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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Even though I finished the Animorphs series months ago, there were a few "extras" books I never read. This is one of them.
First off: The cover is very misleading. The whole book was about Visser One, but that's Three on the cover. (And we won't even talk about the quality of that cover...)
I think I can better appreciate these extra books now that I've read so much fanfic, but it also underscores that good fanfic can make a much much better story of this material than the books themselves.
This story was an interesting look at the first stages of the Yeerk invasion of the Earth, told through the lens of a military trial being held against Visser One herself.
The whole Animorphs series always seems odd to be YA/MG. It's too mature, too dark. This book was especially so. Not just the horrible physical injuries (imagine being on trial for your life while in a body with multiple unhealed broken bones), not just the psychological torture (imagine having an alien control your body, get you pregnant, force you to have children), not just torture-torture (imagine being forced to shoot your own child)... but all of those in one book. A book meant for young readers.
More than all those things... when Visser One said she'd put a Yeerk into her daughter's head to make the child love her? Man.
This really was one of the best Animorph books. I just wish it had been longer.
First off: The cover is very misleading. The whole book was about Visser One, but that's Three on the cover. (And we won't even talk about the quality of that cover...)
I think I can better appreciate these extra books now that I've read so much fanfic, but it also underscores that good fanfic can make a much much better story of this material than the books themselves.
This story was an interesting look at the first stages of the Yeerk invasion of the Earth, told through the lens of a military trial being held against Visser One herself.
The whole Animorphs series always seems odd to be YA/MG. It's too mature, too dark. This book was especially so. Not just the horrible physical injuries (imagine being on trial for your life while in a body with multiple unhealed broken bones), not just the psychological torture (imagine having an alien control your body, get you pregnant, force you to have children), not just torture-torture (imagine being forced to shoot your own child)... but all of those in one book. A book meant for young readers.
More than all those things... when Visser One said she'd put a Yeerk into her daughter's head to make the child love her? Man.
This really was one of the best Animorph books. I just wish it had been longer.
In an installment with one of the best book covers on record, we finally get a fuller picture/background of what happened to Marco’s mother as well as an immediate continuation of the events from the last book from Visser One’s perspective with a heavy focus on his origins and beginnings.
We see how the Yeerks express cruelty to one another in the name of weeding out the disloyal while simultaneously looking down on humanity for our constant warring and infighting as a species.
A distorted perspective of culture through the eyes of society’s outcasts. A very warped approach to love. A very Yeerk fascination with humans.
Although it’s a fascinating story, we get a large cast of new characters and names thrown at us very suddenly in a storyline filled with time jumps, flashbacks, and memory discussions. Parts of this book are too jumbled and incoherent to comfortably follow along.
This is only (sort of) made up for in the heavy exploration of Yeerk politics and the complexity of their community.
I could also do without the accidental (?) American Nationalist progression of the story. Very odd and glossed over.
CW: war, violence, slavery, death, torture, grief, brief references to colonialism, brief misogyny, recurring mentions of drug addiction + substance abuse, brief moment of suicidal ideation
We see how the Yeerks express cruelty to one another in the name of weeding out the disloyal while simultaneously looking down on humanity for our constant warring and infighting as a species.
A distorted perspective of culture through the eyes of society’s outcasts. A very warped approach to love. A very Yeerk fascination with humans.
Although it’s a fascinating story, we get a large cast of new characters and names thrown at us very suddenly in a storyline filled with time jumps, flashbacks, and memory discussions. Parts of this book are too jumbled and incoherent to comfortably follow along.
This is only (sort of) made up for in the heavy exploration of Yeerk politics and the complexity of their community.
I could also do without the accidental (?) American Nationalist progression of the story. Very odd and glossed over.
CW: war, violence, slavery, death, torture, grief, brief references to colonialism, brief misogyny, recurring mentions of drug addiction + substance abuse, brief moment of suicidal ideation
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
yeah bitch, she’s rereading animorphs! and she started with the darkest one! it’s a psychological thriller, it’s a courtroom drama, it’s a wartime romance, it’s colonialism as told by the colonizer. it’s the intermingling of motherhood and obsession and imperialism, all wrapped up with a shiny unreliable narrator bow. it’s disgusting!!!! it’s incredible. it’s visser by k.a. applegate.
edriss is so evil in such a human way; “the absence of metaphor is so striking,” you know? she is an abuser & an enslaver & a rapist & a murderer and through it all she’s also a mother and it’s never once subtext, it’s just literally the story she tells us. insane book. i cannot believe i read this as a child.
and then there's eva, who is here-and-not-here in every moment of the story, who watches in horror as her body commits literal war crimes, who holds her son in her arms and sees absolution so so close and then turns around and says: no. leave me here. who believes she was CHOSEN BY GOD to bear (and abandon!) the savior of the world: “I believe in a higher power, Yeerk. I believe I was taken so that my son would grow strong and wise and some day defeat you.” (????????????? yes. it really is that catholic. insane!)
and marco, my absolute son marco, who is like fifteen years old and was raised by a parasitic alien abusive mom AND is also the best tactician in a war he's been fighting for two years with only five other kids. the fact that eva gives him up because she deadass believes HER ONLY BEGOTTEN SON is the singular hope for earth and then,,,, what? he just has to keep fighting. because if not, what's her sacrifice for. THE JESUS OF IT ALL.
i can't believe scholastic published this. we are so lucky.
edriss is so evil in such a human way; “the absence of metaphor is so striking,” you know? she is an abuser & an enslaver & a rapist & a murderer and through it all she’s also a mother and it’s never once subtext, it’s just literally the story she tells us. insane book. i cannot believe i read this as a child.
and then there's eva, who is here-and-not-here in every moment of the story, who watches in horror as her body commits literal war crimes, who holds her son in her arms and sees absolution so so close and then turns around and says: no. leave me here. who believes she was CHOSEN BY GOD to bear (and abandon!) the savior of the world: “I believe in a higher power, Yeerk. I believe I was taken so that my son would grow strong and wise and some day defeat you.” (????????????? yes. it really is that catholic. insane!)
and marco, my absolute son marco, who is like fifteen years old and was raised by a parasitic alien abusive mom AND is also the best tactician in a war he's been fighting for two years with only five other kids. the fact that eva gives him up because she deadass believes HER ONLY BEGOTTEN SON is the singular hope for earth and then,,,, what? he just has to keep fighting. because if not, what's her sacrifice for. THE JESUS OF IT ALL.
i can't believe scholastic published this. we are so lucky.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
hoOOOOO. Oh, this one is beloved by the Anifandom for a reason, it seems. It's got everything; drama, betrayal, secret children, scheming plots at last revealed, romance gone wrong, blood-thirsty ladies, cults, blatant drug references, space wars... A damn good time.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, War
Minor: Drug use
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes