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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I felt the terrible hatred surge in me again. But I didn't want to end my life that way. I would not die with hate in my heart. That would be one victory I could deny Visser Three.
♢ 4/62 OF THE ANIMORPHS REREAD
⚠ tws for the entire series: war, death, child soldiers, child death, descriptions of gore, body horror, discussions of parental death, slugs, parasites, loss of free will, depictions of PTSD and trauma, ableism, imperialism.
Cassie's books are known being The Weirdest, but they're also the most poetic of the bunch. She is the emotional center of the Animorphs after all, the one most concerned with the moral consequences of the things they have to do to fight the yeerks, and the professed animal lover.
Her main conflict in regards to morphing is present in her first book and it's a shame that I find it to be, huh, too nonsensical to take it seriously (listen, I really Don't think that turning into a brand new copy of an animal puts you on the same level as a slug taking over a different species' brain and ridding it of free will as it watches helplessly) but something I adore about the series is that it's never condescending about Cassie's kindness and her moral concerns.
Instead it portrays them as her strength and defining feature, and ultimately what helps her Survive over the others— something that ties in with the anti-imperialist and anti-war message of the series. I love her.
Highlights: Cassie reaching out and comforting the rest of the team, that really good interaction with Marco on his balcony, anytime the whales appear, AX'S INTRODUCTION.
As for the audiobook: Very very happy with Cassie's casting. Particularly loved the voices she did for the other Animorphs (her Tobias' is spot on and her Marco is hysterical) and the way she narrated the bits where the animal instincts took over were So Fun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence
Moderate: Genocide, Grief
words: https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-animorphs-book-4-the-message-by-k-a-applegate
adventurous
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I used to love this series growing up. And while I do not love them as much now that I'm re-reading them--mostly due to the reading level/writing style--I am still finding them enjoyable. This one was one of my favorites growing up and it may be my favorite in the series so far as I'm re-reading them.
Cassie is my favorite female character of the group. She's a good person who really cares about both people and animals. Her little crush with Jake is also too cute. I like dolphins pretty well, so reading about them was another plus. I also liked this plot the best out of all of them.
A new character, who I remember adoring, has also made their appearance. Who is this new character? You'll have to read to find out.
Overall I believe the plots are getting better, the relationships between the Animorphs are growing, and things are getting even more interesting.
Cassie is my favorite female character of the group. She's a good person who really cares about both people and animals. Her little crush with Jake is also too cute. I like dolphins pretty well, so reading about them was another plus. I also liked this plot the best out of all of them.
A new character, who I remember adoring, has also made their appearance. Who is this new character? You'll have to read to find out.
Overall I believe the plots are getting better, the relationships between the Animorphs are growing, and things are getting even more interesting.
The team finds and rescues Ax the Andalite, one of the greatest characters in the series, on their first ocean mission. This one is a ton of fun.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Overall I'd say Cassie's books, along with Rachel's, happen to be some of my favorites purely because I do love the way Cassie sees the world. This is the first book narrated by Cassie in the series, and I think it does a good job introducing her character properly (as all the kids' "first books" do) and giving her a starting point, a base, a reason to fight.
Like Jake to Tom, Rachel to Melissa and "other peoples' relationships", to Tobias deciding to live as a human and a hawk, to Marco and his mother and family, to Ax and his culture - at the end of the book Cassie is determined to continue to fight when Ax tells the group that the Yeerks would destroy Earth and cause many creatures to go extinct.
That voice churned my insides. I felt my own hatred flaring up to match his. The images Ax had painted - an Earth brown and empty and filled with nothing but the slaves of the Yeerks...
I had lived my entire life without feeling hatred. It is a sickening feeling. It burns and burns, and sometimes you think it's a fire that will never go out.
My favorite thing, a bit I forgot happened in this specific book, was the interaction between Marco and Cassie after Marco's near-death-experience (he's had like one per book now it feels). Cassie, the emotional center, the pacifist of the group feels like because she made the decision to go after the message in her dreams that means Marco's near-death was her fault. Marco, blunt, sarcastic, and joking, refuses to accept the apology because he "didn't have to go, and chose to anyway" and going on to tell her that making choices like this, life-and-death, was a part of their lives now, a part they just had to accept (have we mentioned these characters are 13 years old?). It's a good scene, and I don't believe she'd get the same blunt, no nonsense response from Jake or Rachel, the people she's already established as being the closest to in the group, this early in the series (as they're both incredibly soft towards her), and it does a good job in building up the relationships and team dynamics that would continue into the following books.
