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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
these are definitely not great writing - the narrator changes every book and you can never really tell who it is through the narrative voice, so sometimes i get confused who's narrating and then bc its in first person go 'oh what jake wouldn't do that- oh we're rachel'
i love the descriptions of animal experiences in this one. rachel going complete PANIC in the shrew morph because they're such tiny skittish prey animals, and her having terrible nightmares about it that are so bad she throws up? and it turns out jake has similar nightmares from the time he morphed a lizard? its book TWO and they're already so traumatised. her grades are already slipping. canonically its been 1 week.
and then the cat POV was so fun to me, they're so arrogant and cool. my fav part was when visser was gonna kill rachel/cat but then she/it responded in a normal cat way and he was just like 'look at this arrogant little beast. its so tiny and so peak predator. i love it'. im a visser stan now
i also love the little rachel character moment when she decides to fight the yeerks - because we've already established that the animorphs know this is *very* serious and they could die, its good to see them get an actual reason to resist and fight. and it really humanises rachel and demonises the yeerks to see them take parents from children and the kids (like melissa) just don't know why.
ALSO cool to find out that hosts can resist the yeerks and the real chapman was still fighting for his daughter :pleading_face: it was really moving
who is the titular visitor??
and then the cat POV was so fun to me, they're so arrogant and cool. my fav part was when visser was gonna kill rachel/cat but then she/it responded in a normal cat way and he was just like 'look at this arrogant little beast. its so tiny and so peak predator. i love it'. im a visser stan now
i also love the little rachel character moment when she decides to fight the yeerks - because we've already established that the animorphs know this is *very* serious and they could die, its good to see them get an actual reason to resist and fight. and it really humanises rachel and demonises the yeerks to see them take parents from children and the kids (like melissa) just don't know why.
ALSO cool to find out that hosts can resist the yeerks and the real chapman was still fighting for his daughter :pleading_face: it was really moving
who is the titular visitor??
Look we’re all making it through Election Day 2020 in different ways.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
I read these when I was a kid and then I read them once again in my late teens/early twenties out of nostalgia and so I could read them all in order, and this is one of the ones that just really sticks with me. There's no big battle or anything, it's more of an espionage tale but even then they get captured and it's just about staying alive. Basically it's the YA version of Melville's Army of Shadows, which is an insane thing to say, but it's true. Not to be an old person going "you couldn't get away with doing that today," but you absolutely couldn't! This was only possible in the 90s, when 1. America for once in its life was not on an insanely jingoistic war setting (not to say they weren't looking around for a new enemy) and 2. the YA sector hadn't yet turned into a trillion dollar industry with more rigid definitions of what's acceptable. I feel like a dork for saying it, but these books ruled.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a review for the audiobook version of The Visitor.
Emily Ellet, who is the narrator for Rachel, is AMAZING. She has the spirit of Rachel down so well. She does well at voicing the other Animorphs, too - Marco has this snarky swagger in the way she voices him, Jake is mellow and serious, Cassie gentle - and all without making major alterations to the pitch of her voice! And oh my God, her giving voice to Melissa is... Melissa is always heartbreaking in this story, given that she DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHY HER PARENTS NO LONGER LOVE HER, but Ellet's voice work makes Melissa just that much more upsetting. Major kudos to Ellet for making an already kinda sad book into the next level of distressing.
Emily Ellet, who is the narrator for Rachel, is AMAZING. She has the spirit of Rachel down so well. She does well at voicing the other Animorphs, too - Marco has this snarky swagger in the way she voices him, Jake is mellow and serious, Cassie gentle - and all without making major alterations to the pitch of her voice! And oh my God, her giving voice to Melissa is... Melissa is always heartbreaking in this story, given that she DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHY HER PARENTS NO LONGER LOVE HER, but Ellet's voice work makes Melissa just that much more upsetting. Major kudos to Ellet for making an already kinda sad book into the next level of distressing.
I wasn't planning on reading The Visitor. I actually only wanted to put it on my ereader, and check whether it was the right one in the series, when I turned the page and accidentally read the entire book. Oops.
