kippurbird | In Which Kippur is severly pissed off.

Part Three

So, after the blind kid some how fixes breakfast with food they somehow have despite not having any sort of means for money or getting anywhere to get the said food, Angel declares that she wants to pick strawberries. After she says that the Gasman farts. This is funny because everyone gets upset about it. And makes exaggerated oh god he farted we’re dying in need of air jokes.

Yeah.

After this they go out to pick wild strawberries, Angel holding Max’s hand and saying that if Max makes cake, she can make strawberry shortcakes. So, they even have stuff to make cake. Iggy - the blind kid - says that he should make the cake because “ That’ll be the day when makes makes a cake.”

Where upon Makes says the weirdest thing, “Oh thank you!” I exclaimed. “Okay, I’m not a fabulous cook. But I can still kick your butt, and don’t you forget it!”

I say this is weird because earlier Max was alright with Iggy being the one who can cook, even saying that it didn’t bother her that he was better at it. And that was just a few pages. So why the sudden exclamation of hatred?

To show that the Gasman has the ability to throw and mimic voices. It is a weird ability and they have them. Weird abilities. Mostly.

Then Angel screams as men drop from the sky. Eraserheads! OHNOES!

*Runs around flailing*

So.

Um.

Right. The kids get beaten up by some of the Eraserheads.

There was no time to think. Jeb had trained us not to think - just to act. I launched myself at an Eraser, spinning and planting a hard, roundhouse kick in his barrel chest. His breath went oof , and the order was just awful, like raw sewage left out in the hot sun.

After that, it was like a movie, a bunch of superimposed images that hardly seemed real. I landed another blow, then an Eraser punched me so hard that my head snapped around and I felt a burst of blood in my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang holding his own against an Eraser - until two more ganged up on him, and he went down under flailing clawed hands.

Iggy was still upright, but one eye was already swelling shut.

Beyond shock, I scrambled to my feet, then saw the Gasman out cold, lying face down on the ground.

Blah blah blah.

Max gets beaten up some more. Angel gets stuffed in a sack. And Max meets Jed’s son, Ari, who apparently got turned into an Eraserhead. He was seven years old. I’m not sure if it was seven when she last saw him or seven now, because he’s obviously big enough to stomp her around. The wording is just unclear. Now, we never got a mention of Jeb’s son before this. I would think it would be something to be mentioned when Max and the others were living with him on the run.

Was Ari with them during this time? Did Jeb leave Ari with his mother? Did Jeb leave because he heard what was going on with his son? Clearly the must have known Ari, but when did they know him? During their time in the School?

“He was seven years old” is too murky of a sentence. He was seven years old when she last saw him? He was seven years old at this point in time? Why would she even think that at this point? Obviously to drop more information about how Evil the School is but, I would think a more appropriate train of thought would be “Ari was Jeb’s son. They’d made him into an Eraser. What about Jeb?” or something along those lines. Not about his age.

And then Ari knocks Max out with a kick to her head. (yay)

So. Max has been knocked out by the people who have been chasing them and trying to capture them for over two years. Clearly this must mean she’s back in their custody and getting shipped to the school with the others, all tied up and no where to go.

Right?

Right?

Yeah. No.

They just left everyone but Angel there.

Yeah.

That’s right.

They took only Angel and left the rest of the experiments lying there in the dirt. It’s like hunting escaped prisoners and then only bringing one back.

Why in the Hell would you do that?! What sort of just... and... it’s... I mean... NAGH.

IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE A GODDAMN EVIL MAD SCIENTIST ORGANIZATION THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS CAPTURE ALL YOUR MISSING EXPERIMENTS WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!!! I MEAN REALLY THIS IS EVIL OVERLORD/MAD SCIENTIST/PLOT CONTRIVANCE BASICS! IF YOU WANT TO SET UP A GOD DAMN RESCUE PLOT THEN YOU DON’T JUST KIDNAP ONE OF THEM AND LEAVE THE REST TO ROT. YOU HAVE THE ONE WHO NEEDS RESCUING KIDNAPPED WHEN THE OTHERS AREN’T AROUND. YOU DON’T JUST LEAVE THEM THERE.

