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missflyer 's review for:
The Answer
by K.A. Applegate
These Animorphs reviews are getting harder and harder to write. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say – you can see I do by all the comments I associate with the selected quotes -- but that I don’t know the words to say it, really. Most all of the loose ends have been tied up, and now, the entire war is going into the endgame. Loyalties have been tested, moral lines are being crossed, betrayals old and new coming to light…The closer we get to the end – of the series, of the war - the more broken the Animorphs seem. The internal rifts are growing, and I think it is in large part thanks to their comfort with working as a team, with being a well-oiled military machine, that they are holding together at all.
Maybe this is in part because I took a nearly 3 week break between reading #52 and reading #53 to read some other books, but I also feel a lot more disconnected from the series. Like this book: I read it, I took my time and read it slowly, digesting it as I went, and yet I barely feel like I read it at all; I feel like the story did not quite “stick” solidly in my mind as earlier books did. And that is not anything against the story, or the plot, or any shortcoming on the book’s/author’s part – far from it. I am more inclined to think that it is because I know the end is coming. I know and a few other depressing things about “after”, and I am subconsciously distancing myself from the story/characters to protect myself from what is coming. The inevitable end – the end without hope -- is nigh, and I don’t know if I can handle it. Fifteen years after I first read it, remembering some of the end of the series … now I see all the arrows pointing to the inevitability if it all, and I just don’t know how to handle it -- even today, at 26 years old. I’ve become so attached to the Animorphs and their world, and I don’t really want to see what is coming happen (again).
Anyways, back to the book. I believe this is the last book narrated by only one Animorph, and it is Jake. Which is really fitting, as the series started with him being thrust into leadership, and now it is “ending” with him making some final decisions. He has grown from merely being the reluctant leader who asks for votes as often as possible to the only possible leader who, while taking in the input of others, is making the final, definitive decisions. He is General Jake, now more than ever. He is crossing lines left and right, he is seeing the clear bright line from A to Z, and he is being ruthless in his pursuit of victory. But at what cost will this victory come? He has already lost so much of himself by crossing moral lines – as have the other Animorphs -- and the losses continue to mount ever higher. Making deals with Taxxons, making deals with Yeerks, using all of his soldiers and then some – it is all coming down to this.
I have much more to say about individual scenes in the quotes/comments section – SO MUCH happens in this book - and it just would not do justice to the book to try to summarize it any further here, I don’t think. Also, you might note that my selected “summary” quote for this book is considerably longer than any other quote I have done. It is longer than I would like, but the more I reviewed all the quotes I typed up, the more I realized that this was really the only one which fit the entire book, the one which represents the culmination of everything that has happened before and during this installment.
One of those rare, perfect moments when a dozen nagging questions, an infinity of details, simply fall perfectly into place and form a single clear picture.
It took my breath away. The perfection of it. The pure, ruthless perfection of it.
All the quotes under the spoiler, for obvious reasons.
I’m a sixteen-year-old kid named Jake Berenson, and I am the leader of the Animorphs. – page 9 – So I figured right, that they had been fighting about three years based on how the books unfolded without regard for publication dates or anything like that. (small “Yay I was right!” moment.)
I’ve felt sorry for myself at times. Maybe anyone would, in my spot.
But I had to put all that aside now. I had to put it all aside. Not because I was suddenly convinced that I deserved the power, was worthy of it. That wasn’t it. I knew better than to get too caught up in the myth of Mighty Jake the Yeerk Killer.
I had given up soul-searching because I realized now that it was simply too late. Way past too late. The battle had become a war. And I was, for better or worse, the only leader we had.
From here on out the second-guessing, the legitimate doubts, and the self-indulgent whining, they were over. Save them for my old age in the unlikely event that I ever have an old age. – page 9 – That is not good, that Jake would give up his soul-searching – that is yet another step down the path to losing himself completely to this war.
Marco’s mom was free of her Yeerk slave master […] That Visser One was dead and his human host […] – page11 – But that Visser One was a female Yeerk; Eva even referred to her as a “she” as recently book #52…
Cassie had let Tom take the morphing cube. Perhaps she had done so because to her the alternative was worse: She feared for me, for my soul I guess, if I was forced to kill my own brother.
