Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Departure

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Departure by K.A. Applegate

2 reviews

jessthanthree's review

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

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ramiel's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

So, this is my favorite Cassie book and may be my favorite book in the series.

Please, warning, this review/analysis/whatever the fuck I write here gets very long.

This is it. They've been dropping hints that the Yeerks are more complex than just "evil alien invaders", and this is the book where we see that up close and personal. This is also, I would argue, a major turning point in Cassie's arc. Or, it solidifies her arc, shows exactly where she's going to stand and what she'll tolerate, what she won't, and what she wants to fight for. In a way, it also foreshadows her endgame move - the highly controversial one that turns the war in the third to last book (the amount of hate I've seen her get for it is frankly terrifying... but that's not for a while so let's leave it here).

Karen gave me a bleak, hard look. "There are those of us who wish it could be another way. That there was some middle choice between being slugs beneath the Andalite hooves, and being... and being..."
"Slave masters?" I suggested.

The summary is: Cassie has an extra traumatic night of ripping out one too many throats and it pushes her to quit the Animorphs, cutting ties with all the other kids. Someone follows her home, a child named Karen who she finds being attacked by a bear in the woods the next day... ending in them getting knocked into a river and swept far from civilization. Karen's a bit... creepy child, enfant terrible, weird as all hell, and very aggressively suspicious of Cassie.

Shocker! She's a Controller and she knows Cassie's secret now. There's also a leopard on the loose. What does Cassie do next?

There's a lot in this book, I would say most of it is character building, but it's character building in a way that strongly moves the plot of the story forward. Cassie making contact with Aftran (Karen's Yeerk) builds the Yeerk Peace Movement in the background of the story, and the Yeerk Peace Movement shows up a few more times. As I said, it also builds Cassie's arc and the Yeerks as diverse characters and people - not all of whom are violent and untrustworthy.

One can definitely argue that seeing things from Esplin/Visser 3's point of view in Hork-Bajir Chronicles, as well as the small moments with one-off Yeerk characters, paints them as complicated people, and certainly Visser 3's personality is more complex than one would originally assume before reading his POV. He's clever - or was clever, dunno where that went once he made Visser but w/e - and was considered strange among his people for idolizing Andalites... not as good people or morally superior people, but as tacticians and warriors. Still... even knowing that he had likes and dislikes and struggles... he's still very much the villain of the story - in his POV chapters, a villain protagonist, but a villain all the same. As we've grown to expect from the Yeerks by the time we get his POV: he's violent, he's untrustworthy, he's still Visser 3, perfectly willing to kill his own teammates to get ahead. His POVs just show his motivations, but he's ultimately selfish, violent, and not someone you should trust ever because the only one Visser 3 prioritizes is himself.

Aftran, though she initially presents as aggressive and a supporter of the Yeerk empire, ends up cracking and showing that things aren't so simple. She feels horrible about enslaving this child, she refers to Karen as an innocent and is distressed with the way Karen cries and screams in her head (Edriss, our other Yeerk POV character who comes later, talks in an earlier Marco book about Eva wailing in her head when she sees him, but her referral of it is incredibly cold and suggests that Yeerks are seen as weak if they can't ignore the screams and break their hosts). But... this is just who she is, right? She's a parasite, and it's no different from an omnivorous human eating a pig or cow, right? And how is it fair that humans and Andalites and Hork-Bajir get to experience their beautiful worlds while she sits blind* at the bottom of a pool.

Unlike Esplin (unlike Edriss/Visser 1, definitely unlike Temrash, absolUTELY unlike Esplin "Lesser", probably unlike Iniss, and... IDK I still wish that one off Yeerk from Ax's first book showed up more than once so we don't know about him but...), Aftran not only shows real guilt but also a willingness to do something different. She takes Cassie's body with Cassie's permission, but does not turn her in, she keeps Cassie's secret - which would be treasonous to her brother Yeerks. She is furious and petty and lashes out when Cassie asks her to free Karen and demands Cassie make the same sacrifice she will... but in the end, still fully intending on making her sacrifice, begs Cassie to change her mind (forgetting caterpillars don't have ears, or at least not ones that can probably reasonably make out a human voice as more than general vibrations). She is miserable when she realizes what she did to Cassie. She does nothing but explain the deal when the others come for her, she does not beg for her life except to say that she made a deal with Cassie and they would be breaking it. She frees Karen and returns to the Yeerk pool, believing it was right, and believing she would be there forever (spoiler, she isn't).

