Reviews

The Deception by K.A. Applegate

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jdglasgow's review against another edition

5.0

Wow, the one-two punch of the last two books has been incredible. The last book moved the story forward in a significant way with the destruction of Visser One and the all but certain new, more direct tactics the Yeerks will soon begin using. This one sets the tone for the remainder of the series with unrelenting action. Ax still manages to sneak in some of the traditional heartbreak and angst over having to make impossible moral choices, but it’s just a small part. Mostly the Animorphs are Move! Move! Move! throughout this book. Ax is hopping from human to human, acquiring them to sneak into higher and higher levels of security. The impending Yeerk attack on Earth makes it expedient for the Animorphs to abandon their usual distaste for acquiring human beings.

And it’s really well written, too. There’s an extraordinary moment where Ax holds the hand of a human man who has been shot and whose guts are coming out, providing comfort to him as he dies. Then as the next chapter begins, Ax spirals and can’t stop focusing on the terror and the impossibility of the war they are fighting. He gets lost in his head and the narrative becomes short, choppy sentences until he is awoken from his despair by Tobias. It’s a really lovely moment, literarily.

I hope that the remaining books can keep up this high quality‼️

muffmacguff's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I’m excited by the story picking up and the Animorphs finding themselves in new situations, but this book was not very well written. It was weirdly obsessive about the details of military hardware and skimped on details of what was happening in the story. As the cover teases, we meet Visser Two but know basically nothing about him, unlike the boat he’s on, about which we know a great deal.

Content Warnings