Review by ramiel - The Forgotten

ramiel 's review for:

The Forgotten by K.A. Applegate

2.5

dark emotional 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

To note, this one might be one of my least favorite of the books, so this one will probably be short. I generally have a tough time with Jake's POV (while Jake regularly subverts and twists the "boy leader" role and breaks it to pieces, it is still a part of his character and it's just not a favorite). This one did have emotional moments, and moments that grabbed me and held me, it's just one that didn't hold me as much as the others. I don't have any other solid reason why this one didn't do it for me, but I'll try to make the review short.

Marco, I thought, you don't know the half of it. Because in addition to all the other ways this could go bad, your "fearless leader" is losing his mind.
Of course, I didn't say that. See, when you're the leader, you're not allowed to be crazy.

Still, as I said, Jake regularly rips his role (the "leader", "boy hero") to pieces, just as all the other kids do, and this book does give a good look at how Jake cracks under the pressure of being the "leader". Our first two Jake books didn't delve too deeply into the stress that "being a leader" puts on Jake. The first was... well, the first book in the series, it had some ground to lay and expectations to set up: while Jake did suffer in that book, realizing the extent of what he (and the others) were getting into when they saw how massive the Yeerk operation was, and watching his brother go down against the enemy, he wasn't yet "burdened" by his role (overwhelmed, yes, but not yet completely conscious of how the role was going to absolutely break him to pieces). The second book gave no time for Jake to be the "leader", we followed his growing anger and violence instead as he faced off against a Yeerk who'd taken over his brain - showing how the stress of Tom's entrapment hurt him.

Now that those are set up, it's time for Jake to realize that a thirteen year old boy leading five other teenagers in a secret alien war is... just not great!

NOW I ACTUALLY GOT THIS ONE CONFUSED WITH ONE OF THE MEGAMORPHS WHEN I FIRST STARTED IT. Specifically, the Megamorphs book where the Crayak showed up which, off topic, it would have been really cool if the Crayak was introduced in this book but the fact that he was a literal enigma in the fandom for years to come is still a hilarious story.

A list of things I enjoyed and/or drew me in. (I'm going to avoid talking about the locals the kids ran into in the rainforest purely because I'm not completely sure how I feel about how that was done - and, being white, I don't think I should be the one to speak on it - but I did have a little affection for Jake's kinship with Polo over the responsibility of protecting their groups.)

1. The square dancing scene that opened the book was cute as hell. Rachel and Jake feel as close as siblings, and the kids acting like the 13 year olds they are is always appreciated (and also horrifying in hindsight to what they witness but you know). "I promenaded, which consists of walking like a BIG HONKING GOOBER around in a circle," killed me.

2. More teenage shenanigans in a book about child soldiers: the kids get into a bug fighter and their immediate decision is "steal it".

3. DIDN'T ENJOY IT BUT WOW ANOTHER ANT SCENE. Honestly I found the bit where Rachel was being EATEN ALIVE and Jake decided to rip tufts of her fur out to cause an ant war to be traumatizing as fuck. What was interesting was Marco immediately losing it at Jake ("What are you doing? Leave her alone!"), who's on his last shred of sanity.

4. With regard to that, I found the way they portrayed the relationships between Jake, Marco, Rachel, and Cassie (who've known each other the longest) very interesting. All four of them seem to get unnerved when the other three don't "act normal" - Marco has known Jake his whole life, he knows Jake wouldn't try to hurt Rachel, but in that moment he thought Jake was hurting Rachel. I could be reaching, but it tells me Marco might have been noticing how "off" Jake has been since he started having visions. Jake also makes note: "Actually, I was relieved to see everyone behaving normally. It's when Cassie isn't talking about animals and Marco and Rachel aren't teasing each other that you have to worry." We know from the other kids books that they're often doing exactly what Jake is here: pretending they're okay by playing the roles everyone knows them in. It's not directly stated, but in my mind, the idea that this specific four know each other so well that they adjust their reactions in order to try and keep the other three from worrying / bring back that "normal" in such an "abnormal" situation is a) what I believed was happening here and b) just really really interesting to me. Four kids trying desperately to pretend they're not cracking so the people who know them best don't also fall apart.

(We're told Jake & Marco and Rachel & Cassie weren't exactly a group before they became Animorphs, but considering we know: Jake & Marco and Rachel & Cassie are a pair of "best friends since forever", Jake and Rachel are cousins, Jake has had a crush on Cassie since before the series start, and Marco and Rachel are comfortable enough to tease each other does tell you there's at least a framework of a group dynamic that already existed.)

(Sorry to Tobias and Ax with that one, since those two are only recent additions.)

5. Fun little fucked up Animorphs moments: "hey Jake you might be the only real person in this timeline, the rest of us don't actually exist".

6. Even more fun: "Visser 3 turns into a monster and literally starts to eat the kids". The 90s were a great time.

"<It's swallowing them!> Tobias cried. <Oh, no! NO! It has a mouth. Huge! Help them!>"

7. And the most fun: "Jake had to literally die in order to put the timeline back right because of the paradox issue".

"<It is impossible for one person to be in two places at once. In theory. So if you... eliminate... one of the two, well, the consciousness snaps back together. I think what happened, Prince Jake, is that you died.>
I felt a chill run up my spine."

ME TOO, BUDDY. As I said on my Twitter, I really should have started a "death / near death" count for these kids, especially after Marco was Extra Gored last book.

Content Warnings