Not good enough. Not for me. All that counted now was that we win, and Cassie, maybe for the most decent of motives, had hurt us badly.
I loved Cassie. Always had. Still did. But there was this thing between us now. – page 12 – (emphasis added)
“You don’t just dismiss us!” Rachel’s mom yelled.
“Sure he does, Mom,” Rachel said cheerfully.
“I need Rachel, Marco, Tobias, Ax, Toby, James, and Eva,” I said.
I hadn’t meant to exclude Cassie. I really hadn’t. But it was too late. She looked like I’d hit her. She blinked and turned quickly away, covering the moment with aimless chatter to her parents.
Tobias gave me a dirty look. And if you think a red-tailed hawk’s gaze is always a dirty look, you’re close to being right. Still, I knew Tobias was mad at me. Everyone was.
[…] There was nothing to be done now. I couldn’t go running after Cassie. The insult had been delivered. There was no taking it back now. – page 18-19 – Guess Rachel’s mom is still adjusting to Jake being leader, despite her previous endorsement of him to the army guy in the last book. And Tobias is … he seems very protective of keeping the group together as of late. Possibly more so than Cassie, even. Or at least, in a different way – he gets angry about it and makes sure Jake knows he is angry, whereas Cassie gets more generally emotional.
< They’re building a new Yeerk pool, > Tobias reported. < Not so much a cave like the old one. More like they’re digging a small lake and going to let it be open. Taxxons are all over the place, like maggots on a piece of roadkill. >
I could see that Marco was preparing some witty remark on the fact that Tobias was unusually familiar with roadkill. I shot him a look and he sighed, letting it go. – page 23 – I don’t think I caught this the first time, but later I realized: this is subtly letting us know that Tobias doesn’t even have time to properly hunt – he’s been relying on roadkill and other carrion to keep fed since the war ratcheted up into high gear. The human Animorphs are not the only ones who have been greatly affected by having to pull out of 'normal' society/their 'normal' lives.
The general looked amused. “[…] You’re a kid who can turn into a bug. I take my orders from the chain of command, and that ain’t you.”
It was a nice try, but I’ve been intimidated by the best. After you stand up to the likes of Andalites, Visser One, and Crayak, you don’t quiver just because some guy has stars on his shoulders.
[…] The general’s face was growing redder the more I talked. But, like I say, you want scary? Visser One has a tendency to morph into huge, murdering alien beasts. Red face? Not even in the game. – page 30 – Can I also just say, I love that it took the general not one, not two, but four times of Jake demorphing from a bug in front of him before he listened to Jake?
[During the Civil War,] Lincoln had figured it out earlier than most [that it was not a chess game of capture the city] and his generals; Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan made it happen.
[…] They burned enemy homes and farms. […] They starved the enemy.
They realized that warfare was no longer about chivalry and honor, but about killing the enemy. Find the enemy, kill the enemy. Kill so many of them that those who are left alive lose their will to fight on. Do whatever it takes.
That’s the way war has been ever since. – page 45-46 – And now, that is the war you and the Animorphs are fighting. You tried to be honorable and chivalrous, but it hasn’t worked overall. Now it’s time to change the rules.
[After discussing the plans to attack the Taxxons digging the new Yeerk pool.] No one said anything. I was braced for something from Cassie. Surely she would raise some sort of moral objection to this straightforward slaughter. But she remained silent. Hard to know what she would object to. It was always a question of balance for her, I guess. She was committed to winning, believed in our cause, understood there would be terrible things to be done. But she found some things, and not other things, to be over the line. Me, I barely knew where the line was anymore. I’d come to depend on Cassie to keep me from going to far.
Nothing from Cassie. – page 49 – I almost think Cassie has lost some confidence in her abilities to make decisions for the group. Or maybe it is just because she realizes that her decisions are too moralizing for what they have to do in order to win.
And there were Taxxons, three of them. […] < Please do not attack, we mean you no harm. > -- page 55 – Arbron! (BTW: Just how long are Taxxon lifespans, anyways??)
[Jake asks if they lost anyone in the fight at the new Yeerk pool, and Marco answers,] “Yeah. Three of Toby’s people. One of James’s people, the guy named Ray. And you, or so we thought.” – page 60 – They’ve been waiting for losses on their side, and here are several. Also…I can’t help but wonder if Ray dying is another nod to dying later.
