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Animorphs #17
The Underground
What's tasty, good for you, and only takes sixty seconds to make? Oatmeal. And it's making the Yeerks more than a little crazy. Now Rachel, the other Animorphs, and Ax have a new weapon against the Yeerks. Sounds good, right?Wrong. Because it means another trip to the Yeerk pool. And the possibility of running into Visser Three. And of not being able to get back up to the surface. The Animorphs and Ax have taken chances before and been very lucky. But this time their luck may be about to run out. . . .
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
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937 people want to read
About the author
K.A. Applegate
251 books489 followersalso published under the name Katherine Applegate
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September 14, 2015
Haters gonna hate, but I don’t care: oatmeal is a fantastic weakness. I mean, think about some of the weaknesses enemies or superheroes have had in other stories. Kryptonite? Water? Tricking them into saying their names backwards? Country music? Oatmeal is a legit weakness—and Applegate very specifically restricts it to maple and ginger instant oatmeal. Throw in the additional snag that it doesn’t kill a Yeerk, just renders the Yeerk mad and keeps it from needing Kandrona rays, and you have the perfect kind of imperfect weapon. The Underground is intense in many ways, and the fact the Animorphs have what amounts to a ten-minute discussion about biological warfare is one of them.
See, it’s really easy to see the words “instant oatmeal turns out to be the new superweapon to fight the Yeerks” and have your eyes glaze over and your brain turn off. It sounds silly; it sounds like something you’d find in a kids’ book. Fine for a kid but not so interesting for adults, right? It’s tempting to dismiss this book as something like The Unknown for the level of silliness it approaches. But that would be underestimating it, and doing the story a disservice.
In this, the Silver Age of Animorphs, which began in #9: The Secret , the Animorphs have accepted their roles in the war against the Yeerks but now have to come to terms with what waging war means for them as individuals. It’s like making that ideological jump from “joining up for the army” and “deploying overseas.” Except the Animorphs aren’t getting a regular stipend, danger pay, furloughs—and they’re waging war on their own turf. I guess it’s more like French WWII resistance fighters than anything else.
Instant oatmeal presents the Animorphs with a massive opportunity. But it’s also another moral dilemma, something Applegate is not shy about introducing. If the Animorphs expose more Controllers to instant oatmeal, it will drive their Yeerks insane. But the Yeerks will also be able to survive inside their hosts indefinitely without returning to the pool for Kandrona rays. Neutralizing Controllers means condemning those hosts to living with a mad Yeerk, perhaps for the rest of their lives. This might seem preferable to life as a Controller or death, but we see firsthand through George Edelman that this is not something to be taken lightly.
I love that Applegate has various Animorphs espouse different opinions on the matter, and that she links it into the idea of the American Civil War, and what might have happened if the two sides reached a compromise where the Confederacy only gave up “some” of its slaves. It’s interesting that when, later in the book, Cassie hits upon the idea of dumping the oatmeal directly into the Yeerk pool, no one questions the morality of driving hundreds, potentially thousands, of Yeerks insane. (Remember this is only a few books since The Andalite Chronicles, where we watched Elfangor wrestle with the morality of killing defenseless Yeerks in cold blood. Is driving Yeerks insane not as bad?)
Anyway, I want to highlight one other important part of The Underground. Rachel and the others pretty much go tête-à-tête with Visser Three here … and win. I mean, remember how at the beginning of the series, the Animorphs would just barge into a situation without much of a plan—or a very flimsy plan, which would go awry—and fight their way out? Their plan in this one is meticulous. It does go awry, but they cope with it spectacularly. They stare down Visser Three, essentially back him into a corner, and get away. This is a far cry from nearly getting killed until the Ellimist rescued them in #8: The Stranger .
I love seeing this maturation of the Animorphs as a team. Visser Three is a formidable threat, but he can be beaten. He can be outsmarted and outmaneuvered—and that’s exactly what they do here. Amidst the seriousness of The Underground’s main plot, we see a glimmer of hope for the future.
But at what cost to the Animorphs?
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #16: The Warning | #18: The Decision →
See, it’s really easy to see the words “instant oatmeal turns out to be the new superweapon to fight the Yeerks” and have your eyes glaze over and your brain turn off. It sounds silly; it sounds like something you’d find in a kids’ book. Fine for a kid but not so interesting for adults, right? It’s tempting to dismiss this book as something like The Unknown for the level of silliness it approaches. But that would be underestimating it, and doing the story a disservice.
In this, the Silver Age of Animorphs, which began in #9: The Secret , the Animorphs have accepted their roles in the war against the Yeerks but now have to come to terms with what waging war means for them as individuals. It’s like making that ideological jump from “joining up for the army” and “deploying overseas.” Except the Animorphs aren’t getting a regular stipend, danger pay, furloughs—and they’re waging war on their own turf. I guess it’s more like French WWII resistance fighters than anything else.
Instant oatmeal presents the Animorphs with a massive opportunity. But it’s also another moral dilemma, something Applegate is not shy about introducing. If the Animorphs expose more Controllers to instant oatmeal, it will drive their Yeerks insane. But the Yeerks will also be able to survive inside their hosts indefinitely without returning to the pool for Kandrona rays. Neutralizing Controllers means condemning those hosts to living with a mad Yeerk, perhaps for the rest of their lives. This might seem preferable to life as a Controller or death, but we see firsthand through George Edelman that this is not something to be taken lightly.
I love that Applegate has various Animorphs espouse different opinions on the matter, and that she links it into the idea of the American Civil War, and what might have happened if the two sides reached a compromise where the Confederacy only gave up “some” of its slaves. It’s interesting that when, later in the book, Cassie hits upon the idea of dumping the oatmeal directly into the Yeerk pool, no one questions the morality of driving hundreds, potentially thousands, of Yeerks insane. (Remember this is only a few books since The Andalite Chronicles, where we watched Elfangor wrestle with the morality of killing defenseless Yeerks in cold blood. Is driving Yeerks insane not as bad?)
Anyway, I want to highlight one other important part of The Underground. Rachel and the others pretty much go tête-à-tête with Visser Three here … and win. I mean, remember how at the beginning of the series, the Animorphs would just barge into a situation without much of a plan—or a very flimsy plan, which would go awry—and fight their way out? Their plan in this one is meticulous. It does go awry, but they cope with it spectacularly. They stare down Visser Three, essentially back him into a corner, and get away. This is a far cry from nearly getting killed until the Ellimist rescued them in #8: The Stranger .
I love seeing this maturation of the Animorphs as a team. Visser Three is a formidable threat, but he can be beaten. He can be outsmarted and outmaneuvered—and that’s exactly what they do here. Amidst the seriousness of The Underground’s main plot, we see a glimmer of hope for the future.
But at what cost to the Animorphs?
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #16: The Warning | #18: The Decision →
September 7, 2017
Apparently instant oatmeal (maple ginger instant oatmeal, to be precise) is like Yeerk heroin, so the Animorphs decide to run a mission down to the Yeerk pool, and see how many Yeerks they can get addicted to it (a process which eventually drives them mad). Man, just typing it out like that makes me feel like their whole plan was super fucked up, and the fact that no one really put up more than a token resistance to it is NOT a good sign for both the morale and morality of our heroes.
Aside from the oatmeal complication, this is actually a pretty straightforward "break into the Yeerk Pool and cause some havoc" story (which we've had several examples of by now). They use mole morphs to dig a tunnel into the Yeerk pool, after new tech at the normal entrances means they have to find another way in. It takes them a week to dig the tunnel, at which point they head down it. This brings them to a bat cave, where they switch morphs and enter the Yeerk pool. Chaos ensues.
There really isn't much under the surface here. There are two main thematic threads here, and none of them are hit upon all that hard. This is Rachel's book, and we do get a little insight into her psyche, that even when she seems gung-ho during missions, and is always the person who says "let's do it", she isn't always truly enthusiastic. The warrior persona is a role she lives with now, and she feels pressure to maintain it, even while dealing with the same fears and traumas the others are.
The other thing is something I already mentioned above, and that's the slippery slope our heroes have most definitely started on. When does an action in war stop being justifiable? How do you balance actions necessary to defeating your enemy, without descending to their level? (Assuming of course that your enemy is at fault, or to blame.) Drugging a thousand Yeerks with oatmeal, condemning their hosts to lives never free of the Yeerk in their heads, most likely spent institutionalized due to the outbursts from the mad Yeerk that can't be controlled. Even Cassie can't say for sure whether what they're doing is right or wrong.
A little thing that bothered me: Rachel saves a man from committing suicide at the beginning of the book, and then she makes some terrible comments about people who commit suicide that at best portray a stunningly immature understand of why people kill themselves, and at worst betrays the author's own feelings regarding the subject. I know this book was written over twenty years ago now, and we definitely weren't having discussions in the open about mental illness and depression like we do now (though we still have a LONG way to go), but Rachel's attitude is never called out, and the other characters make some callous jokes about insanity as well, so the overall impression is that Applegate just didn't think those comments were a big deal. (This is especially surprising since she's normally a sensitive writer who gives great consideration to tough topics.)
Overall, this one didn't work for me that well. The silly premise was not quite overcome, and the books that are just straight up action are never going to be my favorite.
Next up: Ax, mosquitoes, and the mysterious z-space!
[3.5 stars]
Aside from the oatmeal complication, this is actually a pretty straightforward "break into the Yeerk Pool and cause some havoc" story (which we've had several examples of by now). They use mole morphs to dig a tunnel into the Yeerk pool, after new tech at the normal entrances means they have to find another way in. It takes them a week to dig the tunnel, at which point they head down it. This brings them to a bat cave, where they switch morphs and enter the Yeerk pool. Chaos ensues.
There really isn't much under the surface here. There are two main thematic threads here, and none of them are hit upon all that hard. This is Rachel's book, and we do get a little insight into her psyche, that even when she seems gung-ho during missions, and is always the person who says "let's do it", she isn't always truly enthusiastic. The warrior persona is a role she lives with now, and she feels pressure to maintain it, even while dealing with the same fears and traumas the others are.
The other thing is something I already mentioned above, and that's the slippery slope our heroes have most definitely started on. When does an action in war stop being justifiable? How do you balance actions necessary to defeating your enemy, without descending to their level? (Assuming of course that your enemy is at fault, or to blame.) Drugging a thousand Yeerks with oatmeal, condemning their hosts to lives never free of the Yeerk in their heads, most likely spent institutionalized due to the outbursts from the mad Yeerk that can't be controlled. Even Cassie can't say for sure whether what they're doing is right or wrong.