To be honest though, time well spent! The Visitor builds on the first Animorphs book, but this time from Rachel's perspective, Jake's cousin. I especially enjoyed the human themes of love and friendship, and how interpersonal relationships can be difficult despite best intentions. At the same time, The Visitor has a solid adventure plot, that kept me turning the pages until it was over. As the books are quite dark, and they don't necessarily end well, the stakes felt significant, and I was invested in seeing how it would work out for the secondary characters. The Visitor did not disappoint.
To be honest though, time well spent! The Visitor builds on the first Animorphs book, but this time from Rachel's perspective, Jake's cousin. I especially enjoyed the human themes of love and friendship, and how interpersonal relationships can be difficult despite best intentions. At the same time, The Visitor has a solid adventure plot, that kept me turning the pages until it was over. As the books are quite dark, and they don't necessarily end well, the stakes felt significant, and I was invested in seeing how it would work out for the secondary characters. The Visitor did not disappoint.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder
Jellicle Cat Lookin’ Ass
Alright suckers, you asked for it. I’m here to give you AniMOREphs content.
Before we get into book 2, let's review the happenings of book 1, which somehow managed to pack a whole fucking SAGA into a mere 184 pages. Five teens, Jake, Marco, Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie are taking a shortcut through an abandoned construction site when they see a UFO. They go towards an injured figure who turns out to be a prince from an alien race called the Andalites. The Andalities have sworn to chase their enemies, the Yeerks, throughout the galaxy to prevent them from enslaving other planets. The yeerks are some nasty slug boys who can crawl into host organisms, control the brain, and use the husk of the body to do their bidding. And bad news, kids, those nasty slug boys are here on earth, and they’ve already started infesting humans. Yeerk hosts are called Controllers, and they look and act totally normal! They could be anyone! :(
Good news is, Andalites have the power to acquire DNA from any animal they touch and transform into that animal (and also to telepathically converse to other andalites when one is in an animal form? It’s not explained, just accept it). The andalite prince makes these five random teenagers touch a cube that gives them sweet sweet morphin’ powers, and then a Yeerk spaceship arrives carrying Visser Three, a yeerk commander whose host is the only Andalite ever to be taken over by a Yeerk. Visser Three comes with some super tough looking Tyrannosaurus Rex-esque aliens, the Hork Bajir (The italics here were K.A Applegate’s inexplicable choice, not mine), and some giant centipedes, the Taxxons (Side note, I wish I could put a Taxxon Marco’s bad jokes. You’re desperate and pathetic, Marco. Grow up). Then Visser Three KILLS THE ANDALITE PRINCE IN FRONT OF THE KIDS.
To quote my friend Nikki:
“Most children's authors: how shall I teach the kiddies important life lessons like sharing?
KA Applegate: THEY MUST LEARN THAT LIFE IS PAIN
--
The kids manage to escape with their lives, and then get into a debate over what they should do with their new information and their new powers. Cassie suggests they go to the police, which leads to my favorite conversation in the whole book:
“Why would the police be...I mean, why would they lie?” I wondered aloud. But the answer was pretty obvious.
Marco laughed his sardonic laugh, “Let’s see, Captain Brilliant--Would it be because the cops are controllers?”
Thanks for this, K.A. Applegate. Teaching kids to question the authoritarian state and mistrust the police is good praxis, and we salute you!
OK, before I go on with this review I just want to mention: All this happened in the first 3 chapters or so. K.A Applegate don’t fuck around.
ANYWAY. The rest of the book the kids practice morphing around, Marco makes a bunch of dumb jokes, comes up with the term “animorphs,” and is a poop-butt about wanting to save the world, which the rest of the team is on board with. Marco can eat a bag of dicks. Marco sucks.
The animorphs learn that their vice principal is a controller, and that Yeerks need to go recharge in a mineral pool every three days. The animorphs sneak in with the controllers and see a hundreds of humans enslaved and by the yeerks. When the yeerks leave their bodies, the humans try to fight the yeerks, only to be enslaved again once the yeerks are done with their spa treatment. Jake learns his brother Tom is a controller. All the teens morph to try to save the people, but get fought off by the Hork Bajirs and the Taxxons. Visser Three has also been roaming the galaxy just collecting monsters to morph into, and he turns into a cthulhu-like Eldrich horror and tries to eat the teens. They escape with their lives, but are unable to save Tom or the other controllers. Tobias is trapped in hawk form in the underground cavern when the rest of the teens escape. The Animoprhs learn a horrible secret--if they stay morphed for more than two hours, they’re an animal forever. Tobias is forever stuck as a hawk.