And, at the end, Karen - the real Karen - comes back to confirm Aftran's genuineness to Cassie. She tells her that Aftran would be happy that Cassie made it out. And, considering this book again spells out that the host can also feel what the Yeerk feels, Karen is a reliable judge here.

Yeerks have made good points before (especially about Andalite arrogance and how life is for a sentient parasite), but it was easy for the kids (and, sometimes, the audience) to shrug off as the ranting and raving of someone who is ultimately wrong. "Cool story, still slavery, war crimes, and murder" (kids you've also done those last two but...)

Aftran, I feel, is there to emphasize that the Yeerk's problems are not to be brushed off. They are not inherently evil, they can care about others - even other species. They deserve to be considered, they do not deserve to be eradicated, they are not subhuman. Her brother, who's throat Cassie ripped our, had a name, and we know similar to her he wanted a job that didn't involve much battle.

Just like the humans and Hork-Bajir (and Taxxons, but we're not there yet...), the Yeerks deserve to be mourned as casualties. To crush them underfoot is a cruelty. To boil them alive in a Jacuzzi pool is sort of monstrous. These things are wrong.

The Yeerk Empire is also wrong in how they go about "solving" their problems, the Empire should be crushed, but that's politics and the common Yeerk people deserve a chance to find another way. Not all of Aftran's anger is righteous - she is not immune to the propaganda of her people, but then neither are the kids to human/American propaganda, nor Ax to Andalite propaganda - but some of it is. Still, in the end, Aftran sacrifices herself for Cassie and for Karen... but she won't be forgotten.

Cassie's going to come back for her. Because Aftran does not deserve to rot, forgotten at the bottom of the Pool. She tells us this, and she's right**.

Aftran and her place coming from the "common Yeerk background" also brings some interesting insight that you don't see in Esplin's (or later Edriss's) narration.

Aftran is disgusted by Visser 1 and Visser 3 and how they place their political power games over the lives of their people, further proving that the Yeerk government is the main problem with the Yeerks - not the people themselves.

She also expresses an affection and reverence for Seerow - interesting, because from what we've seen up until now, Seerow is treated as a fool by both the Andalite and Yeerk higher ups. He's a horrible source of shame for the Andalites, and in the Hork-Bajir chronicles, the Yeerks we meet disparage him for being easily tricked and murder him and his family in their homes. However, Aftran presents another side: to the common Yeerk people, Seerow is a hero. He is someone to admire and love. He cared about the Yeerks when nobody else would, and Aftran honors his memory in return just as the kids honor Elfangor (who cared about humanity to the extent of making the same """mistake""" as Seerow). Though Hork-Bajir Chronicles seems to imply that affection for Andalites, even Seerow, will get you mocked at best... it's clear through Aftran that there are Yeerks who don't follow that idea. They have no love for the Andalites who hold their planet essentially hostage from them, but Aftran implies that she isn't the only one who considers Seerow "the one good Andalite" as she follows that up with the thought that there are "many good Yeerks".

(Again, there's irony in her considering all Andalites arrogant and evil, especially considering at the end of the story we find that the common Andalite people were actually not very much in favor of war lol. But, again, Aftran Is Not Immune To Propaganda.)

I find it interesting here, too, that Cassie ends up having the strongest link to Seerow - through reaching out to and making a friendship with the Yeerks, showing Aftran kindness and love... and then later becoming the host possessed by his daughter. Again, all of this is pointing directly at her endgame. (While my favorite parallels are Elfangor ==> Seerow, Cassie ==> Seerow is also very strong and essentially a huge part of her arc is becoming a Seerow herself...)