[Cassie prompts the truth out of Ax about his communications with the Andalite fleet and their plans to quarantine Earth.] “Now can I kill him?” Rachel demanded.
I wasn’t far from letting her. I was furious. Betrayed! Ax had used our limited communicator to chat with his people? Behind our backs?
Cassie said, “Ax has already defied them. They ordered him to stop our attack on the Yeerk pool. He disobeyed.”
< You spied on me? > Ax asked her.
“I’m an Animorph, Ax,” Cassie answered. “A flea on your back when you would sneak out of camp.” – page 68 – Oh, that is sneaky, even more so than how Tobias spied on him. If you can’t trust your friends at this point, who can you trust? And here I thought the team had been getting back together…
[Cassie describes the anaconda’s laconic way of life to Jake, who responds,] “Florida retirement for Taxxons.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, let’s get this over with,” I said reluctantly.
“It’s perfectly safe,” Cassie said condescendingly.
“It’s a snake. It’s a snake the size of [a] palm tree.”
“Come on.” She put her arm through mine and drew me away toward the access corridor behind the cages. – page 74 – Nice bit of humor, and good to see them ‘back together’ like this, too. They both needed - need - it.
“Cassie, you ever wonder what happens if we win? You ever think about that?”
“All the time.”
“Nothing will ever be the same. People will know the galaxy is full of life, full of intelligent species. We’ll have this huge rush of technological change. There’ll be nothing to stop us from being a space-traveling species. Humans on the moon, on Mars, maybe colonizing planets all around the galaxy. And there’s the morphing technology. Can you imagine what that’s going to mean?”
Cassie nodded. “I guess I don’t think about that stuff so much. I guess I think more about us. You and me. And all of us.”
I took her in my arms. The anaconda’s habitat was probably not the most romantic place on Earth, but it felt safe. “You know I love you.”
“I love you too, Jake,” she said, and put her head on my shoulder. – page 74-75 – …and the rest of this conversation. It’s so…reluctantly hopeful. They still have dreams of some sort of normalcy after all. I also find it interesting how Jake makes a point of saying that he is not like Rachel, that he didn’t fall in love with the fight. But… they are cousins, they share blood, and well … with his decisions later, though he does not seem to have any love for the fight, he is good at it …
For the first time I could taste the faint possibility of actual victory, despite the probable Andalite betrayal. The Taxxons might be joining us! For so long I’d fought with no hope at all.
I should be excited.
I should be happy. – page 76-77 – But you’re not excited or happy, are you, Jake? Because after all you have seen and done, this hope is more of a false hope than a real, solid hope. It’s almost a dream.
< Hey, there’s a key in the ignition. See if the radio works, > Marco suggested. – page 79 – Um, I’m sorry, but he’s a flea. He can’t see the ignition to know that there’s a key there. Should be rephrased: Hey, maybe there’s a key in the ignition. (If so,) see if the radio works.
[Tom] grinned at me and said, “They’ll carve your sanctimonious face up on Mount Rushmore, Jake-Boy. You’ll be the savior of the human race.” – page 93 – So, the Drode and Crayak are not the only ones who use the word “sanctimonious” for Jake… keep linking things together, Ms. Applegate…
The keys were in my hands.
I could win. We could win.
If General Doubleday would provide the diversion. If the Taxxons would rally to us. […etc.]
Five “ifs.” A lot. But at least the number of “ifs” was a finite number.
A sixth “if”: If Tom’s Yeerk was telling the truth. – page 95 – Pretty stark laying out of the “ifs” of Jake’s plan – and an interesting comparison, Jake potentially having the “keys to win” in his hands – but at what cost?
I took a moment to digest that. [Cassie] was actually blaming herself. < Cassie, these things happen. You can’t always predict the results of the things you do. You try your best, take your best shot, and maybe it comes out right, and maybe it comes out … I don’t know, confused. > -- page 97 – Jake knows this all too well by now. His entire life has become about trying his best and hoping things come out right in the end.