A little thing that bothered me: Rachel saves a man from committing suicide at the beginning of the book, and then she makes some terrible comments about people who commit suicide that at best portray a stunningly immature understand of why people kill themselves, and at worst betrays the author's own feelings regarding the subject. I know this book was written over twenty years ago now, and we definitely weren't having discussions in the open about mental illness and depression like we do now (though we still have a LONG way to go), but Rachel's attitude is never called out, and the other characters make some callous jokes about insanity as well, so the overall impression is that Applegate just didn't think those comments were a big deal. (This is especially surprising since she's normally a sensitive writer who gives great consideration to tough topics.)
Overall, this one didn't work for me that well. The silly premise was not quite overcome, and the books that are just straight up action are never going to be my favorite.
Next up: Ax, mosquitoes, and the mysterious z-space!
[3.5 stars]
July 6, 2023
Oatmeal is the Yeerks’ weakness as it makes them go crazy. The Animorphs want to poison them at their source, the Yeerk pool. It’s a bit of a silly concept but it nonetheless provides the Animorphs with an interesting opportunity. What stands out most here are the questions of morality. Do the ends really justify the means? How far are they willing to go to win this war? What lines are they willing to cross?
June 5, 2016
Ahhh, the oatmeal story. We all know Rachel is ferocious, but this one shows us how smart she is under pressure. It's a bit heavy on with 'crazy' jokes at the start, but, the nineties was a different time... Also Ax and Cinnamon Buns is OTP.
June 14, 2020
FIRST REVIEW / MAR 20, 2015
It's the oatmeal book!!! I've been vaguely looking forward all series-reread to reaching this one.
Yeah, I actually don't have anything better or more smart to say about it though.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAY 7, 2020
Okay, time to do this book justice now that I'm not rushing the review! The oatmeal subplot seems so silly on the surface, but its consequences and repercussions are actually genuinely horrifying. Forcibly addicting the Yeerks to what amounts to a debilitating drug? Condemning their innocent human hosts to lifelong imprisonment with a mad Yeerk? Do the Animorphs pull the trigger?
What do they do?
It's a horrible thing that they contemplate doing in service of winning the war, and their moral debates about it are real. In addition to that, Rachel's nightmares are grueling, and each reference calls back to specific missions from the previous sixteen books: we're all starting to get a real sense of the trauma inflicted on these kids as a result of all their gruesome battles, and their visceral fear of the Yeerk pool:
There's also the increasing sense that each of them is fully-aware what their functional role is within this team. We've seen it in the previous two books, as well: Marco knows he has to be the humour, the comic, the one lightening their moods. Jake knows he has to be the inhuman leader, and can't afford to show any hesitation or indecision or fear. And Rachel:
There's a TV Trope called Flanderization: The act of taking a single (often minor) action or trait of a character within a work and exaggerating it more and more over time until it completely consumes the character. Most always, the trait/action becomes completely outlandish and it becomes their defining characteristic. Sitcoms and Sitcom characters are particularly susceptible to this, as are peripheral characters in shows with long runs.
There's a note on the trope page which wisely points out that the Animorphs characters suffer this, but that it's a purposeful Flanderization on the part of the authors. The war is consuming these kids, eradicating the parts of them that aren't needed for the war. We're only ('only'!) seventeen books in, but we're already seeing it happen.
Favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
It's the oatmeal book!!! I've been vaguely looking forward all series-reread to reaching this one.
Yeah, I actually don't have anything better or more smart to say about it though.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAY 7, 2020
Okay, time to do this book justice now that I'm not rushing the review! The oatmeal subplot seems so silly on the surface, but its consequences and repercussions are actually genuinely horrifying. Forcibly addicting the Yeerks to what amounts to a debilitating drug? Condemning their innocent human hosts to lifelong imprisonment with a mad Yeerk? Do the Animorphs pull the trigger?
What do they do?
It's a horrible thing that they contemplate doing in service of winning the war, and their moral debates about it are real. In addition to that, Rachel's nightmares are grueling, and each reference calls back to specific missions from the previous sixteen books: we're all starting to get a real sense of the trauma inflicted on these kids as a result of all their gruesome battles, and their visceral fear of the Yeerk pool:
When I woke up I had soaked the pillow with my sweat. I stared at the clock. Three-twenty-seven. A.M.
The Yeerk pool. We were going back to the Yeerk pool. And I, Rachel, mighty Xena, fearless, pulled the covers up over my head and shook.
There's also the increasing sense that each of them is fully-aware what their functional role is within this team. We've seen it in the previous two books, as well: Marco knows he has to be the humour, the comic, the one lightening their moods. Jake knows he has to be the inhuman leader, and can't afford to show any hesitation or indecision or fear. And Rachel:
Everyone in a group has a role to play. At least that's how it always works out. My role was to say, "Let's do it. Let's go. That's what we came here for."
But I was tired. And I'd had a really, really bad few days digging down to this stupid cave.
So I said, ‹Let's do it. That's what we came here for.›
Sometimes it's hard to get out of a role once you've started playing the part.
There's a TV Trope called Flanderization: The act of taking a single (often minor) action or trait of a character within a work and exaggerating it more and more over time until it completely consumes the character. Most always, the trait/action becomes completely outlandish and it becomes their defining characteristic. Sitcoms and Sitcom characters are particularly susceptible to this, as are peripheral characters in shows with long runs.
There's a note on the trope page which wisely points out that the Animorphs characters suffer this, but that it's a purposeful Flanderization on the part of the authors. The war is consuming these kids, eradicating the parts of them that aren't needed for the war. We're only ('only'!) seventeen books in, but we're already seeing it happen.
Favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
September 3, 2018
You know, after Marco, Rachel's my big fave --- but her books rarely resonate as much as the others' do. She struggles with introspection more than anyone else, so it's always a matter of "what wild drama is Rachel going to get us all into today?" and while it's always GOOD CONTENT, it can get a little repetitive. When she's truly scared, though, and has to actually regulate her emotions for the group, that changes: she still struggles, but she knows that her own mind is another battleground. She can figure it out and she can survive, and she can hopefully help other innocent people do the same. She can learn from her mistakes and her misconceptions, even if she sometimes (often) contradicts herself in the moment. She has such an enormous heart, not just spirit, and this book is important. Really important.
January 22, 2022
Come check out my 4 hour 35 minute deep dive into reading every single Animorphs book for the first time on YouTube. I recap and review all of the books from the main series: https://youtu.be/H8kUM2q3CIU
July 29, 2018
In short: Yeah, this is the oatmeal book.
But honestly, I feel that this book would be a whole lot better regarded if the device that this book revolves around was something other than oatmeal. Given how seriously the rest of the book treats itself, I would imagine that if the drug the book utilizes was something less absolutely out there the fanbase as a whole would consider it one of the defining points of how dark the Animorphs series can be because… yeah, this book genuinely gets dark at points. It's one of the books that — if you look past the fact that 'it's OAT-freaking-MEAL!' (page 63) — directly shows the lows that the Animorphs have to go to for the sake of winning their war.
Essentially, the book is about the Animorphs finding out that maple and ginger oatmeal (instant maple and ginger oatmeal) has an odd effect on the Yeerks, separating them from their hosts at the cost of driving them — and their hosts — totally and irreparably insane, to which the Animorphs respond by attempting to put as much of the substance as possible into the Yeerk pool. It's a fairly serious plot, and one not afraid to show the darkness of its premise. The effects of what happens if a Yeerk takes too much of the substance is shown (very notably paralleling it with the effects of drug abuse/overdose) and the group takes time to discuss the ramifications of this plan, and whether they're justified in what they're going to do.
And I think that's this book's greatest strength. Applegate had a very staunch anti-war message throughout the whole series and this book in particular is one of the earlier points where this message is prominent (although not the earliest, necessarily). Chapter 11 — where they directly debate whether to use the oatmeal against the Yeerks — probably stands as one of the strongest individual chapters in the series, posing a direct question to the reader about whether what they're about to do will put them on the same level as their opponents. The book in addition helps to develop the individual aspects of Rachel's arc — her separate relationships with Tobias/her family, her growing role as the 'warrior princess' of the Animorphs — and while nothing special, Applegate's writing in this book helps to get Rachel's voice across (in addition to the points of the book meant as comedy) and for the most part works for what it is. For a book that typically tends to get dismissed as filler by the general fanbase, it definitely has points of worth to it, and stands as a fairly solid entry in the series.
It's not perfect, though. It's decent, but not much more than that. One of the main problems the series has is that some of the individual books can seriously take their time to get to their specific plots and this book is pretty emblematic of that issue. While it does have a fairly actiony opening that helps to push it into its plot, it then gets followed by an incredibly slow, multi-chapter long infiltration sequence that I felt could've just been skipped, given that nothing in it really impacts the book as a whole. The final battle, in addition, could've stood to be a little bit shorter — while it does provide some nice parts in regards to the horrors of the Yeerk Pool and their added security measures — by the time it had ended it became genuinely hard to read, more in the 'I'm weary of this ten chapter long fight sequence' way rather than the 'this is really well written horror/gore stuff,' way.
The book is also… weirdly ableist towards suicidal people? Like, look at the following:
Like, I get what's being said, I get that suicide does tend to be done by people with mental illness/emotional disorders, but the way the book presents it — with multiple characters insinuating that trying to kill yourself makes you some sort of lunatic nutjob — is very unsympathetic, and I feel like reading this would only push people suffering from mental illness/emotional disorders into further self-loathing/self-harming behaviour. Rachel supposedly changes her mind by the end of the book — and her particular attitude could be said to be emblematic of her 'warrior princess' nature — but this particular change of mind isn't very convincingly written, and this doesn't really excuse the fact that non-Rachel characters seem to have the exact same viewpoint as her.
Despite those issues, though, I'd say that the Underground is a fairly solid entry in the Animorphs series. The premise may not make it seem like it, but this particular book is one that looks into the major themes and the darker aspects of its series in a particularly interesting way. 3/5.
Blog: https://vagueartistics.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/yugibones
But honestly, I feel that this book would be a whole lot better regarded if the device that this book revolves around was something other than oatmeal. Given how seriously the rest of the book treats itself, I would imagine that if the drug the book utilizes was something less absolutely out there the fanbase as a whole would consider it one of the defining points of how dark the Animorphs series can be because… yeah, this book genuinely gets dark at points. It's one of the books that — if you look past the fact that 'it's OAT-freaking-MEAL!' (page 63) — directly shows the lows that the Animorphs have to go to for the sake of winning their war.
