and hand and pull her along. Now that she’s a couple of miles away, or however far they are, and she’s flying along unassisted. So either Jimmy lied to us or all the exercise they made Angel do was good for her. Either way, Max is a goddamned liar someone should really call her on it within the universe.
Nudge is happy to be flying along and comments on how much better they have it that those poor kids down below that are stuck in school or have to clean their room. Okay, Jimmy. How does that compute? I thought Max, and Nudge, were all obsessed with their parents and being “normal” because otherwise they can’t be happy. I guess it only bothers Nudge and Max when they can stop and take a moment to think about it.
As if being cued by an invisible director, Max then thinks about how they don’t have a home anymore. That makes her a sad panda. Which then brings on some sort of headache. She goes limp and unconscious and then starts falling. Then we get this.
Something was incredibly wrong.
Already.
We start off next chapter with Max falling for a little bit. She says she wants the fall to end so the pain in her head will stop. Then suddenly Fang is holding onto her and carrying her back up while she complains about the pain in her head.
Oh sweet evil popsicles, tell me that did not just happen. There’s something about that sequence that doesn’t sit well with me and I can’t quite put my finger on it which is damn frustrating because I’ve been thinking about it for a good while.
Something about the execution there just fills me with dread. It puts me in mind of the beginning of Eldest when Eragon suddenly has back spasms. Max’s migraine struck with the same severity and lack of cause. We’re halfway through the book now and there’s never been a sign of anything that would bring those on so it strikes me as the author arbitrarily throwing a disability at Max to evoke sympathy and to foreshadow.
I could throw out guesses as to what Max’s sudden headaches indicates but for once I’m honestly stumped by what Jimmy is going to do with it. I will offer this prediction, however. That whatever Max’s head problems are related to, it’s easily solvable and not permanently crippling. Also it’ll make me groan in disgust when Jimmy reveals the cause.
Anywho, Max tells everyone to find a place to land and quickly, closing this chapter up. Yeah, Jimmy, don’t let things like plot or character development happen. Just keep throwing out short, disposable chapters that are only related because they’re chained together by page numbers.
Vivisector's Writ 
Ever since the Maximum Ride recaps started, I’ve been put off by something about Slim JIm’s style that I could never quite put my finger on.
Now, I think I’ve finally uncovered it. It’s how Jimgym is always addressing the reader.
“Whatever you do, you must keep reading.”
“If you can think of anything more tense and nerve-wracking than this, I’d like to know.”
“We’re not going to say how we hotwired that van because we don’t want readers stealing cars.”
“You ought to try it sometime.”
It’s annoying, it’s overfamiliar, and it seems like a cheap shot to make it look like the characters “connect” with the reader. There are probably very few authors who could do that and not earn my ire, and Jymme is definitely not one.
What’s doubly annoying about that is that it’s only Max that addresses us. Everyone else has the good sense to ignore the fourth wall and get back to being dim witted characters in a bad book.
how does Max know what champagne tastes like? There must have been some interesting New Years parties at the school. Actually, i’m pretty sure she’s just guessing because IMO champagne tastes like bile.
Also, i seem to recall Max saying Angel had “goofy chicken wings”–which begs the question are they just shooting these kids up with avain hodge podge and seeing what comes up (why would a chicken be in the mix? for emergency BBQs?) and last i knew, chickens can fly a little, but they certainly can’t go for distance and height. even the mighty wild chickens.
How Max is capable of referencing a lot of things is beyond me. How does she know how cars operate? How does she know about champagne? Why does she make references to American culture that came and went well before she was born? There’s a complicated answer from Jimmy somewhere, I’m sure of it. The short answer is that Jimmy is too stupid to write from any perspective but his own while hoping that we don’t notice.
And the whole Angel flying along is baffling. First she’s too young to fly very far and even Gasman is still not strong enough. Now, all of a sudden they’re flying along towards destinations unknown without a care in the world. I might forgive it if Jimmy said they had to make frequent rest stops for the kids but that gets ignored in favor of Max’s latest bout with migraines.