< It’s never completely clean, Cassie. Doesn’t work that way. But you try your best to keep it clean. The fact that you know you’ll be dragged in the gutter doesn’t mean you don’t try like hell to stay out of it. You don’t get a lot of straight-up good or evil choices. You get shades of gray. I mean, we started this war thinking we’d hold on till the great and glorious Andalites came to rescue us. Now we’re making deals with Taxxons and Yeerks to gain a victory fast enough to keep the great and glorious Andalites from making their own shades-of-gray decision. >
< What are you going to do? > Cassie asked.
< I’m going to win, > I said. But I didn’t believe it. Why? It was all there. It was all possible at least. – page 97-98 – More of what Jake has learned throughout this war: “It’s never completely clean.” Not to mention, this entire little speech is also like him justifying to himself everything they have done thus far. And him saying, “I’m going to win,” sounds to me a little like he is also alluding to the whole “Do whatever it takes” to win – the first four words on the road to hell, as Rachel pointed out not too long ago. Side note: these last ten or so books have used “hell” quite a few times – definitely more than a middle-grade book should use it. All the more evidence that after book 30 or so, this series definitely graduated into solid young adult levels not only for themes, but also for language. (I also checked with my mom, to see if I had mentioned the usage of “hell” to her as a 10/11 year old, and she said I did – and she checked the context, found the context appropriate, and did not stop me from continuing to read Animorphs.)
It came to me all at once that I could beat [Tom]. Use him and beat him.
One of those rare, perfect moments when a dozen nagging questions, an infinity of details, simply fall perfectly into place and form a single clear picture.
It took my breath away. The perfection of it. The pure, ruthless perfection of it.
All I had to do was send my friends to die.
Cassie was still talking to me, but I didn’t hear her words. I had seen the vision. I could see the pure, straight line from point A to point Z. – page 99-100 – This sounds so much like a combination of Marco and Rachel being channeled by Jake, to see the course of action he needs to set into motion. Truly, he is a lot more like his cousin and his best friend than maybe even he realized.
I explained what I wanted [Rachel] to do.
< You’re sure, Jake? > she asked solemnly after I had finished. < Because if you tell me “Go!” I’ll follow your orders. You know what that means. >
< Yeah, Rachel, I know what it means. >
Still she hesitated. < It won’t be the Yeerk, Jake. It’ll be Tom. It’ll be him. >
< I know that, > I said. < And I … if it happens, if it comes down that way, I don’t have a plan for getting you out. You’d be on your own. >
< That’s how I like it. > -- page 101 – See, the line with Rachel is being definitely crossed right her. Rachel is Jake’s sword, his ruthless weapon of death. “Get Rachel.”
Continued in the comments, again...
Maybe this is in part because I took a nearly 3 week break between reading #52 and reading #53 to read some other books, but I also feel a lot more disconnected from the series. Like this book: I read it, I took my time and read it slowly, digesting it as I went, and yet I barely feel like I read it at all; I feel like the story did not quite “stick” solidly in my mind as earlier books did. And that is not anything against the story, or the plot, or any shortcoming on the book’s/author’s part – far from it. I am more inclined to think that it is because I know the end is coming. I know
Spoiler
which character diesAnyways, back to the book. I believe this is the last book narrated by only one Animorph, and it is Jake. Which is really fitting, as the series started with him being thrust into leadership, and now it is “ending” with him making some final decisions. He has grown from merely being the reluctant leader who asks for votes as often as possible to the only possible leader who, while taking in the input of others, is making the final, definitive decisions. He is General Jake, now more than ever. He is crossing lines left and right, he is seeing the clear bright line from A to Z, and he is being ruthless in his pursuit of victory. But at what cost will this victory come? He has already lost so much of himself by crossing moral lines – as have the other Animorphs -- and the losses continue to mount ever higher. Making deals with Taxxons, making deals with Yeerks, using all of his soldiers and then some – it is all coming down to this.
I have much more to say about individual scenes in the quotes/comments section – SO MUCH happens in this book - and it just would not do justice to the book to try to summarize it any further here, I don’t think. Also, you might note that my selected “summary” quote for this book is considerably longer than any other quote I have done. It is longer than I would like, but the more I reviewed all the quotes I typed up, the more I realized that this was really the only one which fit the entire book, the one which represents the culmination of everything that has happened before and during this installment.
One of those rare, perfect moments when a dozen nagging questions, an infinity of details, simply fall perfectly into place and form a single clear picture.