Essentially, the book is about the Animorphs finding out that maple and ginger oatmeal (instant maple and ginger oatmeal) has an odd effect on the Yeerks, separating them from their hosts at the cost of driving them — and their hosts — totally and irreparably insane, to which the Animorphs respond by attempting to put as much of the substance as possible into the Yeerk pool. It's a fairly serious plot, and one not afraid to show the darkness of its premise. The effects of what happens if a Yeerk takes too much of the substance is shown (very notably paralleling it with the effects of drug abuse/overdose) and the group takes time to discuss the ramifications of this plan, and whether they're justified in what they're going to do.
And I think that's this book's greatest strength. Applegate had a very staunch anti-war message throughout the whole series and this book in particular is one of the earlier points where this message is prominent (although not the earliest, necessarily). Chapter 11 — where they directly debate whether to use the oatmeal against the Yeerks — probably stands as one of the strongest individual chapters in the series, posing a direct question to the reader about whether what they're about to do will put them on the same level as their opponents. The book in addition helps to develop the individual aspects of Rachel's arc — her separate relationships with Tobias/her family, her growing role as the 'warrior princess' of the Animorphs — and while nothing special, Applegate's writing in this book helps to get Rachel's voice across (in addition to the points of the book meant as comedy) and for the most part works for what it is. For a book that typically tends to get dismissed as filler by the general fanbase, it definitely has points of worth to it, and stands as a fairly solid entry in the series.
It's not perfect, though. It's decent, but not much more than that. One of the main problems the series has is that some of the individual books can seriously take their time to get to their specific plots and this book is pretty emblematic of that issue. While it does have a fairly actiony opening that helps to push it into its plot, it then gets followed by an incredibly slow, multi-chapter long infiltration sequence that I felt could've just been skipped, given that nothing in it really impacts the book as a whole. The final battle, in addition, could've stood to be a little bit shorter — while it does provide some nice parts in regards to the horrors of the Yeerk Pool and their added security measures — by the time it had ended it became genuinely hard to read, more in the 'I'm weary of this ten chapter long fight sequence' way rather than the 'this is really well written horror/gore stuff,' way.
The book is also… weirdly ableist towards suicidal people? Like, look at the following:
"People will figure he's nuts," Marco pointed out. "No one is gonna listen to a guy who tried to kill himself."
The Underground, pg. 23.
"So what are you supposed to do?" I asked. "Prove he's not a wacko? I mean, he is, right? He jumped off a building."
The Underground, pg. 28.
Like, I get what's being said, I get that suicide does tend to be done by people with mental illness/emotional disorders, but the way the book presents it — with multiple characters insinuating that trying to kill yourself makes you some sort of lunatic nutjob — is very unsympathetic, and I feel like reading this would only push people suffering from mental illness/emotional disorders into further self-loathing/self-harming behaviour. Rachel supposedly changes her mind by the end of the book — and her particular attitude could be said to be emblematic of her 'warrior princess' nature — but this particular change of mind isn't very convincingly written, and this doesn't really excuse the fact that non-Rachel characters seem to have the exact same viewpoint as her.
Despite those issues, though, I'd say that the Underground is a fairly solid entry in the Animorphs series. The premise may not make it seem like it, but this particular book is one that looks into the major themes and the darker aspects of its series in a particularly interesting way. 3/5.
Blog: https://vagueartistics.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/yugibones
May 13, 2024
*** 4 **"
Rachel and instant oatmeal 😃
Rachel and instant oatmeal 😃
January 12, 2013
This book should have been titled 'The Oatmeal'. After saving a man from suicide by jumping, the Animorphs learn that the Yeerks are deeply addicted to oatmeal. But not just any oatmeal: instant maple and ginger flavoured oatmeal. The oatmeal saves them from needing Kandrona rays every 3 days, and allows them to live as long as their host does. However, it's deeply addictive and drives the Yeerks nuts - allowing the human host to temporarily regain control.
The Animorphs concoct a plan to burrow into the Yeerk pool and fill it with oatmeal. Unfortunately the Yeerks have upped their security since the last break-in, outfitting the cave with biometric sensors and 'hunting' drones. The Animorphs-in-bat-form are injured by the hunting drones, with Rachel falling into the Yeerk pool and Ax, Tobias and Jake captured by the Yeerk forces. By a miracle stroke of luck the Animorphs all manage to escape their captors and regroup, throwing the oatmeal and Visser Three into the Yeerk pool. They narrowly escape once again.
---
First there was victory by skunk butt, and now we have victory by oatmeal! I love it when the author writes a completely ridiculous and hilarious ending to battles with the Yeerks. That's the great thing about these being kids books - the author can take the silliest way out and the readers will still enjoy it. It's not like young adult or adult sci-fi fantasy where we'll just think 'Seriously? This is dumber than that giant squid in Watchmen'.
If you ignore the fact that it's oatmeal, there were actually some interesting repercussions there. The Animorphs could have infected Human Controllers with the oatmeal, which would have driven the Yeerk nuts and rendered them utterly useless. But then the Yeerk would no longer need Kandrona rays, and would live as long as their human host did. So the Animorphs would be condemning a hundred people to insanity for the rest of their natural lives. Not exactly fixing the problem.
But poisoning the Yeerk pool with oatmeal....that's actually genius. You've got Yeerks that are refueling and Yeerks that have not yet found human hosts. The refueling Yeerks would never be able to return to their hosts, and the other Yeerks would never find human hosts in the first place. It's destroying 500 Yeerks with no human casualties!
Things went awry for the Animorphs though, and I can't tell if they managed to inflict much damage there. It seems as if the Visser morphed before his Andalite hooves could soak up the oatmeal, and the one barrel that exploded may have only affected a small portion of the population in the pool. But hey, maybe the effects of the oatmeal are more far-reaching than we think! *crosses fingers that the Visser will go nuts from oatmeal-addiction*
I'm amused and excited to see what other silly twists the author throws our way. :3
The Animorphs concoct a plan to burrow into the Yeerk pool and fill it with oatmeal. Unfortunately the Yeerks have upped their security since the last break-in, outfitting the cave with biometric sensors and 'hunting' drones. The Animorphs-in-bat-form are injured by the hunting drones, with Rachel falling into the Yeerk pool and Ax, Tobias and Jake captured by the Yeerk forces. By a miracle stroke of luck the Animorphs all manage to escape their captors and regroup, throwing the oatmeal and Visser Three into the Yeerk pool. They narrowly escape once again.
---
First there was victory by skunk butt, and now we have victory by oatmeal! I love it when the author writes a completely ridiculous and hilarious ending to battles with the Yeerks. That's the great thing about these being kids books - the author can take the silliest way out and the readers will still enjoy it. It's not like young adult or adult sci-fi fantasy where we'll just think 'Seriously? This is dumber than that giant squid in Watchmen'.
If you ignore the fact that it's oatmeal, there were actually some interesting repercussions there. The Animorphs could have infected Human Controllers with the oatmeal, which would have driven the Yeerk nuts and rendered them utterly useless. But then the Yeerk would no longer need Kandrona rays, and would live as long as their human host did. So the Animorphs would be condemning a hundred people to insanity for the rest of their natural lives. Not exactly fixing the problem.
But poisoning the Yeerk pool with oatmeal....that's actually genius. You've got Yeerks that are refueling and Yeerks that have not yet found human hosts. The refueling Yeerks would never be able to return to their hosts, and the other Yeerks would never find human hosts in the first place. It's destroying 500 Yeerks with no human casualties!
Things went awry for the Animorphs though, and I can't tell if they managed to inflict much damage there. It seems as if the Visser morphed before his Andalite hooves could soak up the oatmeal, and the one barrel that exploded may have only affected a small portion of the population in the pool. But hey, maybe the effects of the oatmeal are more far-reaching than we think! *crosses fingers that the Visser will go nuts from oatmeal-addiction*
I'm amused and excited to see what other silly twists the author throws our way. :3
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2019
The balance in this book is strange: slow, painstaking set-up; quick and too-easy climax, despite the as-always ridiculous scale. That first half is good, excepting problematic discussions of mental illness (which feels particularly out of place given that trauma and "there are no therapists" are constant themes in this series); it's grueling, claustrophobic, more atmospheric than most Animorphs books. The second half is routine, and I wish that Rachel's exaggerated characterization either was questioned (like Jake's and Marco's) or didn't rely on bad communication; I need her bad decisions to be interrogated.
October 20, 2017
(Originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com.)
Narrator: Rachel
Plot: Now unlike the last few, I have very clear memories of this book and I think it’s for a pretty basic reason: it absolutely terrified me reading it as a kid. Where battles with aliens were something purely out of fiction and thus not threatening, this book is a perfect example of the more mundane aspects of the Animorphs’ missions and the truly horrifying, easier to comprehend dangers that these missions brought down upon them.
The story starts with mainly Marco and Rachel attempting to convince Jake that the group should be allowed to use their abilities for purely selfish reasons: to attend the opening of new Planet Hollywood in their town. Notably, Lucy Lawless, or Xena herself, would be in attendance. Jake only signs on, however, when he hears that Shaq will also be there. Oh, Jake, and you’re basketball-obsessed heart. Of course, they all go in bird morph. But while there, Rachel notices a man getting ready to commit suicide by jumping out of a skyscraper. She and the group swoop in and just barely manage to glide him to be dropped into the nearby river. There he proceeds to get stuck in the mud on the bottom of the river necessitating Rachel’s morphing dolphin to save him once again. (It should be noted that this is the second cold open for a Rachel book where she saves the life of someone. Last time it was the boy in the crocodile pit.)
Back home, Rachel hears from her mother, who is a lawyer, that the man’s family is looking to have him committed to a clinic: he’s claiming there is an alien parasite called a Yeerk in his head. Rachel and the team know they have to check it out. After flipping a coin, Rachel, Marco, and Jake are chosen to infiltrate the mental hospital in cockroach morph. After a brief run-in with a tarantula (Tobias’s bird powers come in for the save once again), the group makes it in and locates the man, a Mr. Edelman. To speak with him, Rachel demorphs and then poses as a human-morphed Andalite to figure out what is going on. Edelman reveals that the Yeerks have encountered a human food substance that is highly addictive to their species and, after prolonged ingestion, causes the Yeerks to go mad. But with this madness, the Yeerk is also freed of its need to consume Kandrona rays. So now Controllers like Edelman are stuck with a mad Yeerk in their brain that never needs to come out. Edelman is typically in control of his body again, but, as Rachel sees while they are talking, the Yeerk breaks through in brief moments to spew nonsense, thus leading to his family’s questioning his sanity. What’s most surprising, however, is what this addictive substance is: instant maple and ginger flavored oatmeal.
