Book Reviews: Animorphs by K.A. Applegate, books 31-35

[juushika]

Title: The Conspiracy (Animorphs Book 31)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Published: Scholastic, 1999
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 140
Total Page Count: 299,565
Text Number: 995
Read Because: reading the series
Review: Jake is so irrational here as to almost seem out to character, and I'm not sure why ruthlessness became Marco's default characterization, but I enjoy the general thrust of this, its tensions and uneasy group dynamic (the combo of infighting and teamwork/competence porn is always great). I just wish it didn't make so many World War II analogies—the series is surprisingly dark and ambiguous, and this installment is particularly dark and ambiguous, but it still can't but be a little reductionist in this regard.

(This isn't one I remember reading as a kid.)


Title: The Separation (Animorphs Book 32)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Published: Scholastic, 1999
Rating: 1 of 5
Page Count: 160
Total Page Count: 299,725
Text Number: 996
Read Because: reading the series
Review: Again it was time for a humorous book, and again I don't like it. This is as tiresome as possible and as predictable as the premise suggests. Both Rachels make for awful PoV characters, and "Nice" Rachel is particularly poor commentary on her personality; feminine/hesitant/emotional/uptalk/long term planning/duty isn't a logical set of characteristics, as "Nice" or really as Rachel—up until now, her fears have revolved around herself, not her situation, and while I'd like to investigate lost pretty/popular persona this does a shallow job of it. There's potential in the premise, but most of it is alluded to in the quote below and isn't present in this book.

I used to look forward to it. The fighting. The missions.

And yet, when I thought back on it now, it wasn't all Mean Rachel. I was there, too. I'd been scared. It wasn't that I wasn't scared. It was just that Mean Rachel had gotten us past it. She'd made us brave, with a mixture of courage and recklessness and desperation and insecurity.

And there had been insanity, too. Something down deep inside that was dark and hard and cruel.

I wondered about the others, my friends. If they had been split like this, what would they have become? Did Jake have a Mean Jake inside him? Oh, yes. Definitely. And Ax. Neither of them might be as wild or out of control, but they had that same core of darkness.

Cassie? No. Or at least a split-screen Cassie would be this huge portion of nice and this tiny bit of rotten.

As for Tobias? He flew, still his own hawk self, a little above, and a little apart from all of us.

If you split Tobias into halves you'd have what you already had: a hawk, and a boy.

(I predicted 100% of this from the cover/chapter titles, so I can't tell if I read it as a kid or just have basic trope awareness.)


Title: The Illusion (Animorphs Book 33)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Published: Scholastic, 1999
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 155
Total Page Count: 299,880
Text Number: 997
Read Because: reading the series
Review: The grimness of this series shouldn't still surprise me, but given that this book is 50% literal Tobias-torture, it does. This don't significantly progress Tobias's character, mostly rehashing the themes of The Pretender (Book 23) and turning them up to 11, but it finally resolves (or appears to) the Rachel/Tobias tension. I argue with aspects of their dynamic (I'm convinced that Rachel's conflict would be largely internal; putting the burden on him isn't just unfair, it requires honesty/self-knowledge that Rachel still struggles to find), but it's worth it for the payoff, a too-brief, golden scene that can't possibly balance out all that's come before.

Another I don't remember, and, given the content, I know I would have! I'm beginning to suspect that I only read to book 30 when I was a kid.


Title: The Prophecy (Animorphs Book 34)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Published: Scholastic, 1999
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 140
Total Page Count: 300,020
Text Number: 998
Read Because: reading the series
Review: Where Tobias books are identity/situational angst, satisfying and character-driven but not particularly complex beyond the messed up situation & family tree, Cassie books are about ethics and consent and power-dynamics, a particularly unsolvable angst which is tied both to worldbuilding and the series's themes. This is the second time Cassie has effectively been possessed, and I wish there were more direct comparisons to her firsthand experience with the Yeerks—like The Sickness (Animorphs 29), which has the same ghostwriter, this is strong but would be stronger if taken one step further. But that's my only substantial complaint. I like Aldrea more here than in The Hork-Bajir Chronicles (Animorphs 22.5 / Animorphs Chronicles 2): she's abrasive, intentionally unlikable, threatening; her character arc is more distinct. I appreciate the trust in the Animorphs social dynamics, especially after so many books that remind us how fraught these friendships have become. And I love Cassie; I love her predicaments, and I love that her moralizing is simultaneously a weakness, a strength, and a counterbalance to her incredible competency.

Another I hadn't read & would have remembered so, baring surprises, I suspect I stopped reading at book 30. I don't know why that was the cutoff. I was 14 at time of release, so in or entering my first year of high school. Maybe I was busy? Maybe I thought myself too old? I can recall books, not life events, so I have no idea what contributing factors there may have been. But from now on the books will probably be new to me!


Title: The Proposal (Animorphs Book 35)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Published: Scholastic, 1999
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 150
Total Page Count: 300,170
Text Number: 999
Read Because: reading the series
Review: I suppose there are two reasons that the Animorphs books directly dealing with mental health may be the most ableist. The Watsonian: the characters are struggling with these issues themselves, and their anxiety and internalized ableism make for flawed representation. The Doylist: it's just not well handled within the narrative/by the author, when it really needs to be. Marco has been using humor as a coping mechanism, but it's no longer adequate; and he feels more in character here than in his recent books (he's not ruthless! he's a devil's advocate cum wingman), and the mean humor of the book's resolution is almost a solution, bitter and satisfying. But the road there, the forgettable madcap middle third, the throwback to the bad communication plots of old; the constant ableist humor coexisting with "there are no therapists" and Cassie's talk therapy being negatively contrasted against Jake's tough love leadership.... It's unsettling, it's inadequate. Sometimes the series is both of those things in productive ways, refusing to simplify complex issues for the sake of a neat ending. But this feels different.