Speaking of: CASSIE! CASSIE! God, what beautiful prose. What a perfect story. I love how it references all of her other POV chapters so far, dragging everything back to the struggle she has between... as I put in the Dinosaurs book last time... humanity/morality vs. the inherent violence of nature and survival. The termite queen is not forgotten (Aftran even marveling that she can show guilt over killing an insect... which I'm certain helped Aftran in trusting Cassie even further, considering she knows she's "just a slug" to other aliens), the dinosaur she killed as the T. rex is a part of her nightmares, and she starts the story ripping out the throat of a Hork-Bajir that happens to be Aftran's beloved pool brother, possibly after Jake already told her to retreat (which is very important to her, because it takes away all justification she could give to the action, the battle was over and she did it anyway). All of Cassie's guilt is held between her teeth, and she finally chokes on it and can't take anymore. She's full of battle to the point of wanting to vomit.

Yeah, I'm making the food based metaphors on purpose.

But still, being the person I am, I'm fascinated by how often Cassie is equated to predators (ie. her violence is the natural, very ugly, violence of nature - she bites and rips and tears, and how strange to be forced to realize your mouth can be such a weapon. And how traumatizing, when you can't drop your weapon because it's so close to you, because you use it every day to eat and talk and breathe. It's always there, reminding you of what you've done with it...

at least, that's how I believe Cassie sees it).

Cassie is also stuck, for a majority of the book, in the wilderness playing Hatchet trying to survive with her literal enemy while a leopard is trying to kill them. Cassie's deepest moments always happen in nature, where she can throw her humanity against it and try to rectify what's inside of her. She thinks of leaving Karen multiple times - not even killing her with her own two hands sometimes, just leaving her there, helpless in the middle of the woods... but she doesn't.

Her decision to (temporarily) grant Aftran access to her body is probably controversial as well - it sure as hell is risky as fuck, and she knows it. But I don't think Cassie's decision to trust certain people comes out of nowhere. She's shown multiple times that she knows how to get to the heart of a person if she spends enough time talking to them - pushing them, kind of even needling them with hypotheticals and "well then why this?" She manages to recognize Ax's shame in his first book, and at this point she's spent at least three days doing the same thing with Aftran (who's already at the tipping point of a mental breakdown). The two of them have resonated with each other, so even when she says she "was beyond logic and reason" when she allowed Aftran into her body, I simply don't think she would have done it if it was, say, Mr. Chapman. (She may have done it for Tom or Eva, but it would probably be less for the sakes of Human-Yeerk peace and more for the peace of mind of Jake or Marco).

Was it still a very dangerous, kind of dumb move? Yeah, Aftran was still claiming loyalty to the Empire at that point, and its only when she's in Cassie's body and lying to the other Yeerks for her that Cassie really truly realizes she got to Aftran. But, I understand Cassie doing it purely because of what she and Aftran were already in the process of building (even if Aftran denied it at the time).

Also that very dangerous, kind of dumb move, again, ends up creating the Yeerk Peace Movement - it gives the kids allies within enemy camp. So, she won. With kindness and trust, she won. Without bloodshed, she won.

She proved it was possible.

FOR THE OTHER KIDS:

Rachel. Two things live in my fucking head rent free, and that's what Rachel says to Cassie at the beginning of the book, and what she says about her in the end.

"See, you've just said the whole world can drop dead, so long as you, Cassie, don't have to end up turning into me."

THIS IS A CASSIE BOOK, but it does reveal something that will come up in her next book (DAVID TRILOGY) - she's afraid her friends see her as a monster. As the "bad guy" of the group. I say on Twitter that, considering all the building we've done to get to this book, this book allows us to build a little of Rachel's character for her arc as well. I also say that in this case, I think Rachel's a little too deep in her head. Cassie admits to herself that, no, she doesn't want to be like Rachel but... I think they're misunderstanding each other. Cassie feels burnt out, she feels numb, she feels nothing during battle and she cannot tolerate that, I don't think it has anything to do with Rachel or even compares to Rachel in battle. To me, Rachel doesn't have the problem of feeling "numb" during the war. Rachel's very ability to act and fight relies on being emotional, so I don't think she can understand Cassie struggling with feeling nothing.

STILL, despite all this, throughout the book we're told Rachel still defends Cassie. Not for her decision to leave, but when Marco tries to call her a coward or says they shouldn't concern themselves with her, Rachel is said to snap back at him. Cassie and Tobias are two people Rachel is incredibly protective of, even when she's angry at them, and I think this book shows that very clearly.

(Cassie, in the beginning, also makes a sort of callous comment to Tobias, about how she couldn't make the same sacrifices as him. Rachel bounces around in this scene a lot - she defends Cassie from Marco, defends Tobias from Cassie, but is also ultimately furious at Cassie for her reasoning, and shows it.)

For the next Rachel quote, the one at the end, it comes when Cassie becomes a nothlit.

"Cassie was my best friend [...] I'm not going to be the one to call her a fool. [...] I'll carry her [...] I'll keep her safe."

REVOLVES IT IN MY HEAD LIKE A 3D OBJECT.

Marco. Marco is sharp as a knife and just as mean in this book and I love it. He has this good moment when he first finds Cassie and Karen, noting the sus way Cassie is whispering to Karen he pretends to excuse himself only to change from gorilla to osprey to spy on their conversation. He knows when shit's up and he knows how to get to the bottom of it.

While a lot of his nastiness towards Cassie is reactionary cruelty and it's good that Rachel calls him on it, I'm fascinated by this side of him. Especially when it's shown that it is reactionary. He says he doesn't care about Cassie anymore, but he finds her first and worries for her safety. When Cassie takes Aftran into her, he snaps, telling Cassie they would kill her if they had to... but when Jake gives the order to stop her by any means necessary, Marco is horrified and questions Jake.

Marco muttered a curse. [How did it come to this?] he wondered. But he flew away at top speed.

He rants about how Cassie can't make friends with Aftran, he says they have to kill her... but despite everyone's raw fury over Cassie being stuck as a caterpillar, it's Marco who ends up rescuing Aftran-in-Karen when the leopard comes back. He's furious with Cassie, but she's still important to him, and even though he doesn't agree with her decisions (probably doesn't respect them, either), he still wants her to be safe.

And, it seems, he doesn't want her sacrifice to be for nothing.

Jake. Had a whole POV but honestly I felt like Marco and Rachel stole the show when Cassie wasn't around, sorry Jake. Jake himself seemed to numb himself as well, especially once he realized he might have to have Cassie killed to protect everyone else. So it sort of muted his POV.

Tobias doesn't do much, at least that I remember?

Ax... doesn't do much either but I have to cry again about the miscommunication between this group. Ax, honey, if you didn't realize a caterpillar "naturally morphed" into a butterfly, why are you expecting the kids to know that Cassie can now be human again.

"Ah. I see," Ax said. "But maybe she would like to demorph now."
"I'm sure she would," Marco said grimly.
"Then she should," Ax said.

EXPLAIN THINGS, AX.

Anyway, by my own pretentious analysis, I would also say Cassie becoming a nothlit, becoming a butterfly, then demorphing again represents that transformation of her character - no longer numbly following the violence of war, no longer simply living moment to moment, but looking towards the end. Reaching for peace.

It's a bit of a stretch, but whatever.

Things I ended up thinking about in this reread, but I'm not sure where I stand on them, and I'm also probably not the best person to argue one side or the other.
* "Blindness" being the tragedy of the Yeerks (along with relative immobility, an inability to socialize, etc, but blindness is what's focused on the most). Sometimes the narration around it borders around ableist, sometimes it feels sympathetic? IDK. Animorphs has a weird relationship with disability, especially considering its a world where you can have the power to physically change your body**.
** Speaking of, spoiling the end of a 20 year old book series, "morphing" will become a large solution, the "middle ground" Aftran wants (for both Yeerks and Taxxons). For the Yeerks... we get introduced to the Iskroot later, and I felt that was a better option? But, it's been a while. I'm... still not sure how I feel about it? But, we haven't come to that yet, so I guess I'll wait until I get there.

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