After joining back with the others, the group debates the morality of using an addictive substance (even though it’s just oatmeal, as Marco and Rachel continue to point out in increasingly loud voices). In the end, they decide they can’t ignore an opportunity like this to do massively damage to the Yeerk invasion. Now all they have to do is break into the Yeerk pool once again.
Tobias, of course, knows of an entrance from his days of spying. Together, they all morph fly and attempt to follow a Controller in (this time through a backroom in a McDonalds). Once through the door, however, it becomes clear that the Yeerks have upped their security game. Some type of bio weapon is triggered by the presence of DNA that has not been submitted into the program and they barely manage to escape a fatal gassing. With their typical point of entrance now lost to them, the group needs to get creative. Cassie suggest digging their way in using a mole morph.
What follows is a perfect example of the least glorious aspects of what life as an Animorph would really be like. One by one the group takes turns morphing mole and digging through the earth. They make very slow progress and it takes them a week to get very far at all. Not to mention, each shift is horrifying in its own way: alone, beneath the earth, digging blindly ahead. By the end of the week however, their tunnel hits a bat cave. From there, the group morph bat and plan on heading home to re-think their approach. But on the way out of the bat cave, they sense another exit, once that leads to the Yeerk pool.
But again, the increased Yeerk security kicks in, and flying security bots quickly injure several members of the group, including Rachel who falls into the Yeerk pool itself. She manages to time her demorph to angle herself below one of the piers sticking out over the pool so that she can remain hidden and keep her head above water. She then has to do something she swore never to do again: morph ant. But from her time with the allergy, she remembers that the ant morph did fairly well in liquid. This time as an ant she is able to essentially “walk” on the surface and escape the pool.
Once out, she sees that Ax has been captured and demorphed. Even worse, Visser Three is coming. She manages to find Marco and Cassie, both hiding in sheds around the perimeter. They frantically try to think of a plan, and happen to hear a Controller mention removing “oatmeal contraband” from another person. They reference a storage shed where they have confiscated over 200 pounds of the stuff.
Visser Three arrives and immediately orders that all exits be sealed and everyone be searched systematically. Rachel, Marco, and Cassie frantically come up with a plan to use the oatmeal as a type of bargaining chip. Elephant!Rachel crashes through walls and into the storage shed, where Gorilla!Marco grabs a barrel of the oatmeal, throws it into the Yeerk pool and threatens to blow it up with a Dracon beam, thus infecting hundreds of Yeerks, unless Visser Three lets them all go. Visser Three decides that a few hundred of his compatriots is a price he is willing to pay. Elephant!Rachel thinks to change this equation by charging him and throwing him into the pool as well. Visser Three quickly changes his mind. But as the group begins backing towards one of the exit tunnels, Visser Three begins to morph. At the same time, a team of Hork Bajir charge down the very tunnel they were trying to climb through. Throwing caution to the wind, Rachel shoots the barrel of oatmeal, then aims the Dracon beam at the ceiling and yells to the others to morph mole. Then, not knowing who survived or how long it will take, she slowly digs her way back up to the bat cave (having to stop to hollow out a human-sized hole to not get caught with the two hour limit). One by one they all return.
Lastly, back at home a few days later, Rachel’s mom returns home from work telling a crazy story about how Mr. Edelman escaped from the mental hospital after a “talking grizzly” showed up and told him to run and hide and enjoy what freedom he could make for himself.
Xena, Warriar Princess: Again, we hear a lot about the pressure that Rachel puts on herself to be strong. Part of it is her conviction that she won’t let fear rule her life, a sentiment that we heard Jake discuss just in the last book. But she also confesses to not being able to admit her fear, and to understanding what part she plays for the group.
Everyone in a group has a role to play. At least that’s how it always works out. My role was to say, “Let’s do it. Let’s go. That’s what we came here for.” But I was tired. And I’d had a really, really bad few days digging down to this stupid cave.
So I said, Sometimes it’s hard to get out of a role once you’ve started playing the part.
Her and Jake probably most clearly see the role that they play for the group. The rest definitely have their contributions, but they don’t seem to feel these roles in such a strong (or burdensome) way as Jake and Rachel do. Marco, probably, is the next closest thing, knowing that they count on him to lighten the mood and joke his way through anything.
There are some good moments with Rachel’s home life, with her sisters and mother. There’s also a reference to the fact that her house is still under construction after she halfway destroyed it by accidentally morphing elephant while allergic back in her book.
There are several examples in this book of the pros and cons of Rachel’s tendency to jump without looking. Part of the reason that so many of her books open with her saving people is that she doesn’t question whether it is possible or wise, she just does it. But on the other hand, while in the Yeerk Pool, her first instinct is to simply morph grizzly and attack. It is Marco and Cassie who come up with the plan to use the oatmeal to create a stalemate, obviously a much better idea. But then when Visser Three calls their bluff, Rachel again acts before anyone else, throwing him in the pool. She also blows up the tunnel they’re in. Too much thought about these actions, too much hesitancy about the possible negative outcomes, would have resulted in disaster for the entire group. I really liked seeing the balance of how this inclination of hers was not only a bad thing (as it is often reduced to), but can also be their saving grace when the others might have hesitated.
Our Fearless Leader: During the debate about using the oatmeal, Jake makes a connection to the Civil War and the idea that that war, too, could have been ended sooner if the North had simply compromised and let a few people remain slaves. He also says that he makes all of these decisions by asking himself whether he is ok or not with it happening to Tom.
A Hawk’s Life: Tobias is the first to raise the question about the morality of using the oatmeal. This seems to be in line with his more thoughtful approach to the war. After they thoroughly discuss the matter, he agrees to use it. But as a character, Tobias needs to fully think through any course of action they are about to take, even if, in the end, he will always side with the plan that means bringing more of the fight to the Yeerks.
He’s also the last one to arrive back to the bat cave in the end.
“You scared us to death! Where have you been?” I yelled at him.
he said, with a smile in his silent voice.
This is why they work; he understands her.
Peace, Love, and Animals: Like in book #9, Cassie is the one to realize that they can use a specific type of animal morph to solve a problem that seems impossible. She came up with the bat morph then, and the mole morph this time.
For a moment no one said anything. Then Cassie said,
Marco said.
When they’re debating the morality of using the oatmeal against the Yeerks, Cassie confesses to not knowing what is right and wrong anymore. This, more than anything, scares Rachel about how this war is changing them all.
The Comic Relief: Not surprisingly, Marco sides with Rachel immediately about using the oatmeal. If anything, he is even more appalled by the fact that the group is even debating not dealing such a direct hit to the Yeerks. Once again, we see that, of them all, he is the most pragmatic about this fight. Where Rachel is more inclined to go for it simply because she will always choose action, Marco only sees the cost/benefit of a mission. He is also even more exasperated by the fact that the “drug” they are debating is oatmeal.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax saves all of their lives by immediately recognizing the danger of the bio sensor when they first try to infiltrate the Yeerk Pool as flies. He’s also good for some Yeerk biology lessons, but only so much…
Ax said.
I said.
There’s also a comedic interlude at the mall (of course) where the group watches in horror/awe as Human!Ax consumes not only an entire massive Cinnabon, but the paper plate it was sitting on as well.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: When they’re breaking into the mental hospital as cockroaches and run into the tarantula, Rachel gets jumped by it. She only escapes when Tobias swoops down and carries it off. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let go of her leg, so it gets ripped off. Even worse, it is implied that Tobias eats the spider…so…did he eat her leg??!
Couples Watch!: Early in the book, Rachel wakes up in the morning to do homework and opens her window for Tobias. Apparently, he comes by most mornings like this. They discuss their upcoming plan to go to the Yeerk Pool and Rachel admits to being afraid. It’s a quiet little scene that really highlights these two’s relationship and how special it is in that Rachel can be open and vulnerable with Tobias about feelings that she never shows to the rest of the group.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: When it is announced that Visser Three is coming to the Yeerk Pool, Rachel runs into a Controller who blatantly makes up an excuse to get the heck out of there. So at this point, even among the Yeerks themselves, it’s pretty clear that Visser Three is batshit (ha!) crazy and it’s best to be elsewhere when he shows up. It’s also no surprise that he pretty quickly decides that sacrificing 500 or so Yeerks to the oatmeal threat is worth it, but then once it’s his own skin on the line, he quickly changes his tune.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: That last scene where they are all tunneling back to the surface. Man, it’s just horrifying if you really think about it. Earlier in the book, it was already made clear how terrifying the tunneling was with claustrophobia and being so alone. So here, to crash a tunnel down on yourself, not knowing whether your friends were hurt or killed, and then tunneling ever upwards, for hours, long enough that you need to stop and dig out a hole to morph back to human, still underground, all alone…It definitely freaked me out as a kid and still does now.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: While the mole morph is a good idea in theory, I’m not sure how they were thinking this was actually going to work. They all stock up on oatmeal at their homes, but what were they really going to do? Pull down mini bags of it through the tunnel and then try to somehow aim it above the Yeerk Pool and hope that it makes it all the way down? Seems like there are a few pretty big holes in this plan and the only reason they succeed is because first they completely fail at their original plan. This seems to be a pattern.
Favorite Quote:
A more serious quote from when they’re debating the morality of using the oatmeal:
Cassie suddenly laughed. It was a cynical laugh. I didn’t know she was capable of a cynical laugh.
“And all the rights and wrongs, and all the lines between good and evil, just go wafting and waving and swirling around, don’t they?”
And a more fun quote:
“You know,” Jake said in a conversational tone as we waited for Tobias to acquire the bat, “from the point where Edelman said ‘maple and ginger oatmeal,’ I should have known this was going to end stupidly.”
“Instant maple and ginger oatmeal,” Cassie said.
“Battles that involve oatmeal are just never going to end up being historic, you know?” Jake went on. “Gettysburg? No major oatmeal involvement. The Battle of Midway? Neither side used oatmeal. Desert Storm? No oatmeal.”
Scorecard: Yeerks 4, Animorphs 8
I’m giving them both points. Yes, the Animorphs strike a pretty major blow. But it can’t be ignored that the Yeerks have really wised up, what with the bio detectors, the security bots, and Visser Three’s systematic shut down and search of the Yeerk Pool.
Rating: For as wacky as the whole madness-by-oatmeal thing is, this book has some legitimately tense moments. It’s also one of the few books that takes place over almost an entire week (they usually seem to take about a day or two), so it was a nice touch of reality, that many of these missions weren’t glamorous or non-stop action. We continue to see Rachel’s decline as the pressure she puts on herself to be brave becomes increasingly hard to bare. Though I do like that this book highlights the ways that this aspect of her personality saves the group at times as well. I doubt any of the rest would have been brave enough or thought quickly enough to blow the tunnel up on themselves.