Setting aside one thing I didn't like in this book first: it's the introduction of the constant argument through the books that "morphing a sentient creature is just like taking control of a sentient creature" and that still makes No Sense To Me. Still, that Cassie's allowed the room to explore the ethics and morality of morphing and the war itself without tearing her down is something I love. While I wish the reasoning made more sense, I think that the broader theme of "ethics during war" is very important to Cassie's development, and really makes her character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Grief
Moderate: Animal death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood
Minor: Death
Animorphs Book 4: The Message expands the stakes so that the #Animorphs understand that they are fighting for the whole planet. The team is completed when they rescue Aximili. Cassie learns both heavy responsibility and weightless joy.
Part of what this book does really well is take a kind of breather with a much slower quest. Their journey is urgent but it has a lot of travel time which leads itself to introspection. Cassie has a really good understanding of her fellow Animorphs and her books are usually the most insightful about the group as whole, so it was nice to see small insights and points of future character growth be established in this book.
Part of what this book does really well is take a kind of breather with a much slower quest. Their journey is urgent but it has a lot of travel time which leads itself to introspection. Cassie has a really good understanding of her fellow Animorphs and her books are usually the most insightful about the group as whole, so it was nice to see small insights and points of future character growth be established in this book.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
One of the highlights of re-reading this series is the intense 1990s nostalgia it’s bringing back. These books have aged so much, and it’s no one’s fault but the march of time and technology. In The Visitor, Rachel talks in code by inviting Jake over to listen to a new CD. And here in The Message, Jake produces a VCR tape of a nightly news show—kids, I won’t bother explaining what VCRs were, but let’s just say the modern equivalent would be “pulling up a clip on YouTube.”
This technological ennui extends to wider plot points as well. Cassie describes how the Animorphs take different routes to their rendezvous at Rachel’s house, and how they check if they’re being followed. Like spies. And that’s sufficient to thwart human Controllers, maybe—but this was written in a simpler, more innocent time, when we only suspected the NSA was spying on every American. Can you imagine what would happen if Visser Three had access to programs like PRISM? The conversation would go down like this:
When I shared a (more condensed) version of this remark with my Animorphs-buddy Julie via Twitter, she wondered if this would be an obstacle to remaking an Animorphs TV show. If they wanted to set it in the present day, then yes, I think it would. But then it occurred to me: this is actually a golden opportunity in disguise. Wait another forty or fifty years, and we’ll be the proper distance from the 1990s that shows set in it will be like shows set in the 1950s or 1960s for us. Animorphs could be adapted into a period drama targeted at children.
You’ll be rich, Scholastic. If you’re still around. If anyone reads books anymore.
I’ll continue to discuss my nostalgia, particularly around the technology portrayed in the series, in later reviews. Now I’ll move on to a second ongoing topic: morphing technology.
This is the kind of thing we can (and people have) spent years discussing and debating on the Internet, so I’m not going to pretend to settle anything here. Instead, I’m more interested in looking at how our understanding of morphing technology develops as the books progress.
The Message is really our first opportunity to explore some of the deeper questions about morphing. It’s notable, firstly, for being the first time the Animorphs acquire multiple new morphs in quick succession. In the previous book, they acquired one, maybe two morphs—and these were a pretty big deal. Now they’re acquiring dolphins and seagulls all nonchalantly like—if they aren’t careful, they might start feeling normal about this whole “turning into animals” thing.
Secondly, the book introduces Ax, who you must all agree is the coolest. (Rachel is still my favourite, but even I will admit that Ax is cooler.) Ax is an Andalite pre-teen, you guys! I didn’t clue into this at the time, because when I first read these I was a kid, so it was just naturally that Ax was a kid. And, in retrospect, the idea of Ax being any more mature than the other Animorphs would have been creepier, I guess. But it only now dawned on me, re-reading this book, how much less mature Ax is than all those other Andalites out there.
Anyway, Ax is a potential new source of information about morphing. He might not know much about the technology (it sounds like he doesn’t pay much attention in Andalite school, alas), but he seems to know the rules. We learn here for the first time that more experienced morphers can acquire the DNA of multiple members of a species—including humans—and then synthesize an entirely new organism. That’s actually really awesome.
