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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I definitely never managed to read this one. Interesting to see Marco come face-to-face with his mom. It stretches my imagination a little bit to think that Visser One would just believe Marco is a Controller, but I guess it makes sense given how detached she was from Earth ground operations.
FIRST REVIEW / MAR 18, 2015
I am unmitigatedly, unabashedly, a Marco fangirl, and so I can't really help but give this 5 stars. Just as the strain is heavy on Jake to always be the confident leader, Rachel to be their gung-ho fearless one, Ax to be their knowledgeable galactic expert -- in Marco's POV books you can see him struggling with his own role as the comedian, the one keeping everyone else's spirits up. The group is a finely-tuned gyroscope, and if any piece of it gets out of sync, the others falter. Marco does his best to hide his depth and nuance, too, but things finally come to a head in this one, as the situation with his mother escalates. Just, fuck, all my feelings. His helplessness and murderous rage and obsession with not being pitied hits the heartstrings.
This book also advances the overarching story a bit more too, revealing that the Yeerks are carrying on other invasions of other planets, and the stakes on the other side of the galaxy are pretty damned significant...
The stuff with the sharks also bored itself into my memory when I read this in my youth. But I am deathly afraid of sharks so, uh, of course it would.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAY 1, 2020
I've fallen way behind on reviews thanks to #pandemiclife, so my reviews this month are going to be rushed haphazard garbage, sorry!
I still absolutely love this book, though. The terror of the mission, Marco trying to keep his secrets on lock, and the fact that these poor kids (they are not even in high school yet!!) are having to face questions like this:
The ending is so lovely and bittersweet: Rachel reaching out to make Marco feel better, him realising that it might be the truth rather than just a lie to appease him, him having to consciously decide whether or not to continue to nurse that helpless hope, even as much as hope hurts -- and then that last note about where he learned his tragicomic coping strategies to begin with. The parent-child feelings in this one had me tearing up all over again.
Favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
I am unmitigatedly, unabashedly, a Marco fangirl, and so I can't really help but give this 5 stars. Just as the strain is heavy on Jake to always be the confident leader, Rachel to be their gung-ho fearless one, Ax to be their knowledgeable galactic expert -- in Marco's POV books you can see him struggling with his own role as the comedian, the one keeping everyone else's spirits up. The group is a finely-tuned gyroscope, and if any piece of it gets out of sync, the others falter. Marco does his best to hide his depth and nuance, too, but things finally come to a head in this one, as the situation with his mother escalates. Just, fuck, all my feelings. His helplessness and murderous rage and obsession with not being pitied hits the heartstrings.
This book also advances the overarching story a bit more too, revealing that the Yeerks are carrying on other invasions of other planets, and the stakes on the other side of the galaxy are pretty damned significant...
The stuff with the sharks also bored itself into my memory when I read this in my youth. But I am deathly afraid of sharks so, uh, of course it would.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAY 1, 2020
I've fallen way behind on reviews thanks to #pandemiclife, so my reviews this month are going to be rushed haphazard garbage, sorry!
I still absolutely love this book, though. The terror of the mission, Marco trying to keep his secrets on lock, and the fact that these poor kids (they are not even in high school yet!!) are having to face questions like this:
“Erek didn’t mean anything bad. You know that,” Jake said. “He just meant–”
“I know what he meant,” I snapped. “He meant if it came to crunch time, would I destroy my own mother to protect the mission? That’s what he meant.”
Jake grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. “And?”
I was still mad. But I knew why I was mad. It wasn’t that Erek had insulted me somehow. It was that Erek was right.
“I don’t know, Jake,” I said. “I don’t know.”
The ending is so lovely and bittersweet: Rachel reaching out to make Marco feel better, him realising that it might be the truth rather than just a lie to appease him, him having to consciously decide whether or not to continue to nurse that helpless hope, even as much as hope hurts -- and then that last note about where he learned his tragicomic coping strategies to begin with. The parent-child feelings in this one had me tearing up all over again.
Favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Quite possibly the best in the series yet
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
ngl Marco broke my heart in this one. His biggest heartbreak (his Mom’s death) and closely guarded secret (she’s actually alive and an unwilling human controller for a very high ranking Yeerk) previously only known by Jake - comes to light and Marco is left to deal with the consequences.
There’s shark morphs and some lighted jail breaking of some parrots from a fast food chain - but this one was 💔😩
There’s shark morphs and some lighted jail breaking of some parrots from a fast food chain - but this one was 💔😩
This is the first Marco book that's really worked for me on a Marco level. I really liked The Android, but not because of Marco, more because the idea of the Chee and the Pemalites just took over that book and drowned everything else out. Sure, there's a subplot involving Marco's dad getting his groove back slotted in there, but it's the Pemalites you come away remembering, because awwwww, sad. His first book, despite the presence of clear stakes, felt a little too slight for me.
But with The Escape, Marco's internal life goes beyond "disguises pain with humor" for the first time. Actually, it takes that base and makes it more poignant. The kids learn that the Yeerks are getting up to something in a secret underwater base, and Visser One (Marco's mother, yes) is up to some hoobedy-boobedy with a new alien species called the Leerans, who are psychic. SO: They need to somehow get into an underwater fortress, that is guarded by weirdly intelligent hammerhead sharks by the way; somehow avoid the psychic alien who could immediately sense not only that they are Animorphs in disguise, but that the "Andalite bandits" are really humans; and then on top of all that, find out what is going on at the base, and shut it down.
I found the way that Marco responded to everything pretty compelling. He spends the first half of the book trying to pretend that nothing is wrong. Nobody but Jake knows that Marco's mom is Visser One, and on top of that, Marco has to deal with the traumatic memory of being bitten in half by a shark, which is triggered by their encounters with the hammerheads. But he can't pretend, and the others notice his odd behavior, his failure to crack jokes in the face of imminent death, his out of character reticence. And then, not only does he have to face his mother/Visser One—
There's this lovely little moment where he thinks that for him, there's no decision between right and wrong, heroic and un-heroic, like there is for Jake. There's only funny, and not funny. It's a chilling, sad moment where you see what this fight has started do to someone with Marco's personality. It's a much different type of trauma than we've seen with the others. It's balanced in the end by Marco choosing to believe that his mother has survived, but you can see how all these traumas and victories at cost are going to bit by bit affect him.
I haven't mentioned the thing with the sharks yet, because it stretched my ability to suspend my disbelief, almost to the limit. I get that the Yeerks wanted to engineer water-based soldiers without having to use them as hosts; it would allow them to invade a planet full of psychic aliens. But . . . making sharks smart, giving them implants . . . it just seemed pretty silly. Even if they could pull it off? What, are they going to literally empty the ocean of sharks? They'd need a hell of a lot of them for an invasion of Leera. I think humans would notice that, which would ruin this whole thing where the Yeerks are trying not to alert humans they are here.
Anyway, the silliness and implausibility of the plot would have been more of a problem if it wasn't backed up by good character work for Marco, but it was, so I feel like I can just let it go.
Next up: Jake, and something about a Yeerk website? I have no memory of it, so I guess everything will be a fun surprise.
But with The Escape, Marco's internal life goes beyond "disguises pain with humor" for the first time. Actually, it takes that base and makes it more poignant. The kids learn that the Yeerks are getting up to something in a secret underwater base, and Visser One (Marco's mother, yes) is up to some hoobedy-boobedy with a new alien species called the Leerans, who are psychic. SO: They need to somehow get into an underwater fortress, that is guarded by weirdly intelligent hammerhead sharks by the way; somehow avoid the psychic alien who could immediately sense not only that they are Animorphs in disguise, but that the "Andalite bandits" are really humans; and then on top of all that, find out what is going on at the base, and shut it down.