What was I going to do? Tell everyone I suddenly wasn't sure they should be relying on me? That I wasn't sure I could morph in an emergency? Just as we were about to go into a very, very dangerous mission? No.

Yes. The answer literally is yes. This is what you might call real bad writing sladkjfddaaaaaargh.


Title: Visser (Animorphs Chronicles Book 3 / Animorphs Book 35.5)
Author: K.A. Applegate
Published: Scholastic, 1999
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 210
Total Page Count: 301,565
Text Number: 1003
Read Because: reading the series
Review: This approaches the difficult task of humanizing an antagonist while maintaining that they're objectively awful but opting not to resolve any of the contradictions that creates—and there are many, and they don't always make for cogent characterization, but it's still the right choice. The ambiguity creates nuance, while everyone else is in-character enough to sell the whole. And it shouldn't be able to surprise me anymore, but still does: this is dark, mean, and honestly doesn't feel like middle grade, especially with the focus on motherhood. I also appreciate the wealth of worldbuilding details, particularly re: Yeerks and the way they're affected by their host bodies. I still didn't enjoy this—the narrative is disjointed, and I have mixed luck any time the series moves away from the core cast. But it's surprisingly successful.

Worldbuilding tidbits of interest:

• "It is nearly impossible to get a coherent sentence out of a Gedd mouth. And flatly impossible with a Taxxon who can, at best, hiss and sputter in its own language. [...] Hork-Bajir are the best communicators, of course, despite their brains' innate quirk of confusing various languages." Confirmed that host brain affects Yeerk cognition, which was suggested from the horse/hammerhead experiments in The Unknown (Book 14)/The Escape (Book 15), but also contradicted by same, particularly the horse-Controllers speaking Galard.



• "And we see reports of large numbers of host problems with humans. We have reports of Yeerks driven to lose control under the constant internal pressure of a resistant human host." This is so conflicting! We've seen it since the beginning, specifically the Chapmans in The Visitor (Book 2), and we've seen the reverse, where control is absolute regardless of the host's fortitude. It seems to be a case more of resistance-/pressure-through-thought, like "repeating the script of Henry V" in Elfangor's Secret (Megamorphs 3) than overcoming control through force of will, despite the early scenes with the Chapmans, although perhaps there's an exception for hysterical (mental) strength. I like this more than not; I like that survival/resistance doesn't come down to some ambiguous concept of "strength of will" (with the inevitable implication that those who can't/don't resist are therefore weaker).



• I got nuthin of substance here I just like Yeerk/host bonding, traumatic and otherwise:
  

  <Nevertheless, you and Essam became ... what is the word? You became friends?>
  
  He nodded. "Much as a human can be with a Yeerk. We talked. Me and him. We were together for a long while."




• Talking to Edriss 562 about her/her host's relationship with Essam/Essam's host body:
  
  

  Garoff shook his head, disbelieving. "You made a bargain with a host?"
  
  "Not a bargain! I was using her. Using her to..."
  
  "Right now, in this memory, you're worried about Essam. You want him to come home from his work. Why?"
  
  "Why? I ... I miss him."
  
  "More than that. I see it clearly in your memory, although you never admitted it. Your host finds Essam's host attractive."

  
  
  This does not answer but does contribute to the question of "Do Yeerks have sex in host bodies? [...] Tell me more about alien gender politics & sexy times pls I am begging you." Likewise, Edriss 562 repeatedly taking female host bodies and specifically engaging in motherhood, without stating what her Yeerk gender identity or reproductive role is. Taking a host isn't just/only an outlet for Yeerk reproductive/romantic urges; instead, they internalize some of their host's desires. That's a lot!



• "I looked into his eyes. Knew that those eyes were being aimed by Essam. But knew, too, that Allison was looking at Hildy." Consensual/semi-consensual symbiotic relationships (where symbiont and host retain at least some independent identity/thought is inherently polyamorous? is, at least, complicated as hell.



• "I remained semiconscious, as often happens when a host is injured [NB the host has just been knocked out]. Many Yeerks know of this strange dreamlike state. Unable to make the host body do as commanded, unable to control the mind, but still sufficiently engaged to be able to see the dreams, watch the echoes of recent events." This is tidbit that explores the connection between host/body experience and Yeerk experience—we also learn a little about how host death affects symbionts (they can survive, but it puts them at risk), and there's a horrific and fascinating example of a host left with dead Yeerk fragments in his brain, impairing brain function—but this one is fascinating, as is Edriss's general relationship with Eva's/the body's pain through the book. The need to take a host is framed as instinctual, almost a compulsion, a form of self-actualization for a Yeerk. It is also almost a prison, also a signifier of status, and there's a conflict between identity as Yeerk and identification with host body. The host is necessary, but is not a self. Somehow, being semi-conscious in an unconscious host feels indicative of that simultaneous bond/disconnect.