-----
Okay, so onto book 2!
Before I get into the plot, I’mma just talk about my initial thoughts
Still love bisexual icon Tobias, and love that he does not let his hawk form interfere at all with attempting to flirt with Rachel.
At one point Rachel says, "Let me tell you--watching someone morph is not a pretty sight. It's the kind of thing that would give you screaming nightmares if you didn't know it was going to be alright.” We’ve seen the covers, Rachel, WE KNOW. It’s the stuff of horrors. I wish I could have lived 30 years without seeing you mid-morph, jellicle cat lookin’ ass.
Rachel is quickly emerging as my favorite animorph, mostly because she calls Marco on his bullshit and reads him for the trash he is. Every time Marco attempts a pitiful, unfunny joke, Rachel responds with a savage roast that shuts him up. Bless me, Saint Rachel, with the wit to silence inferior men who talk too much.
I asked my friend Lauren, resident Animorphs expert, when the teens figure out that they can touch other humans to transform into them. She said probably around book 10 or so. Me, “When do they use that power to start making out with themselves?” She, “HA. Doesn’t happen in the books, but I’m sure the fandom has fic for that.” Me, “What a relief.”
After the non-stop intensity of The Invasion, The Visitor feels like a zen meditation. Most of the book takes place in Principal Chapman’s house, where Rachel turns into a cat to spy on him talking to Visser Three. Plot-wise not a lot moves forward in the overall story, but the world building is very nice. It’s the first time that the readers begin to see the human side of Yeerk control. The reader gets to see the sorrow of Melissa, Chapman’s daughter, who lives in a house with two controllers who mimic human expression and behavior, but who can’t recreate love and affection. Chapman and his wife also try to fight off the Yeerks controlling them, at one point with Melissa’s mother trying to strangle herself to to prevent the Yeerk in her body from harming Melissa (If you read Animorphs as a kid, please @ me with how traumatizing scenes like this were for you. My adult self is giving this book some serious, “You did a-what now?!” side eye). The Visitor did a lot better job keeping me emotionally engaged than The Invasion; for the first time I want to see the Animorphs actually defeat the Yeerks.
4 Stars for Rachel positively dragging Marco.
Alright suckers, you asked for it. I’m here to give you AniMOREphs content.
Before we get into book 2, let's review the happenings of book 1, which somehow managed to pack a whole fucking SAGA into a mere 184 pages. Five teens, Jake, Marco, Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie are taking a shortcut through an abandoned construction site when they see a UFO. They go towards an injured figure who turns out to be a prince from an alien race called the Andalites. The Andalities have sworn to chase their enemies, the Yeerks, throughout the galaxy to prevent them from enslaving other planets. The yeerks are some nasty slug boys who can crawl into host organisms, control the brain, and use the husk of the body to do their bidding. And bad news, kids, those nasty slug boys are here on earth, and they’ve already started infesting humans. Yeerk hosts are called Controllers, and they look and act totally normal! They could be anyone! :(
Good news is, Andalites have the power to acquire DNA from any animal they touch and transform into that animal (and also to telepathically converse to other andalites when one is in an animal form? It’s not explained, just accept it). The andalite prince makes these five random teenagers touch a cube that gives them sweet sweet morphin’ powers, and then a Yeerk spaceship arrives carrying Visser Three, a yeerk commander whose host is the only Andalite ever to be taken over by a Yeerk. Visser Three comes with some super tough looking Tyrannosaurus Rex-esque aliens, the Hork Bajir (The italics here were K.A Applegate’s inexplicable choice, not mine), and some giant centipedes, the Taxxons (Side note, I wish I could put a Taxxon Marco’s bad jokes. You’re desperate and pathetic, Marco. Grow up). Then Visser Three KILLS THE ANDALITE PRINCE IN FRONT OF THE KIDS.