Narrator: Rachel
Plot: Now unlike the last few, I have very clear memories of this book and I think it’s for a pretty basic reason: it absolutely terrified me reading it as a kid. Where battles with aliens were something purely out of fiction and thus not threatening, this book is a perfect example of the more mundane aspects of the Animorphs’ missions and the truly horrifying, easier to comprehend dangers that these missions brought down upon them.
The story starts with mainly Marco and Rachel attempting to convince Jake that the group should be allowed to use their abilities for purely selfish reasons: to attend the opening of new Planet Hollywood in their town. Notably, Lucy Lawless, or Xena herself, would be in attendance. Jake only signs on, however, when he hears that Shaq will also be there. Oh, Jake, and you’re basketball-obsessed heart. Of course, they all go in bird morph. But while there, Rachel notices a man getting ready to commit suicide by jumping out of a skyscraper. She and the group swoop in and just barely manage to glide him to be dropped into the nearby river. There he proceeds to get stuck in the mud on the bottom of the river necessitating Rachel’s morphing dolphin to save him once again. (It should be noted that this is the second cold open for a Rachel book where she saves the life of someone. Last time it was the boy in the crocodile pit.)
Back home, Rachel hears from her mother, who is a lawyer, that the man’s family is looking to have him committed to a clinic: he’s claiming there is an alien parasite called a Yeerk in his head. Rachel and the team know they have to check it out. After flipping a coin, Rachel, Marco, and Jake are chosen to infiltrate the mental hospital in cockroach morph. After a brief run-in with a tarantula (Tobias’s bird powers come in for the save once again), the group makes it in and locates the man, a Mr. Edelman. To speak with him, Rachel demorphs and then poses as a human-morphed Andalite to figure out what is going on. Edelman reveals that the Yeerks have encountered a human food substance that is highly addictive to their species and, after prolonged ingestion, causes the Yeerks to go mad. But with this madness, the Yeerk is also freed of its need to consume Kandrona rays. So now Controllers like Edelman are stuck with a mad Yeerk in their brain that never needs to come out. Edelman is typically in control of his body again, but, as Rachel sees while they are talking, the Yeerk breaks through in brief moments to spew nonsense, thus leading to his family’s questioning his sanity. What’s most surprising, however, is what this addictive substance is: instant maple and ginger flavored oatmeal.
After joining back with the others, the group debates the morality of using an addictive substance (even though it’s just oatmeal, as Marco and Rachel continue to point out in increasingly loud voices). In the end, they decide they can’t ignore an opportunity like this to do massively damage to the Yeerk invasion. Now all they have to do is break into the Yeerk pool once again.
Tobias, of course, knows of an entrance from his days of spying. Together, they all morph fly and attempt to follow a Controller in (this time through a backroom in a McDonalds). Once through the door, however, it becomes clear that the Yeerks have upped their security game. Some type of bio weapon is triggered by the presence of DNA that has not been submitted into the program and they barely manage to escape a fatal gassing. With their typical point of entrance now lost to them, the group needs to get creative. Cassie suggest digging their way in using a mole morph.
What follows is a perfect example of the least glorious aspects of what life as an Animorph would really be like. One by one the group takes turns morphing mole and digging through the earth. They make very slow progress and it takes them a week to get very far at all. Not to mention, each shift is horrifying in its own way: alone, beneath the earth, digging blindly ahead. By the end of the week however, their tunnel hits a bat cave. From there, the group morph bat and plan on heading home to re-think their approach. But on the way out of the bat cave, they sense another exit, once that leads to the Yeerk pool.
But again, the increased Yeerk security kicks in, and flying security bots quickly injure several members of the group, including Rachel who falls into the Yeerk pool itself. She manages to time her demorph to angle herself below one of the piers sticking out over the pool so that she can remain hidden and keep her head above water. She then has to do something she swore never to do again: morph ant. But from her time with the allergy, she remembers that the ant morph did fairly well in liquid. This time as an ant she is able to essentially “walk” on the surface and escape the pool.
Once out, she sees that Ax has been captured and demorphed. Even worse, Visser Three is coming. She manages to find Marco and Cassie, both hiding in sheds around the perimeter. They frantically try to think of a plan, and happen to hear a Controller mention removing “oatmeal contraband” from another person. They reference a storage shed where they have confiscated over 200 pounds of the stuff.
Visser Three arrives and immediately orders that all exits be sealed and everyone be searched systematically. Rachel, Marco, and Cassie frantically come up with a plan to use the oatmeal as a type of bargaining chip. Elephant!Rachel crashes through walls and into the storage shed, where Gorilla!Marco grabs a barrel of the oatmeal, throws it into the Yeerk pool and threatens to blow it up with a Dracon beam, thus infecting hundreds of Yeerks, unless Visser Three lets them all go. Visser Three decides that a few hundred of his compatriots is a price he is willing to pay. Elephant!Rachel thinks to change this equation by charging him and throwing him into the pool as well. Visser Three quickly changes his mind. But as the group begins backing towards one of the exit tunnels, Visser Three begins to morph. At the same time, a team of Hork Bajir charge down the very tunnel they were trying to climb through. Throwing caution to the wind, Rachel shoots the barrel of oatmeal, then aims the Dracon beam at the ceiling and yells to the others to morph mole. Then, not knowing who survived or how long it will take, she slowly digs her way back up to the bat cave (having to stop to hollow out a human-sized hole to not get caught with the two hour limit). One by one they all return.
Lastly, back at home a few days later, Rachel’s mom returns home from work telling a crazy story about how Mr. Edelman escaped from the mental hospital after a “talking grizzly” showed up and told him to run and hide and enjoy what freedom he could make for himself.
Xena, Warriar Princess: Again, we hear a lot about the pressure that Rachel puts on herself to be strong. Part of it is her conviction that she won’t let fear rule her life, a sentiment that we heard Jake discuss just in the last book. But she also confesses to not being able to admit her fear, and to understanding what part she plays for the group.
Everyone in a group has a role to play. At least that’s how it always works out. My role was to say, “Let’s do it. Let’s go. That’s what we came here for.” But I was tired. And I’d had a really, really bad few days digging down to this stupid cave.
So I said, Sometimes it’s hard to get out of a role once you’ve started playing the part.
Her and Jake probably most clearly see the role that they play for the group. The rest definitely have their contributions, but they don’t seem to feel these roles in such a strong (or burdensome) way as Jake and Rachel do. Marco, probably, is the next closest thing, knowing that they count on him to lighten the mood and joke his way through anything.
There are some good moments with Rachel’s home life, with her sisters and mother. There’s also a reference to the fact that her house is still under construction after she halfway destroyed it by accidentally morphing elephant while allergic back in her book.
There are several examples in this book of the pros and cons of Rachel’s tendency to jump without looking. Part of the reason that so many of her books open with her saving people is that she doesn’t question whether it is possible or wise, she just does it. But on the other hand, while in the Yeerk Pool, her first instinct is to simply morph grizzly and attack. It is Marco and Cassie who come up with the plan to use the oatmeal to create a stalemate, obviously a much better idea. But then when Visser Three calls their bluff, Rachel again acts before anyone else, throwing him in the pool. She also blows up the tunnel they’re in. Too much thought about these actions, too much hesitancy about the possible negative outcomes, would have resulted in disaster for the entire group. I really liked seeing the balance of how this inclination of hers was not only a bad thing (as it is often reduced to), but can also be their saving grace when the others might have hesitated.
Our Fearless Leader: During the debate about using the oatmeal, Jake makes a connection to the Civil War and the idea that that war, too, could have been ended sooner if the North had simply compromised and let a few people remain slaves. He also says that he makes all of these decisions by asking himself whether he is ok or not with it happening to Tom.
A Hawk’s Life: Tobias is the first to raise the question about the morality of using the oatmeal. This seems to be in line with his more thoughtful approach to the war. After they thoroughly discuss the matter, he agrees to use it. But as a character, Tobias needs to fully think through any course of action they are about to take, even if, in the end, he will always side with the plan that means bringing more of the fight to the Yeerks.
He’s also the last one to arrive back to the bat cave in the end.
“You scared us to death! Where have you been?” I yelled at him.
he said, with a smile in his silent voice.
This is why they work; he understands her.
Peace, Love, and Animals: Like in book #9, Cassie is the one to realize that they can use a specific type of animal morph to solve a problem that seems impossible. She came up with the bat morph then, and the mole morph this time.
For a moment no one said anything. Then Cassie said,
Marco said.
When they’re debating the morality of using the oatmeal against the Yeerks, Cassie confesses to not knowing what is right and wrong anymore. This, more than anything, scares Rachel about how this war is changing them all.
The Comic Relief: Not surprisingly, Marco sides with Rachel immediately about using the oatmeal. If anything, he is even more appalled by the fact that the group is even debating not dealing such a direct hit to the Yeerks. Once again, we see that, of them all, he is the most pragmatic about this fight. Where Rachel is more inclined to go for it simply because she will always choose action, Marco only sees the cost/benefit of a mission. He is also even more exasperated by the fact that the “drug” they are debating is oatmeal.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax saves all of their lives by immediately recognizing the danger of the bio sensor when they first try to infiltrate the Yeerk Pool as flies. He’s also good for some Yeerk biology lessons, but only so much…
Ax said.
I said.
There’s also a comedic interlude at the mall (of course) where the group watches in horror/awe as Human!Ax consumes not only an entire massive Cinnabon, but the paper plate it was sitting on as well.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: When they’re breaking into the mental hospital as cockroaches and run into the tarantula, Rachel gets jumped by it. She only escapes when Tobias swoops down and carries it off. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let go of her leg, so it gets ripped off. Even worse, it is implied that Tobias eats the spider…so…did he eat her leg??!