And Applegate introduces an entirely too convenient plot device whereby Andalites all have the ability to track the passage of time. So no more worrying about making Tobias wear a watch from now on. Thank God.
Because this is Cassie’s book, however, the best part of the morphing discussion revolves around the animals themselves. She balks initially at the prospect of morphing into a dolphin, because dolphins are higher-order thinkers—intelligent, perhaps on a level close to human beings. Is it right to morph a sentient being? Applegate treads dangerously close to deep questions of the philosophy of mind, the nature of cognition, and embodiment. Are we our minds, or are we our brains? Can we separate our consciousness from our bodies? How, exactly, does morphing change us—we already know that when one morphs, one has to control the animal instincts of one’s new form. So if one morphs a sentient being, will one feel another personality there?
That this is perilously close to what the Yeerks do to their hosts escapes neither Applegate nor the Animorphs. And while Cassie never receives a satisfactory answer one way or the other, eventually she accepts that even if what they do isn’t the most ethical course of action, it is within an acceptable range as a result of necessity.
(I want to point out, however, that while Cassie’s concern about the dolphins is well and good, she never once questioned the propriety of Marco morphing a gorilla in the first book. One wonders if Applegate, or a beta reader, stumbled on to this moral dilemma in between the writing/editing of books 1 and 4.)
The Toast has a pretty solid article on the cognitive philosophy of Animorphs, if that’s the sort of thing you want to read during your break.
I really enjoyed the way they communicate with the whales. Applegate manages to make that seem … well, not realistic—we are talking about people who morph into dolphins, after all—but at least not so fantastical. She essentially introduces children to the idea that there is more than one way to be conscious, more than one type of privileged sentience, and I think that’s pretty powerful.
The last revelation about morphing seems obvious, particularly for those of us who read the series before: if you are injured in a morph, you can unmorph/remorph, and you’ll be fine. The DNA you acquire is frozen, so you always morph into the animal in a fit state. Setting aside, finally, questions about how this works, we can at least all acknowledge that this is convenient for the story.
The Message, then, does a great deal to advance the overall series arc. It introduces a new main character—an alien, no less—and fleshes out a great deal of the morphing mythology. The Animorphs beat Visser Three again, acquire a few new morphs, and have some fun in the ocean. And we get our first adventure narrated by Cassie, whose compassion and attention to detail make her a strong member of the team, a perfect balance to the impulsive Rachel or the overwrought Marco. Even here, in the fourth book, there are blatant allusions Cassie/Jake. (Jassie? Cake? OMG. CAKE. YES. That’s the one.)
Next up is the first Marco book, thus completing the “origin stories” of the five human Animorphs. I’ll talk about comic relief, loyalty, and the abundance of hope that Applegate sows throughout this series. Also: Ax and food, man. Ax and food.
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #3: The Encounter | #5: The Predator →
This technological ennui extends to wider plot points as well. Cassie describes how the Animorphs take different routes to their rendezvous at Rachel’s house, and how they check if they’re being followed. Like spies. And that’s sufficient to thwart human Controllers, maybe—but this was written in a simpler, more innocent time, when we only suspected the NSA was spying on every American. Can you imagine what would happen if Visser Three had access to programs like PRISM? The conversation would go down like this:
Visser Three: CAPTURE THE ANDALITE WARRIORS.
Controller-Snowden: Actually, sir, the computer says there is a 96.3% probability the “Andalite warriors” are humans. Children, actually.
Visser Three: What? How?
Controller-Snowden: Well, we have access to petabytes of data, thanks to our infiltration of the human intelligence networks, as well as powerful algorithms that let us mine the data for trends. We’ve discovered a group of four pre-adolescents with a suspicious pattern of activity. They spend an inordinate amount of time in the presence of a red-tailed hawk, and they are often spotted on cameras wearing nothing but form-fitting clothing and no shoes.
Visser Three: Interesting. Well. This was less challenging than I thought it would be.
When I shared a (more condensed) version of this remark with my Animorphs-buddy Julie via Twitter, she wondered if this would be an obstacle to remaking an Animorphs TV show. If they wanted to set it in the present day, then yes, I think it would. But then it occurred to me: this is actually a golden opportunity in disguise. Wait another forty or fifty years, and we’ll be the proper distance from the 1990s that shows set in it will be like shows set in the 1950s or 1960s for us. Animorphs could be adapted into a period drama targeted at children.
You’ll be rich, Scholastic. If you’re still around. If anyone reads books anymore.