It took my breath away. The perfection of it. The pure, ruthless perfection of it.
Spoiler
All I had to do was send my friends to die.All the quotes under the spoiler, for obvious reasons.
Spoiler
I’ve fought them for more than three years. I was just thirteen when I started. I’m sixteen now, though that fact, like so many facts, has been deliberately obscured in the secret accounts we’ve kept.I’m a sixteen-year-old kid named Jake Berenson, and I am the leader of the Animorphs. – page 9 – So I figured right, that they had been fighting about three years based on how the books unfolded without regard for publication dates or anything like that. (small “Yay I was right!” moment.)
I’ve felt sorry for myself at times. Maybe anyone would, in my spot.
But I had to put all that aside now. I had to put it all aside. Not because I was suddenly convinced that I deserved the power, was worthy of it. That wasn’t it. I knew better than to get too caught up in the myth of Mighty Jake the Yeerk Killer.
I had given up soul-searching because I realized now that it was simply too late. Way past too late. The battle had become a war. And I was, for better or worse, the only leader we had.
From here on out the second-guessing, the legitimate doubts, and the self-indulgent whining, they were over. Save them for my old age in the unlikely event that I ever have an old age. – page 9 – That is not good, that Jake would give up his soul-searching – that is yet another step down the path to losing himself completely to this war.
Marco’s mom was free of her Yeerk slave master […] That Visser One was dead and his human host […] – page11 – But that Visser One was a female Yeerk; Eva even referred to her as a “she” as recently book #52…
Cassie had let Tom take the morphing cube. Perhaps she had done so because to her the alternative was worse: She feared for me, for my soul I guess, if I was forced to kill my own brother.
Not good enough. Not for me. All that counted now was that we win, and Cassie, maybe for the most decent of motives, had hurt us badly.
I loved Cassie. Always had. Still did. But there was this thing between us now. – page 12 – (emphasis added)
“You don’t just dismiss us!” Rachel’s mom yelled.
“Sure he does, Mom,” Rachel said cheerfully.
“I need Rachel, Marco, Tobias, Ax, Toby, James, and Eva,” I said.
I hadn’t meant to exclude Cassie. I really hadn’t. But it was too late. She looked like I’d hit her. She blinked and turned quickly away, covering the moment with aimless chatter to her parents.
Tobias gave me a dirty look. And if you think a red-tailed hawk’s gaze is always a dirty look, you’re close to being right. Still, I knew Tobias was mad at me. Everyone was.
[…] There was nothing to be done now. I couldn’t go running after Cassie. The insult had been delivered. There was no taking it back now. – page 18-19 – Guess Rachel’s mom is still adjusting to Jake being leader, despite her previous endorsement of him to the army guy in the last book. And Tobias is … he seems very protective of keeping the group together as of late. Possibly more so than Cassie, even. Or at least, in a different way – he gets angry about it and makes sure Jake knows he is angry, whereas Cassie gets more generally emotional.
< They’re building a new Yeerk pool, > Tobias reported. < Not so much a cave like the old one. More like they’re digging a small lake and going to let it be open. Taxxons are all over the place, like maggots on a piece of roadkill. >
I could see that Marco was preparing some witty remark on the fact that Tobias was unusually familiar with roadkill. I shot him a look and he sighed, letting it go. – page 23 – I don’t think I caught this the first time, but later I realized: this is subtly letting us know that Tobias doesn’t even have time to properly hunt – he’s been relying on roadkill and other carrion to keep fed since the war ratcheted up into high gear. The human Animorphs are not the only ones who have been greatly affected by having to pull out of 'normal' society/their 'normal' lives.
The general looked amused. “[…] You’re a kid who can turn into a bug. I take my orders from the chain of command, and that ain’t you.”
It was a nice try, but I’ve been intimidated by the best. After you stand up to the likes of Andalites, Visser One, and Crayak, you don’t quiver just because some guy has stars on his shoulders.
[…] The general’s face was growing redder the more I talked. But, like I say, you want scary? Visser One has a tendency to morph into huge, murdering alien beasts. Red face? Not even in the game. – page 30 – Can I also just say, I love that it took the general not one, not two, but four times of Jake demorphing from a bug in front of him before he listened to Jake?