I found the way that Marco responded to everything pretty compelling. He spends the first half of the book trying to pretend that nothing is wrong. Nobody but Jake knows that Marco's mom is Visser One, and on top of that, Marco has to deal with the traumatic memory of being bitten in half by a shark, which is triggered by their encounters with the hammerheads. But he can't pretend, and the others notice his odd behavior, his failure to crack jokes in the face of imminent death, his out of character reticence. And then, not only does he have to face his mother/Visser One—
Spoiler
who sees him in the base and assumes he is a Controller like her, and then laughs about her host screaming and crying in anguish because she thinks Marco has been taken by the Yeerks—he has to choose, not once but twice, between saving the life of his mother and the mission. Both times he chooses the mission.There's this lovely little moment where he thinks that for him, there's no decision between right and wrong, heroic and un-heroic, like there is for Jake. There's only funny, and not funny. It's a chilling, sad moment where you see what this fight has started do to someone with Marco's personality. It's a much different type of trauma than we've seen with the others. It's balanced in the end by Marco choosing to believe that his mother has survived, but you can see how all these traumas and victories at cost are going to bit by bit affect him.
I haven't mentioned the thing with the sharks yet, because it stretched my ability to suspend my disbelief, almost to the limit. I get that the Yeerks wanted to engineer water-based soldiers without having to use them as hosts; it would allow them to invade a planet full of psychic aliens. But . . . making sharks smart, giving them implants . . . it just seemed pretty silly. Even if they could pull it off? What, are they going to literally empty the ocean of sharks? They'd need a hell of a lot of them for an invasion of Leera. I think humans would notice that, which would ruin this whole thing where the Yeerks are trying not to alert humans they are here.
Anyway, the silliness and implausibility of the plot would have been more of a problem if it wasn't backed up by good character work for Marco, but it was, so I feel like I can just let it go.
Next up: Jake, and something about a Yeerk website? I have no memory of it, so I guess everything will be a fun surprise.
October 8, 2021 Audiobook Review
Original and re-read reviews on paperback here.
Sounds like Ramón de Ocampo has gotten into the groove of Marco, solidly – he has a much better lilt to his voice. I can hear much more of Marco’s sense of humor in his delivery, not just when telling jokes, but in his regular narration, too. Plus the struggle Marco has with knowing his mom is controlled by Visser One, and the dilemma he faces about whether or not to tell the other Animorphs, or what even to do about Visser One, if anything. Props to him for the delivery on this complexity!
Just one quote to add to the lists on my paperback reads; the other two (about ruthlessness and doing what’s right) I’d already noted. The delivery on this stood out, and the hesitation it brings to how Marco sees Erek. He knows now what Erek is capable of, and that knowledge can easily change how you see someone and act around them. Sure Erek is still a great source of information about the Yeerks, too, but now it’s colored with what he knows about Erek, what they all saw Erek do.
We’d seen what happened the one time Erek did go postal. It was hard to forget. Hard to treat someone that powerful like just another kid. – Chapter 3, 2:12
Original and re-read reviews on paperback here.
Sounds like Ramón de Ocampo has gotten into the groove of Marco, solidly – he has a much better lilt to his voice. I can hear much more of Marco’s sense of humor in his delivery, not just when telling jokes, but in his regular narration, too. Plus the struggle Marco has with knowing his mom is controlled by Visser One, and the dilemma he faces about whether or not to tell the other Animorphs, or what even to do about Visser One, if anything. Props to him for the delivery on this complexity!
Just one quote to add to the lists on my paperback reads; the other two (about ruthlessness and doing what’s right) I’d already noted. The delivery on this stood out, and the hesitation it brings to how Marco sees Erek. He knows now what Erek is capable of, and that knowledge can easily change how you see someone and act around them. Sure Erek is still a great source of information about the Yeerks, too, but now it’s colored with what he knows about Erek, what they all saw Erek do.
We’d seen what happened the one time Erek did go postal. It was hard to forget. Hard to treat someone that powerful like just another kid. – Chapter 3, 2:12