To quote my friend Nikki:
“Most children's authors: how shall I teach the kiddies important life lessons like sharing?
KA Applegate: THEY MUST LEARN THAT LIFE IS PAIN
--
The kids manage to escape with their lives, and then get into a debate over what they should do with their new information and their new powers. Cassie suggests they go to the police, which leads to my favorite conversation in the whole book:
“Why would the police be...I mean, why would they lie?” I wondered aloud. But the answer was pretty obvious.
Marco laughed his sardonic laugh, “Let’s see, Captain Brilliant--Would it be because the cops are controllers?”
Thanks for this, K.A. Applegate. Teaching kids to question the authoritarian state and mistrust the police is good praxis, and we salute you!
OK, before I go on with this review I just want to mention: All this happened in the first 3 chapters or so. K.A Applegate don’t fuck around.
ANYWAY. The rest of the book the kids practice morphing around, Marco makes a bunch of dumb jokes, comes up with the term “animorphs,” and is a poop-butt about wanting to save the world, which the rest of the team is on board with. Marco can eat a bag of dicks. Marco sucks.
The animorphs learn that their vice principal is a controller, and that Yeerks need to go recharge in a mineral pool every three days. The animorphs sneak in with the controllers and see a hundreds of humans enslaved and by the yeerks. When the yeerks leave their bodies, the humans try to fight the yeerks, only to be enslaved again once the yeerks are done with their spa treatment. Jake learns his brother Tom is a controller. All the teens morph to try to save the people, but get fought off by the Hork Bajirs and the Taxxons. Visser Three has also been roaming the galaxy just collecting monsters to morph into, and he turns into a cthulhu-like Eldrich horror and tries to eat the teens. They escape with their lives, but are unable to save Tom or the other controllers. Tobias is trapped in hawk form in the underground cavern when the rest of the teens escape. The Animoprhs learn a horrible secret--if they stay morphed for more than two hours, they’re an animal forever. Tobias is forever stuck as a hawk.
-----
Okay, so onto book 2!
Before I get into the plot, I’mma just talk about my initial thoughts
Still love bisexual icon Tobias, and love that he does not let his hawk form interfere at all with attempting to flirt with Rachel.
At one point Rachel says, "Let me tell you--watching someone morph is not a pretty sight. It's the kind of thing that would give you screaming nightmares if you didn't know it was going to be alright.” We’ve seen the covers, Rachel, WE KNOW. It’s the stuff of horrors. I wish I could have lived 30 years without seeing you mid-morph, jellicle cat lookin’ ass.
Rachel is quickly emerging as my favorite animorph, mostly because she calls Marco on his bullshit and reads him for the trash he is. Every time Marco attempts a pitiful, unfunny joke, Rachel responds with a savage roast that shuts him up. Bless me, Saint Rachel, with the wit to silence inferior men who talk too much.
I asked my friend Lauren, resident Animorphs expert, when the teens figure out that they can touch other humans to transform into them. She said probably around book 10 or so. Me, “When do they use that power to start making out with themselves?” She, “HA. Doesn’t happen in the books, but I’m sure the fandom has fic for that.” Me, “What a relief.”
After the non-stop intensity of The Invasion, The Visitor feels like a zen meditation. Most of the book takes place in Principal Chapman’s house, where Rachel turns into a cat to spy on him talking to Visser Three. Plot-wise not a lot moves forward in the overall story, but the world building is very nice. It’s the first time that the readers begin to see the human side of Yeerk control. The reader gets to see the sorrow of Melissa, Chapman’s daughter, who lives in a house with two controllers who mimic human expression and behavior, but who can’t recreate love and affection. Chapman and his wife also try to fight off the Yeerks controlling them, at one point with Melissa’s mother trying to strangle herself to to prevent the Yeerk in her body from harming Melissa (If you read Animorphs as a kid, please @ me with how traumatizing scenes like this were for you. My adult self is giving this book some serious, “You did a-what now?!” side eye). The Visitor did a lot better job keeping me emotionally engaged than The Invasion; for the first time I want to see the Animorphs actually defeat the Yeerks.
4 Stars for Rachel positively dragging Marco.