[During the Civil War,] Lincoln had figured it out earlier than most [that it was not a chess game of capture the city] and his generals; Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan made it happen.
[…] They burned enemy homes and farms. […] They starved the enemy.
They realized that warfare was no longer about chivalry and honor, but about killing the enemy. Find the enemy, kill the enemy. Kill so many of them that those who are left alive lose their will to fight on. Do whatever it takes.
That’s the way war has been ever since. – page 45-46 – And now, that is the war you and the Animorphs are fighting. You tried to be honorable and chivalrous, but it hasn’t worked overall. Now it’s time to change the rules.
[After discussing the plans to attack the Taxxons digging the new Yeerk pool.] No one said anything. I was braced for something from Cassie. Surely she would raise some sort of moral objection to this straightforward slaughter. But she remained silent. Hard to know what she would object to. It was always a question of balance for her, I guess. She was committed to winning, believed in our cause, understood there would be terrible things to be done. But she found some things, and not other things, to be over the line. Me, I barely knew where the line was anymore. I’d come to depend on Cassie to keep me from going to far.
Nothing from Cassie. – page 49 – I almost think Cassie has lost some confidence in her abilities to make decisions for the group. Or maybe it is just because she realizes that her decisions are too moralizing for what they have to do in order to win.
And there were Taxxons, three of them. […] < Please do not attack, we mean you no harm. > -- page 55 – Arbron! (BTW: Just how long are Taxxon lifespans, anyways??)
[Jake asks if they lost anyone in the fight at the new Yeerk pool, and Marco answers,] “Yeah. Three of Toby’s people. One of James’s people, the guy named Ray. And you, or so we thought.” – page 60 – They’ve been waiting for losses on their side, and here are several. Also…I can’t help but wonder if Ray dying is another nod to
Spoiler
Rachel (his name is the first syllable of hers, for one)[Cassie prompts the truth out of Ax about his communications with the Andalite fleet and their plans to quarantine Earth.] “Now can I kill him?” Rachel demanded.
I wasn’t far from letting her. I was furious. Betrayed! Ax had used our limited communicator to chat with his people? Behind our backs?
Cassie said, “Ax has already defied them. They ordered him to stop our attack on the Yeerk pool. He disobeyed.”
< You spied on me? > Ax asked her.
“I’m an Animorph, Ax,” Cassie answered. “A flea on your back when you would sneak out of camp.” – page 68 – Oh, that is sneaky, even more so than how Tobias spied on him. If you can’t trust your friends at this point, who can you trust? And here I thought the team had been getting back together…
[Cassie describes the anaconda’s laconic way of life to Jake, who responds,] “Florida retirement for Taxxons.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, let’s get this over with,” I said reluctantly.
“It’s perfectly safe,” Cassie said condescendingly.
“It’s a snake. It’s a snake the size of [a] palm tree.”
“Come on.” She put her arm through mine and drew me away toward the access corridor behind the cages. – page 74 – Nice bit of humor, and good to see them ‘back together’ like this, too. They both needed - need - it.
“Cassie, you ever wonder what happens if we win? You ever think about that?”
“All the time.”
“Nothing will ever be the same. People will know the galaxy is full of life, full of intelligent species. We’ll have this huge rush of technological change. There’ll be nothing to stop us from being a space-traveling species. Humans on the moon, on Mars, maybe colonizing planets all around the galaxy. And there’s the morphing technology. Can you imagine what that’s going to mean?”
Cassie nodded. “I guess I don’t think about that stuff so much. I guess I think more about us. You and me. And all of us.”
I took her in my arms. The anaconda’s habitat was probably not the most romantic place on Earth, but it felt safe. “You know I love you.”
“I love you too, Jake,” she said, and put her head on my shoulder. – page 74-75 – …and the rest of this conversation. It’s so…reluctantly hopeful. They still have dreams of some sort of normalcy after all. I also find it interesting how Jake makes a point of saying that he is not like Rachel, that he didn’t fall in love with the fight. But… they are cousins, they share blood, and well … with his decisions later, though he does not seem to have any love for the fight, he is good at it …
For the first time I could taste the faint possibility of actual victory, despite the probable Andalite betrayal. The Taxxons might be joining us! For so long I’d fought with no hope at all.
I should be excited.
