I don’t know how they did it, but these Animorphs books just keep getting crazier. I’m almost sad I skipped a few “skippable” titles, cuz what crazy hijinks am I missing?!
Book 23 – The Pretender
A Tobias book. Tobias is having weird flashes when he hunts small prey, where he finds himself seeing the POV of said prey. He also learns a cousin is looking for him (since he seemingly disappeared into nowhere after becoming a hawk-4-life). Turns out that person was just Visser-3 trying to trick him, because Tobias gets NO ONE. Poor dude. The three standout moments in this book were:
- Tobias, in his human form, no longer expresses facial emotions because of the whole “I’m a hawk” thing. I call it Resting Hawk Face.
- The Hork-Bajir in hiding are not confident that humans will accept them in society if we win the Yeerk war, so they’ve been building an army. And you know what? They’re probably right.
- Tobias figures out he’s having those prey visions because he has to accept that he’ll never just be human or just be a hawk, he’ll always be in between. Once he figures that out, he catches a mother rabbit he’s had his eye on, acquires her, eats her, then morphs into her to protect her babies from another hawk in the area… even though he was also hunting said babies earlier in the book. WILD.
Book 26 – The Attack
A Jake book. A really stupid Jake book which is unfortunately important due to one revelation I wish they’d revealed elsewhere. The Ellimist gets the Animorphs wrapped up in his own bullshit on another alien planet. At this planet, the kids learn that the Yeerks and a species called the Isk live together as a symbiotic pair. This means the Yeerks could maybe see a future for themselves where they enjoy the perks of being in someone’s brain, without being their puppetmaster. But to understand this, I had to read 200 pages of the Ellimist’s bullshit and the very annoying Iskoorts (Isk + Yeerk = Iskoort).
Book 27 – The Exposed
A Rachel book I was supposed to skip. But, as with any Rachel book, I’m glad I didn’t. Maybe I should make it a rule now to NEVER skip a Rachel book. Anyway, the kids need to acquire a deep sea creature to do something I can’t remember. Battle Crayak? Yes, I think it’s to battle Crayak. Who is Crayak? Don’t worry about it. Anyway, they think the only way they can get that deep is to acquire a giant squid. And even though colossal squid have never been accounted for in America-adjacent waters…THEY DO IT! They do it by acquiring whales who can go deep enough to hunt the squid… IT’S A WHOLE THING. But just when I thought that was the most ridiculous thing the Animorphs could do…
Book 29 – The Sickness
CASSIE PERFORMS SUCCESSFUL BRAIN SURGERY ON ELFANGOR WITH THE HELP OF A YEERK.
I play fast and loose with my suspension of disbelief (I actually think it’s pretty annoying when people say they can’t suspend their disbelief – just do it! have fun! what if it COULD happen?!)… But even though time travel and morphing and space ships are happening, it’s the doofy stuff like squids and a twelve-year-old performing successful brain surgery – on an ALIEN – that makes me go OKAY WELL.
Other than that madness, The Sickness was another favorite. I think Cassie and Tobias books are my favorites. Cassie meets a Controller with a Yeerk who is part of the Rebellion (in other words, a Yeerk who doesn’t control his person so much as works with him to take down the Yeerks – a double-agent in more ways than one). The Controller is a teacher of Cassie’s, and his story reminded me of Severance, which means the Yeerk is his Innie, which I find very funny but won’t explain because if you need me to explain, then you NEED TO BINGE SEVERANCE IMMEDIATELY.