Couples Watch!: Early in the book, Rachel wakes up in the morning to do homework and opens her window for Tobias. Apparently, he comes by most mornings like this. They discuss their upcoming plan to go to the Yeerk Pool and Rachel admits to being afraid. It’s a quiet little scene that really highlights these two’s relationship and how special it is in that Rachel can be open and vulnerable with Tobias about feelings that she never shows to the rest of the group.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: When it is announced that Visser Three is coming to the Yeerk Pool, Rachel runs into a Controller who blatantly makes up an excuse to get the heck out of there. So at this point, even among the Yeerks themselves, it’s pretty clear that Visser Three is batshit (ha!) crazy and it’s best to be elsewhere when he shows up. It’s also no surprise that he pretty quickly decides that sacrificing 500 or so Yeerks to the oatmeal threat is worth it, but then once it’s his own skin on the line, he quickly changes his tune.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: That last scene where they are all tunneling back to the surface. Man, it’s just horrifying if you really think about it. Earlier in the book, it was already made clear how terrifying the tunneling was with claustrophobia and being so alone. So here, to crash a tunnel down on yourself, not knowing whether your friends were hurt or killed, and then tunneling ever upwards, for hours, long enough that you need to stop and dig out a hole to morph back to human, still underground, all alone…It definitely freaked me out as a kid and still does now.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: While the mole morph is a good idea in theory, I’m not sure how they were thinking this was actually going to work. They all stock up on oatmeal at their homes, but what were they really going to do? Pull down mini bags of it through the tunnel and then try to somehow aim it above the Yeerk Pool and hope that it makes it all the way down? Seems like there are a few pretty big holes in this plan and the only reason they succeed is because first they completely fail at their original plan. This seems to be a pattern.
Favorite Quote:
A more serious quote from when they’re debating the morality of using the oatmeal:
Cassie suddenly laughed. It was a cynical laugh. I didn’t know she was capable of a cynical laugh.
“And all the rights and wrongs, and all the lines between good and evil, just go wafting and waving and swirling around, don’t they?”
And a more fun quote:
“You know,” Jake said in a conversational tone as we waited for Tobias to acquire the bat, “from the point where Edelman said ‘maple and ginger oatmeal,’ I should have known this was going to end stupidly.”
“Instant maple and ginger oatmeal,” Cassie said.
“Battles that involve oatmeal are just never going to end up being historic, you know?” Jake went on. “Gettysburg? No major oatmeal involvement. The Battle of Midway? Neither side used oatmeal. Desert Storm? No oatmeal.”
Scorecard: Yeerks 4, Animorphs 8
I’m giving them both points. Yes, the Animorphs strike a pretty major blow. But it can’t be ignored that the Yeerks have really wised up, what with the bio detectors, the security bots, and Visser Three’s systematic shut down and search of the Yeerk Pool.
Rating: For as wacky as the whole madness-by-oatmeal thing is, this book has some legitimately tense moments. It’s also one of the few books that takes place over almost an entire week (they usually seem to take about a day or two), so it was a nice touch of reality, that many of these missions weren’t glamorous or non-stop action. We continue to see Rachel’s decline as the pressure she puts on herself to be brave becomes increasingly hard to bare. Though I do like that this book highlights the ways that this aspect of her personality saves the group at times as well. I doubt any of the rest would have been brave enough or thought quickly enough to blow the tunnel up on themselves.
March 3, 2024
Imagine my surprise when i recalled part of this plot and therefore I’ve made it to book 17 at some point in my life.
Also damn Rachel you a fucking badass and can think on her feet way better then I could
Also damn Rachel you a fucking badass and can think on her feet way better then I could
May 19, 2023
Probably my favorite Rachel book. Great ethical discussion and really fantastic insights into and growth from Rachel’s character. I got this signed by KA Applegate two Saturdays ago.
March 25, 2015
The book begins with the Animorphs using their abilities to gain entry to a star-studded event by morphing into birds. Things turn serious when they spot a man attempting suicide from a high building. They save him and find out this guy knows about Yeerks and wanted to escape them by ending his life. He reveals to them a potential weapon against the Yeerks, This revelation was a bit whacky to say the least. With this new discovery, the Animorphs plan to infiltrate the Yeerk Pool and put the weapon to good use. Strangely, this installment didn't have much going in and felt slow-paced. Heck, they spent four days digging a hole in the ground! I think I prefer the books in the Animorphs series with character development and this installment was unfortunately lacking that and just involved a lot of running around.
June 1, 2015
Although I enjoyed the plot in this one, Applegate had the kids revelling in calling people 'crazy' and 'nuts' with a great deal of othering without really analysing it at all. The implication is that some mentally ill people are unlucky enough to have oatmeal-addicted Yeerks in their heads but most are just crazy people, who are completely different from people like 'us'.
Of course, Applegate does draw attention to depression and PTSD in the series as well, but not always in a very analytical way, and depression especially is kind of condemned, in that Marco's dad emotionally abandons him until he just decides it's time to stop grieving, so he snaps out of it. Because that's how profound depression works, apparently.
Maybe I'm expecting too much of a kids series from the 90s here, but I am especially attached to mental health issues and removing stigma.
Of course, Applegate does draw attention to depression and PTSD in the series as well, but not always in a very analytical way, and depression especially is kind of condemned, in that Marco's dad emotionally abandons him until he just decides it's time to stop grieving, so he snaps out of it. Because that's how profound depression works, apparently.
Maybe I'm expecting too much of a kids series from the 90s here, but I am especially attached to mental health issues and removing stigma.
June 16, 2011
Aside from the absurdity of oatmeal acting as a weapon against the Yeerks (I'm still not sure what the Animorphs were hoping to accomplish -- what's the use in making the Yeerks even crazier if it means they won't ever release their holds on their hosts?), this was still a fun action story. Mainly forgettable, though, as the characters don't develop and, oddly, we never seem to hear about the oatmeal again. That I know of, anyway.
December 27, 2020
Rating: 4.5
Rachel is actually so much less obnoxious and so much more badass than the average 'strong female character' in most modern YA that I've read.
Celaena Sardothian who?
Rachel is actually so much less obnoxious and so much more badass than the average 'strong female character' in most modern YA that I've read.
Celaena Sardothian who?
November 17, 2021
Audiobook review here.
November 5, 2020 reread:
When Rachel sees a man leap from a skyscraper, she dives to save him, getting the other Animorphs to join in the rescue. A job well done, and Rachel thinks she can forget about him. Except now she finds out he’s been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and she feels responsible for him. He reveals that the Yeerks have a weak spot: instant maple and ginger oatmeal. It makes them mad, and gives their host some control back. Thus begins the great mission involving oatmeal, and another trip to the Yeerk pool. But it won’t be easy; a trip to the Yeerk pool is never easy.
I feel like I underrated this book in 2015, hence bumping it up to four stars this time around. Through Rachel, we get to see how much each Animorph is starting to be stuck in a role they have to play to make the team work. The team is settling into a routine, into their roles, and we see how these roles both make them stronger and show their cracks even more. They’re holding on, but barely, and in no small part thanks to the roles they play in the group.
Perhaps one of the more interesting nuances of this, though, is how Rachel already recognizes she is reckless and ruthless, yet most of what drives her in this is the desire to save and look out for the well being of George Edelman, a human-Controller whose Yeerk is mad from its addiction to instant maple and ginger oatmeal. For as ruthless as she is capable of being, her actions towards George are leaning heavily towards the altruistic side. She barely thinks twice about saving him from his suicidal jump, and the entire mission happens because of her feeling of responsibility towards George. It’s becoming clear just how much Rachel takes a rather case-by-case view of this war. As she admits, she’s not good at seeing the big picture (that’s for Jake, Marco and Cassie to do), but she can see what’s right in front of her and if she can do something about it, she’ll say “Let’s do it” in a heartbeat. Rachel clings to goodness, she needs the Animorphs to balance her out, especially Cassie as noted in the quote below. Rachel wants to do good and be good, even as she sees she’s becoming so much more reckless and capable of ruthlessness.
On a broad scale: the number of references to past events creates a great continuity. From the fact that Rachel’s house is still under construction after her allergic reaction in #12, to the link she makes between the mole morph and her shrew morph from #2, as well as a few more, it’s nice to see these little nods to past events. I feel like once the ghost writers get in, these references became fewer and further between. Time will tell if my recollection is accurate or not!
Then, this book does bring up some interesting questions, like where does a rescuer’s responsibility towards the person they save end? If you learn of an enemy’s weakness, if it has undesirable side effects, could you – should you – exploit it? How does playing a role both help and hurt an individual and the team effort? Not to mention the mission itself. It’s out there, and I’d say we could even chalk it up as successful, even though it doesn’t turn out as the Animorphs had planned. I also liked how George Edelman kept “coming back” into Rachel’s radar, and ultimately the amount compassion she shows towards him throughout. She may be Xena, Warrior Princess, but she still has a heart and a sense of justice and kindness that she wants to keep. Her desire to help him is also a good message for readers: you never know a person’s full story, and should always show people compassion. They may have been through hell, and are still picking up the pieces as best they can. All they need is a little compassion to help them back through the darkness.
Error-type stuff:
But I couldn’t thought-speak. – page 117 – Except Rachel’s still in morph here, so she could thought-speak – it’s more a question of if the others are in range or not.
Marco held up one massive, leathery paw. – page 144 – He’s a gorilla, so it’d still be “hand” not “paw”
Quotes:
I don’t know why, but it frightened me to think of Cassie not knowing what was right and wrong. Or at least thinking she didn’t know. Cassie was my best friend. I countered on her to balance me. She was supposed to be sensible when I was reckless. She was supposed to be moral when I was ruthless.
But things had gotten more and more confused for all of us, I guess. – page 62-63
Sometimes it’s hard to get out of a role once you’ve started playing the part. – page 108
Original Review: July 13, 2015 - original rating 3 stars
And let's introduce another moral conundrum: How far into savagery do you go to defeat the savage/villain? The trials the Animorphs are facing are not only becoming more real, but also becoming much more painful in that they are starting to see where the (gray) lines are drawn between doing good for good and doing bad for good. And to preempt that, how much responsibility do you have to take for the life of person you have just saved from suicide?
Overall, we also see more sides of Rachel. She is the gung-ho person who is always saying "Let's do it" - but we see that she also says it when she doesn't want to. Rather, she now also says it because it is what is expected of her. So often we fall into the roles we fill in a group, and once we're entrenched, it can be really hard to break free of the role. In this case, Rachel is unable to break free of her role as the go-to girl in the Animorphs group. However, she is able to embrace it and follow through. Because sometimes, between the role you hold and what needs to be done, just knowing what is expected of you can be enough incentive to get you through the moment and do what needs to be done, no matter what. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, as we see in this book, and I am sure we will continue to see this throughout the series.
One quote you can't not note from this book, and one of the more powerful "message" quotes:
I'd like a Happy Meal. With extra happy.
and
Everyone in a group has a role to play. At least that's how it always works out. [...] Sometimes it's hard to get out of a role once you've started playing the part.
Quotes and commentaries:
I powered back to the poor suicide guy [we had just saved from a concrete-impact death]. Although by now I wasn't feeling sorry for him, so much as really annoyed. I mean, what is it with people killing themselves? How big a moron do you have to be to figure out that as least if you stay alive and have some hope, as opposed to being dead and having zero? -- page 17 -- While probably no longer politically correct (okay, almost definitely not), it is a very simplified view of looking at suicide. It reminds us that the Animorphs are kids, and despite being thrown into these very 'adult' situations, they can still have the simplified views of teenagers.