I should be happy. – page 76-77 – But you’re not excited or happy, are you, Jake? Because after all you have seen and done, this hope is more of a false hope than a real, solid hope. It’s almost a dream.
< Hey, there’s a key in the ignition. See if the radio works, > Marco suggested. – page 79 – Um, I’m sorry, but he’s a flea. He can’t see the ignition to know that there’s a key there. Should be rephrased: Hey, maybe there’s a key in the ignition. (If so,) see if the radio works.
[Tom] grinned at me and said, “They’ll carve your sanctimonious face up on Mount Rushmore, Jake-Boy. You’ll be the savior of the human race.” – page 93 – So, the Drode and Crayak are not the only ones who use the word “sanctimonious” for Jake… keep linking things together, Ms. Applegate…
The keys were in my hands.
I could win. We could win.
If General Doubleday would provide the diversion. If the Taxxons would rally to us. […etc.]
Five “ifs.” A lot. But at least the number of “ifs” was a finite number.
A sixth “if”: If Tom’s Yeerk was telling the truth. – page 95 – Pretty stark laying out of the “ifs” of Jake’s plan – and an interesting comparison, Jake potentially having the “keys to win” in his hands – but at what cost?
I took a moment to digest that. [Cassie] was actually blaming herself. < Cassie, these things happen. You can’t always predict the results of the things you do. You try your best, take your best shot, and maybe it comes out right, and maybe it comes out … I don’t know, confused. > -- page 97 – Jake knows this all too well by now. His entire life has become about trying his best and hoping things come out right in the end.
< It’s never completely clean, Cassie. Doesn’t work that way. But you try your best to keep it clean. The fact that you know you’ll be dragged in the gutter doesn’t mean you don’t try like hell to stay out of it. You don’t get a lot of straight-up good or evil choices. You get shades of gray. I mean, we started this war thinking we’d hold on till the great and glorious Andalites came to rescue us. Now we’re making deals with Taxxons and Yeerks to gain a victory fast enough to keep the great and glorious Andalites from making their own shades-of-gray decision. >
< What are you going to do? > Cassie asked.
< I’m going to win, > I said. But I didn’t believe it. Why? It was all there. It was all possible at least. – page 97-98 – More of what Jake has learned throughout this war: “It’s never completely clean.” Not to mention, this entire little speech is also like him justifying to himself everything they have done thus far. And him saying, “I’m going to win,” sounds to me a little like he is also alluding to the whole “Do whatever it takes” to win – the first four words on the road to hell, as Rachel pointed out not too long ago. Side note: these last ten or so books have used “hell” quite a few times – definitely more than a middle-grade book should use it. All the more evidence that after book 30 or so, this series definitely graduated into solid young adult levels not only for themes, but also for language. (I also checked with my mom, to see if I had mentioned the usage of “hell” to her as a 10/11 year old, and she said I did – and she checked the context, found the context appropriate, and did not stop me from continuing to read Animorphs.)
It came to me all at once that I could beat [Tom]. Use him and beat him.
One of those rare, perfect moments when a dozen nagging questions, an infinity of details, simply fall perfectly into place and form a single clear picture.
It took my breath away. The perfection of it. The pure, ruthless perfection of it.
All I had to do was send my friends to die.
Cassie was still talking to me, but I didn’t hear her words. I had seen the vision. I could see the pure, straight line from point A to point Z. – page 99-100 – This sounds so much like a combination of Marco and Rachel being channeled by Jake, to see the course of action he needs to set into motion. Truly, he is a lot more like his cousin and his best friend than maybe even he realized.
I explained what I wanted [Rachel] to do.
< You’re sure, Jake? > she asked solemnly after I had finished. < Because if you tell me “Go!” I’ll follow your orders. You know what that means. >
< Yeah, Rachel, I know what it means. >
Still she hesitated. < It won’t be the Yeerk, Jake. It’ll be Tom. It’ll be him. >
< I know that, > I said. < And I … if it happens, if it comes down that way, I don’t have a plan for getting you out. You’d be on your own. >
< That’s how I like it. > -- page 101 – See, the line with Rachel is being definitely crossed right her. Rachel is Jake’s sword, his ruthless weapon of death. “Get Rachel.”
Continued in the comments, again...