THE ENTIRE SET UP WE’VE BEEN GIVEN UP UNTIL THIS POINT IS THAT THEY ARE ON THE RUN FROM THE MAD EVIL SCIENTISTS WHO WANT TO TAKE THEM BACK TO THE EVIL SCHOOL AND WHAT DO THEY DO WHEN THEY FINALLY HAVE THEM!?

LEAVE THEM

CLEARLY THEY AREN’T AT ALL AS THREATENING OR SCARY AS WE THOUGHT THEY WERE.

NAAAARRRRRRGH.

*fumes*

However what this does gives us is the why didn’t they take me scene, from Max, to show how unselfish she is that she would rather be in Angel’s place than stay free. She’s a noble one, she is. Which is obviously the only reason why we had this scene.

To make things more fun and confusing, it turns out that while the Eraserheads were dropped from the sky but, they leave in a car. This also begs the question, why didn’t any of the flock hear the helicopter, plane, what have you over head before Angel screamed. They must have dropped from a helicopter because they didn’t have parachutes. If they did drop from a helicopter it would have to have been close enough for them to come down on ropes, it was mentioned that they came out of the sky like spiders, which seems to indicated rope. But if it is a helicopter then why didn’t they notice the damn thing before Angel screamed? I would think the noise of one that close would be rather obvious.

What should have happened is something like this.

I looked down at Angel as suddenly a helicopter flew down low. It’s blades kicked up a huge gusts of wind, dirt and strawberries flying into my face. She looked up and started to scream. Following her gaze I saw Eraserheads coming down from the sky!
Blah blah blah

One car. Sure it’s an Humvee, but it’s one car.

Where did the others go?

Oh and Iggy, the blind kid, is the one who hears the car. He has no problem following the others running after where they hear the car.

Honestly, what’s the point of being blind if you have no problems with the blindness? I mean we just heard in the beginning that they had to keep all the furniture in the same place so he could know where he is. Now he’s been beaten up, probably disorientated, has no idea where exactly he is, charging into the woods at a run where God knows where anything is and would be tricky for a sighted person to navigate easily and... he has no problems.

This is sounding like an informed attribute. Like Bella’s clumsiness. Except dumber.

If you’re going to be blind. Then you need to be blind. Unless Iggy has some sort of sonar ability, which it is not mentioned, then he should be saying things like “you go get her, I’ll wait here” and not blindly - pun not intended - charging into the woods. Blindness is not something you can say doesn’t effect a character’s every motion and action, because it does. It’s a serious disability. Not one that you can turn on or off as the plot demands. It’s not a character quirk it’s a defining part of a person’s character coloring how they interact with everyone and everything in their lives. It has to effect you. You can’t go charging off into the GODFUCKINGDAMN WOODS WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO SEE AND EXPECT TO COME OUT ALL RIGHT ANY MORE THAN A NORMAL PERSON WOULD GO WALKING IN A CAVE WITHOUT ANY LIGHTS.

Speaking as a person with a disability, while not being physically blind, I do have many problems because of my autism and quite frankly it’s not something I can turn off when I want to go into a crowded room because I want to. No. It is going to be hanging over my head like a ten ton anvil waiting to drop and giving me an anxiety attack. I am going to be hyper aware of everything going around me. It will be a minefield. It is not something I can turn off because I really want to go and see whatever is in this room. Even if a room in my own house has become crowded I will still have anxiety problems? Why? Because one of my autistic things is that I have issues with crowded spaces. It does not turn off.

Disabilities do not turn off.

I’m sorry. But any sort of whatever I could have for this book, has just been trashed. This has become a Bad Book in my opinion. No redeeming value whatsoever. None. It is a non-book. It is worse than fan fiction. It is a waste of trees and space. It should not have been written like this. Iggy should not be blind. This is stupid. A disgrace and an insult to people who do have disabilities.

Never mind the fact that when Max and the others take off into the air to follow the Humvee (how will Iggy know where to go?) her wings appear without seeming to break her shirt. She says she unfurls them. Where the hell were they in the first place?!

nnnngggg...