< Cassie's right. It's not politically correct to call nuts nuts, > Tobias said.
Cassie looked at me. "You know, I could swear I heard that bird talking. I must be nuts." - page 29-30 -- Though it sounds more like a Marco reply, haha.
< Is that one of you? > Tobias cried from far away.
Thanks be to a million years of evolution that has given the hawk its magnificent eyes. Oh, yes, oh, yes, love those eyes.
[...after Tobias gets the tarantula trying to eat Rachel]
And from high above I heard Tobias say, < Hmmm. Not bad. Not bad at all. >
[...]
< You think Tobias actually ate that spider? > Marco asked.
< With banana relish, > I said. -- page 46-48
Cassie, Ax, and Tobias all just stared. Tobias was his hawk self, and he can really stare. Ax was in his own Andalite body, and he could stare with four eyes at once. -- page 59
< We [Andalites] also know that you can't win if you are not prepared to be a little ruthless. It's a question of balance. How far into savagery do you go to defeat the savage? > [Ax said.] -- page 60 -- I feel like this echoes something Elfangor learned on the Taxxon home planet with Arbron. Or at least, he learned over the course of the Andalite Chronicles. I wonder if he is the one who passed the lesson on to Ax, instead of Ax learning it in school?
< [...]We have to win[, > Tobias added grimly.]
I laughed without any humor at all. I'm pretty gung ho. Unlike Cassie, unlike Tobias perhaps, I'm ruthless at times. But even I have enough sense to know the words "we have to win" are the first four steps on the road to hell. -- page 64
I guess it was a weird scene. Me, with this big red-tailed hawk perched on the edge of my desk. Sitting there in the glow of a single lamp, while the rest of my family still slept. But we did it lots of mornings. Whenever Tobias managed to find an early breakfast and it wasn't raining. -- page 69 -- How sweet. And he doesn't mind the math homework, either. Here we see that Tobias is also not totally giving up on the more mundane human things like math. Plus, I think we're pretty well establishing that Tobias and Rachel actually spend a good deal of time together outside of 'being Animorphs'.
, Yes, this [fly] body has no ability to regulate body temperature, > Ax observed. < What a strange idea. You humans do many unusual things. >
< Ax, I don't think we're exactly responsible for-- >
< Yes, I know. I was attempting to make a joke. A human-style joke. >
< Great, > Marco muttered. < Funny Yeerks and now a wannabe-funny Andalite. > -- page 73
November 5, 2020 reread:
When Rachel sees a man leap from a skyscraper, she dives to save him, getting the other Animorphs to join in the rescue. A job well done, and Rachel thinks she can forget about him. Except now she finds out he’s been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and she feels responsible for him. He reveals that the Yeerks have a weak spot: instant maple and ginger oatmeal. It makes them mad, and gives their host some control back. Thus begins the great mission involving oatmeal, and another trip to the Yeerk pool. But it won’t be easy; a trip to the Yeerk pool is never easy.
I feel like I underrated this book in 2015, hence bumping it up to four stars this time around. Through Rachel, we get to see how much each Animorph is starting to be stuck in a role they have to play to make the team work. The team is settling into a routine, into their roles, and we see how these roles both make them stronger and show their cracks even more. They’re holding on, but barely, and in no small part thanks to the roles they play in the group.
Perhaps one of the more interesting nuances of this, though, is how Rachel already recognizes she is reckless and ruthless, yet most of what drives her in this is the desire to save and look out for the well being of George Edelman, a human-Controller whose Yeerk is mad from its addiction to instant maple and ginger oatmeal. For as ruthless as she is capable of being, her actions towards George are leaning heavily towards the altruistic side. She barely thinks twice about saving him from his suicidal jump, and the entire mission happens because of her feeling of responsibility towards George. It’s becoming clear just how much Rachel takes a rather case-by-case view of this war. As she admits, she’s not good at seeing the big picture (that’s for Jake, Marco and Cassie to do), but she can see what’s right in front of her and if she can do something about it, she’ll say “Let’s do it” in a heartbeat. Rachel clings to goodness, she needs the Animorphs to balance her out, especially Cassie as noted in the quote below. Rachel wants to do good and be good, even as she sees she’s becoming so much more reckless and capable of ruthlessness.
On a broad scale: the number of references to past events creates a great continuity. From the fact that Rachel’s house is still under construction after her allergic reaction in #12, to the link she makes between the mole morph and her shrew morph from #2, as well as a few more, it’s nice to see these little nods to past events. I feel like once the ghost writers get in, these references became fewer and further between. Time will tell if my recollection is accurate or not!
Then, this book does bring up some interesting questions, like where does a rescuer’s responsibility towards the person they save end? If you learn of an enemy’s weakness, if it has undesirable side effects, could you – should you – exploit it? How does playing a role both help and hurt an individual and the team effort? Not to mention the mission itself. It’s out there, and I’d say we could even chalk it up as successful, even though it doesn’t turn out as the Animorphs had planned. I also liked how George Edelman kept “coming back” into Rachel’s radar, and ultimately the amount compassion she shows towards him throughout. She may be Xena, Warrior Princess, but she still has a heart and a sense of justice and kindness that she wants to keep. Her desire to help him is also a good message for readers: you never know a person’s full story, and should always show people compassion. They may have been through hell, and are still picking up the pieces as best they can. All they need is a little compassion to help them back through the darkness.
Error-type stuff:
But I couldn’t thought-speak. – page 117 – Except Rachel’s still in morph here, so she could thought-speak – it’s more a question of if the others are in range or not.
Marco held up one massive, leathery paw. – page 144 – He’s a gorilla, so it’d still be “hand” not “paw”
Quotes:
I don’t know why, but it frightened me to think of Cassie not knowing what was right and wrong. Or at least thinking she didn’t know. Cassie was my best friend. I countered on her to balance me. She was supposed to be sensible when I was reckless. She was supposed to be moral when I was ruthless.
But things had gotten more and more confused for all of us, I guess. – page 62-63
Sometimes it’s hard to get out of a role once you’ve started playing the part. – page 108
Original Review: July 13, 2015 - original rating 3 stars
And let's introduce another moral conundrum: How far into savagery do you go to defeat the savage/villain? The trials the Animorphs are facing are not only becoming more real, but also becoming much more painful in that they are starting to see where the (gray) lines are drawn between doing good for good and doing bad for good. And to preempt that, how much responsibility do you have to take for the life of person you have just saved from suicide?
Overall, we also see more sides of Rachel. She is the gung-ho person who is always saying "Let's do it" - but we see that she also says it when she doesn't want to. Rather, she now also says it because it is what is expected of her. So often we fall into the roles we fill in a group, and once we're entrenched, it can be really hard to break free of the role. In this case, Rachel is unable to break free of her role as the go-to girl in the Animorphs group. However, she is able to embrace it and follow through. Because sometimes, between the role you hold and what needs to be done, just knowing what is expected of you can be enough incentive to get you through the moment and do what needs to be done, no matter what. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, as we see in this book, and I am sure we will continue to see this throughout the series.
One quote you can't not note from this book, and one of the more powerful "message" quotes:
I'd like a Happy Meal. With extra happy.
and
Everyone in a group has a role to play. At least that's how it always works out. [...] Sometimes it's hard to get out of a role once you've started playing the part.
Quotes and commentaries:
I powered back to the poor suicide guy [we had just saved from a concrete-impact death]. Although by now I wasn't feeling sorry for him, so much as really annoyed. I mean, what is it with people killing themselves? How big a moron do you have to be to figure out that as least if you stay alive and have some hope, as opposed to being dead and having zero? -- page 17 -- While probably no longer politically correct (okay, almost definitely not), it is a very simplified view of looking at suicide. It reminds us that the Animorphs are kids, and despite being thrown into these very 'adult' situations, they can still have the simplified views of teenagers.
< Cassie's right. It's not politically correct to call nuts nuts, > Tobias said.
Cassie looked at me. "You know, I could swear I heard that bird talking. I must be nuts." - page 29-30 -- Though it sounds more like a Marco reply, haha.
< Is that one of you? > Tobias cried from far away.
Thanks be to a million years of evolution that has given the hawk its magnificent eyes. Oh, yes, oh, yes, love those eyes.
[...after Tobias gets the tarantula trying to eat Rachel]
And from high above I heard Tobias say, < Hmmm. Not bad. Not bad at all. >
[...]
< You think Tobias actually ate that spider? > Marco asked.
< With banana relish, > I said. -- page 46-48
Cassie, Ax, and Tobias all just stared. Tobias was his hawk self, and he can really stare. Ax was in his own Andalite body, and he could stare with four eyes at once. -- page 59
< We [Andalites] also know that you can't win if you are not prepared to be a little ruthless. It's a question of balance. How far into savagery do you go to defeat the savage? > [Ax said.] -- page 60 -- I feel like this echoes something Elfangor learned on the Taxxon home planet with Arbron. Or at least, he learned over the course of the Andalite Chronicles. I wonder if he is the one who passed the lesson on to Ax, instead of Ax learning it in school?
< [...]We have to win[, > Tobias added grimly.]
I laughed without any humor at all. I'm pretty gung ho. Unlike Cassie, unlike Tobias perhaps, I'm ruthless at times. But even I have enough sense to know the words "we have to win" are the first four steps on the road to hell. -- page 64
I guess it was a weird scene. Me, with this big red-tailed hawk perched on the edge of my desk. Sitting there in the glow of a single lamp, while the rest of my family still slept. But we did it lots of mornings. Whenever Tobias managed to find an early breakfast and it wasn't raining. -- page 69 -- How sweet. And he doesn't mind the math homework, either. Here we see that Tobias is also not totally giving up on the more mundane human things like math. Plus, I think we're pretty well establishing that Tobias and Rachel actually spend a good deal of time together outside of 'being Animorphs'.
, Yes, this [fly] body has no ability to regulate body temperature, > Ax observed. < What a strange idea. You humans do many unusual things. >
< Ax, I don't think we're exactly responsible for-- >
< Yes, I know. I was attempting to make a joke. A human-style joke. >
< Great, > Marco muttered. < Funny Yeerks and now a wannabe-funny Andalite. > -- page 73
October 28, 2023
This feels more like a filler than anything. It does have some good points though.
Rachel and the Animorphs learn that oatmeal is affecting the Yeerks' sanity, despite the positives of their reliance on the Kandrona rays but it causes them to lose their minds as well as the Yeerk to lose control over their hosts sporadically.