I’ll continue to discuss my nostalgia, particularly around the technology portrayed in the series, in later reviews. Now I’ll move on to a second ongoing topic: morphing technology.
This is the kind of thing we can (and people have) spent years discussing and debating on the Internet, so I’m not going to pretend to settle anything here. Instead, I’m more interested in looking at how our understanding of morphing technology develops as the books progress.
The Message is really our first opportunity to explore some of the deeper questions about morphing. It’s notable, firstly, for being the first time the Animorphs acquire multiple new morphs in quick succession. In the previous book, they acquired one, maybe two morphs—and these were a pretty big deal. Now they’re acquiring dolphins and seagulls all nonchalantly like—if they aren’t careful, they might start feeling normal about this whole “turning into animals” thing.
Secondly, the book introduces Ax, who you must all agree is the coolest. (Rachel is still my favourite, but even I will admit that Ax is cooler.) Ax is an Andalite pre-teen, you guys! I didn’t clue into this at the time, because when I first read these I was a kid, so it was just naturally that Ax was a kid. And, in retrospect, the idea of Ax being any more mature than the other Animorphs would have been creepier, I guess. But it only now dawned on me, re-reading this book, how much less mature Ax is than all those other Andalites out there.
Anyway, Ax is a potential new source of information about morphing. He might not know much about the technology (it sounds like he doesn’t pay much attention in Andalite school, alas), but he seems to know the rules. We learn here for the first time that more experienced morphers can acquire the DNA of multiple members of a species—including humans—and then synthesize an entirely new organism. That’s actually really awesome.
And Applegate introduces an entirely too convenient plot device whereby Andalites all have the ability to track the passage of time. So no more worrying about making Tobias wear a watch from now on. Thank God.
Because this is Cassie’s book, however, the best part of the morphing discussion revolves around the animals themselves. She balks initially at the prospect of morphing into a dolphin, because dolphins are higher-order thinkers—intelligent, perhaps on a level close to human beings. Is it right to morph a sentient being? Applegate treads dangerously close to deep questions of the philosophy of mind, the nature of cognition, and embodiment. Are we our minds, or are we our brains? Can we separate our consciousness from our bodies? How, exactly, does morphing change us—we already know that when one morphs, one has to control the animal instincts of one’s new form. So if one morphs a sentient being, will one feel another personality there?
That this is perilously close to what the Yeerks do to their hosts escapes neither Applegate nor the Animorphs. And while Cassie never receives a satisfactory answer one way or the other, eventually she accepts that even if what they do isn’t the most ethical course of action, it is within an acceptable range as a result of necessity.
(I want to point out, however, that while Cassie’s concern about the dolphins is well and good, she never once questioned the propriety of Marco morphing a gorilla in the first book. One wonders if Applegate, or a beta reader, stumbled on to this moral dilemma in between the writing/editing of books 1 and 4.)
The Toast has a pretty solid article on the cognitive philosophy of Animorphs, if that’s the sort of thing you want to read during your break.
I really enjoyed the way they communicate with the whales. Applegate manages to make that seem … well, not realistic—we are talking about people who morph into dolphins, after all—but at least not so fantastical. She essentially introduces children to the idea that there is more than one way to be conscious, more than one type of privileged sentience, and I think that’s pretty powerful.
The last revelation about morphing seems obvious, particularly for those of us who read the series before: if you are injured in a morph, you can unmorph/remorph, and you’ll be fine. The DNA you acquire is frozen, so you always morph into the animal in a fit state. Setting aside, finally, questions about how this works, we can at least all acknowledge that this is convenient for the story.
The Message, then, does a great deal to advance the overall series arc. It introduces a new main character—an alien, no less—and fleshes out a great deal of the morphing mythology. The Animorphs beat Visser Three again, acquire a few new morphs, and have some fun in the ocean. And we get our first adventure narrated by Cassie, whose compassion and attention to detail make her a strong member of the team, a perfect balance to the impulsive Rachel or the overwrought Marco. Even here, in the fourth book, there are blatant allusions Cassie/Jake. (Jassie? Cake? OMG. CAKE. YES. That’s the one.)
Next up is the first Marco book, thus completing the “origin stories” of the five human Animorphs. I’ll talk about comic relief, loyalty, and the abundance of hope that Applegate sows throughout this series. Also: Ax and food, man. Ax and food.
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #3: The Encounter | #5: The Predator →