So this opens the moral dilemma of the Animorphs using oatmeal as a tool to weaken the Yeerks despite knowing that it puts the human hosts at risk as well. I do like the themes of drug abuse, addiction, and mental health that popped up in this book.
The Yeerks (and the Animorphs) learned that the side effect: not only would the Yeerk go insane, but they would be fused to their host's brain permanently, unable to leave and staying alive so long as their host lived. (Bloody hell! The human hosts are already doomed to begin with, being trapped in their own body and mind, then add to this, it all seems hopeless!)
The Animorphs have a moral debate on whether using psychochemical warfare against the Yeerks and are split on their opinion about it as giving oatmeal to the Yeerks would cause them to form a drug-like addiction to it.
It's interesting to see the group divided in their views. Rachel believes that it is acceptable since the Yeerks are their enemies; Marco refuses to recognize oatmeal as a drug (not to humans anyways), while Tobias, Cassie, Ax, and Jake do not wish to cross this ethical line.
It's a VERY fine line not to cross, as all have valid reasons behind their decisions, that drugs aren't the answer, Cassie, being the pacifist in the group has the realization it's not black and white anymore, while Jake doesn't want to risk Tom being affected as he still harbors hope that he can save his elder brother.
They're stuck in between a rock and a hard place. A few times they have come across methods that can hurt the Yeerks, like the last one, another Yeerk committing cannibalism, hunting its own kind but in the meantime human hosts are dying.
In the end, they do agree to go ahead with - the oatmeal plan, but alas it doesn't work out as they have to escape and save their asses.
FINALLY!! The Yeerks have upped their security against the Animorphs and how Rachel outsmarts Visser Three in order to save her friends was actually clever and not silly, which made for a nice change.
Of course, anytime Marco totally fangirling over Lucy Lawless/Xena is okay with me I mean who can blame him? I have plenty of times lol
Rachel and the Animorphs learn that oatmeal is affecting the Yeerks' sanity, despite the positives of their reliance on the Kandrona rays but it causes them to lose their minds as well as the Yeerk to lose control over their hosts sporadically.
So this opens the moral dilemma of the Animorphs using oatmeal as a tool to weaken the Yeerks despite knowing that it puts the human hosts at risk as well. I do like the themes of drug abuse, addiction, and mental health that popped up in this book.
The Yeerks (and the Animorphs) learned that the side effect: not only would the Yeerk go insane, but they would be fused to their host's brain permanently, unable to leave and staying alive so long as their host lived. (Bloody hell! The human hosts are already doomed to begin with, being trapped in their own body and mind, then add to this, it all seems hopeless!)
The Animorphs have a moral debate on whether using psychochemical warfare against the Yeerks and are split on their opinion about it as giving oatmeal to the Yeerks would cause them to form a drug-like addiction to it.
It's interesting to see the group divided in their views. Rachel believes that it is acceptable since the Yeerks are their enemies; Marco refuses to recognize oatmeal as a drug (not to humans anyways), while Tobias, Cassie, Ax, and Jake do not wish to cross this ethical line.
It's a VERY fine line not to cross, as all have valid reasons behind their decisions, that drugs aren't the answer, Cassie, being the pacifist in the group has the realization it's not black and white anymore, while Jake doesn't want to risk Tom being affected as he still harbors hope that he can save his elder brother.
They're stuck in between a rock and a hard place. A few times they have come across methods that can hurt the Yeerks, like the last one, another Yeerk committing cannibalism, hunting its own kind but in the meantime human hosts are dying.
In the end, they do agree to go ahead with - the oatmeal plan, but alas it doesn't work out as they have to escape and save their asses.
FINALLY!! The Yeerks have upped their security against the Animorphs and how Rachel outsmarts Visser Three in order to save her friends was actually clever and not silly, which made for a nice change.
Of course, anytime Marco totally fangirling over Lucy Lawless/Xena is okay with me I mean who can blame him? I have plenty of times lol
January 2, 2020
Original review at Jaunts & Haunts
4.5/5
I give this book four and a half maple and ginger stars!
In this installment of the Animorphs series, Rachel and the others learn of a deadly secret, a weakness of the Yeerks! I'll give you a hint, it's for breakfast, mushy, and looks like slop. Yep, it's oatmeal!
The only thing is, what should they do with this information? Should they risk a direct attack on the Yeerk pool, or is there another way they can settle the score in this increasingly violent war?
This book was a lot of fun. This time around, we're in Rachel's POV, which has quickly become my favorite. She's always been more gung ho about attacking the Yeerks, and I really respect that. She's one tough cookie and not afraid to kick some serious butt.
I really enjoyed the humor from the beginning. Applegate always seems to do a good job of that in each book. It always starts off light, and this time the Planet Hollywood reference brought back some serious nostalgia.
The stakes were high once again with the discovery of the Yeerk's weakness, but I felt in spots the execution was a little redundant and the adventure somewhat repetitive.
Despite that, this book did a great job of upping the ante. It's clear from reading this that the Yeerks are getting more powerful, their influence stronger. It's foreboding and ominous of the difficult adventures ahead of our Animorph friends.
All in all, this was a fun, exhilarating continuation of the series, and although it wasn't my favorite, it still definitely packed a punch, whether or not you like oatmeal.
4.5/5
I give this book four and a half maple and ginger stars!
In this installment of the Animorphs series, Rachel and the others learn of a deadly secret, a weakness of the Yeerks! I'll give you a hint, it's for breakfast, mushy, and looks like slop. Yep, it's oatmeal!
The only thing is, what should they do with this information? Should they risk a direct attack on the Yeerk pool, or is there another way they can settle the score in this increasingly violent war?
This book was a lot of fun. This time around, we're in Rachel's POV, which has quickly become my favorite. She's always been more gung ho about attacking the Yeerks, and I really respect that. She's one tough cookie and not afraid to kick some serious butt.
I really enjoyed the humor from the beginning. Applegate always seems to do a good job of that in each book. It always starts off light, and this time the Planet Hollywood reference brought back some serious nostalgia.
The stakes were high once again with the discovery of the Yeerk's weakness, but I felt in spots the execution was a little redundant and the adventure somewhat repetitive.
Despite that, this book did a great job of upping the ante. It's clear from reading this that the Yeerks are getting more powerful, their influence stronger. It's foreboding and ominous of the difficult adventures ahead of our Animorph friends.
All in all, this was a fun, exhilarating continuation of the series, and although it wasn't my favorite, it still definitely packed a punch, whether or not you like oatmeal.
March 26, 2022
Rachel and Marco has begun solidifying themselves as the more ruthless and morally questionable members of the team, splitting the group up into a very interesting spectrum of ethics. With Jake on one end and Marco and Rachel on the other, Tobias and Cassie are caught ranging in the middle.
The conflicts surrounding this new Yeerk weakness and how it impacts human hosts was uncomfortable, dark, and highly intriguing.
Rachel is at a point where she’s ready to win the war by any means necessary and is perpetually fed up, clashing regularly with Jake in his insistence that they should always work to be better than those they’re fighting. Jake’s willingness to do good is hanging on by a thread and Rachel and Marco are growing tired of it.
There is no way any of this can end well.
CW: war, violence, slavery, manipulation, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, addiction, brief ableism
The conflicts surrounding this new Yeerk weakness and how it impacts human hosts was uncomfortable, dark, and highly intriguing.
Rachel is at a point where she’s ready to win the war by any means necessary and is perpetually fed up, clashing regularly with Jake in his insistence that they should always work to be better than those they’re fighting. Jake’s willingness to do good is hanging on by a thread and Rachel and Marco are growing tired of it.
There is no way any of this can end well.
CW: war, violence, slavery, manipulation, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, addiction, brief ableism
October 30, 2020
In The Underground, we discover that maple ginger instant oatmeal is *sigh* a highly addictive, mind altering substance for Yeerks that will a.) make them more obvious to the public, but b.) make their and the lives of their hosts a living hell.
First off, oatmeal? Really? That’s.. dumb.
But! There’s lots of good conversations around how problematic it would be to secretly give the Yeerks the oatmeal, knowing it could screw up, say, Jake’s brother, or Marco’s mom. They ultimately dump barrels of oatmeal into the pool when half the group is captured and they need negotiating power.
I still can’t believe oatmeal is a drug in this book. What the hell?
First off, oatmeal? Really? That’s.. dumb.
But! There’s lots of good conversations around how problematic it would be to secretly give the Yeerks the oatmeal, knowing it could screw up, say, Jake’s brother, or Marco’s mom. They ultimately dump barrels of oatmeal into the pool when half the group is captured and they need negotiating power.
I still can’t believe oatmeal is a drug in this book. What the hell?
October 15, 2023
ugh wow this book was so fun! i will never not love rachel SHE IS MY GIRL UNTIL THE END OF TIME!!!! this book was so definitively Animorphs. like discussing the morality of using addictive drugs in war But the addictive drugs in question are maple ginger instant oatmeal. i do kind of think they were all to quick to want to use instant oatmeal against the yeerks, especially marco being like Who cares it’s just oatmeal, but also these are children making adult decisions so yeah they aren’t always going to chose the morally sound answer. i loved the jokes and gags in this book. i loved the RACHEL AND TOBIAS IN THIS BOOK.
May 22, 2024
Fun morphing action! Cartoonish evil Visser with a silly plot point about the Yeerks. This could be interesting but I have this fear that this drug will never come up again in the series. Animorphs likes doing that. Rachel’s character development comes more in her relationship to Edelman which I thought was interesting but maybe a little underplayed. Also many animorphs’ endings are rushed but this one was especially rough.
April 18, 2022
Oh sí. Para mi gusto creo que es uno de los mejores libros de la saga.
Aunque de la portada no pueda decir lo mismo 😅
Rachel y Marco son mis favoritos del grupo.
Otras personas esperando el final de la batalla, y yo esperando que Rachel y Marco se besen 🤣 Juro que gritaría el doble.
¡Espero que en futuros libros se den cuenta que se aman!
Aunque de la portada no pueda decir lo mismo 😅
Rachel y Marco son mis favoritos del grupo.
Otras personas esperando el final de la batalla, y yo esperando que Rachel y Marco se besen 🤣 Juro que gritaría el doble.
¡Espero que en futuros libros se den cuenta que se aman!
March 27, 2023
instant maple and ginger oatmeal may be this middle schooler's biological weapon of choice, but never forget that arnold schwarzenegger is the true villain
Read
July 21, 2023this one was so fucking stressful
September 19, 2024
Each book just gets better! I am loving all these twists and little wins.
August 3, 2025
I really liked this one. Lot of stuff going on. 4.2 stars
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