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Animorphs #43
The Test
Tobias, the other Animorphs, and Ax have seen things so bizarre that no sane person would believe their story. No one would believe that aliens have taken over Earth, and are in the process of infesting as many humans as possible. No one could believe the battles and missions and losses these six kids have had to deal with. And it's not over yet.
Tobias has been captured by the same human-Controller that nearly tortured him to death once before. She claims that now she's a part of the Yeerk peace movement. That she just needs a favor. Tobias isn't sure what to believe, but he knows that if the Animorphs and Ax don't find him soon, what he believes won't matter anymore. . . .
Tobias has been captured by the same human-Controller that nearly tortured him to death once before. She claims that now she's a part of the Yeerk peace movement. That she just needs a favor. Tobias isn't sure what to believe, but he knows that if the Animorphs and Ax don't find him soon, what he believes won't matter anymore. . . .
135 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2000
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922 people want to read
About the author
K.A. Applegate
251 books486 followersalso published under the name Katherine Applegate
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
September 26, 2023
Tobias gets captured by the same human controller who tortured him before. She has a proposition for him. She says she needs the help of the Animorphs to install democracy amongst the Yeerks. Naturally, the Animorphs think she’s just trying to put herself on the throne. And if they decide to help her, a lot of people will die. But can they really say no to this opportunity, especially if she could really be planning to establish a democracy amongst the parasitic Yeerks?
I don’t want to complain too much here, as it’s very much appreciated that this isn’t a filler story. This actually advances Tobias’s character arc, he’s suffering from PTSD after getting tortured in his previous point of view book. It once again shows that there’s dissention amongst the ranks of the Yeerks. And it shows that the Animorphs are willing to cross some lines they weren’t willing to cross in the beginning of their war against the Yeerks. But it’s quite a boring story. It’s mostly just the Animorphs debating whether or not they should help the Yeerk who tortured Tobias.
I like the concept of this story. I appreciate that it’s not another filler story. And there are some cool moments to be found here. But it’s not the most exciting story of the series.
I don’t want to complain too much here, as it’s very much appreciated that this isn’t a filler story. This actually advances Tobias’s character arc, he’s suffering from PTSD after getting tortured in his previous point of view book. It once again shows that there’s dissention amongst the ranks of the Yeerks. And it shows that the Animorphs are willing to cross some lines they weren’t willing to cross in the beginning of their war against the Yeerks. But it’s quite a boring story. It’s mostly just the Animorphs debating whether or not they should help the Yeerk who tortured Tobias.
I like the concept of this story. I appreciate that it’s not another filler story. And there are some cool moments to be found here. But it’s not the most exciting story of the series.
January 31, 2018
Alternative title: Tobias is Not OK. Another extremely well-written, gut-punching character story with an otherwise uninteresting plot to keep it chugging along.
The Test reveals that Tobias is still basically shattered from his torture at the hands of the sadistic, and possibly mad, Yeerk Taylor. While the rest of the Animorphs have been dealing with their own shit, apparently, for the last ten books, Tobias has been keeping it together around them but then metaphorically going off and crying in a corner.
We see Applegate explore PTSD and related symptoms of war in many ways over the course of this series. The Test is different in that Tobias’ trauma is linked to a very specific incident, rather than the culmination of years’ worth of battle scars and moral dilemmas. It’s also still quite raw, and when he suddenly encounters Taylor again—and has to work with her—all those feelings come flooding back.
I also think there’s something to the fact that Tobias, now living in the form of a hawk, suppresses a lot of his emotions. He always describes his hawk-self as a cool, calculating, deadly being. There isn’t much room in the hawk for mercy. So I get the sense that it’s much easier for Tobias to push down his more human emotions when he’s cruising around in hawk-mode, especially if he’s hunting. You don’t want your compassion for living creatures to get in the way of that dinner you need. Yet this means that it becomes ever more difficult for Tobias to process his feelings, and I think we really see that here.
Basically, The Test is a roller coaster of emotion. In addition to the prominent problems of our protagonist, Applegate shows Cassie breaking ranks once again when it comes to the morality of a mission. The Animorphs have gone from “how do we fight the Yeerks” to “should we even be doing this” and seeing the Yeerks as a more diverse, rather than monolithic, enemy. In an era where a lot of villains came in Saturday morning cartoon flavour-of-the-week cookiecutter squads of minions and bad guys, this kind of shades-of-grey portrayal is stunning. In this book we’re reminded that there are Yeerks who are much worse than Visser Three (like Taylor), Yeerks who want peace, and of course, Yeerks who are just there, Yeerking it out. And as the Animorphs come to terms with this, it becomes harder and harder to accept just wholesale slaughtering Yeerks as a way of fighting their invasion.
Tobias’ voice ultimately carries this one. It’s not a coincidence that this book was written by the same ghostwriter who did The Illusion. Tobias isn’t usually my favourite character/narrator, but I have to admit that a lot of his books are just good, and this is no exception.
I’ll finish with another retro tech thought: wow, the lengths to which Ax goes to get Internet out in their little hideaway, and the whole thought of dialing in to go onto AOL. Wild.
Next time: Cassie is stranded in Australia! Let’s guess how many stereotypes we’ll get to see.
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #42: The Journey | #44: The Unexpected →
The Test reveals that Tobias is still basically shattered from his torture at the hands of the sadistic, and possibly mad, Yeerk Taylor. While the rest of the Animorphs have been dealing with their own shit, apparently, for the last ten books, Tobias has been keeping it together around them but then metaphorically going off and crying in a corner.
We see Applegate explore PTSD and related symptoms of war in many ways over the course of this series. The Test is different in that Tobias’ trauma is linked to a very specific incident, rather than the culmination of years’ worth of battle scars and moral dilemmas. It’s also still quite raw, and when he suddenly encounters Taylor again—and has to work with her—all those feelings come flooding back.
I also think there’s something to the fact that Tobias, now living in the form of a hawk, suppresses a lot of his emotions. He always describes his hawk-self as a cool, calculating, deadly being. There isn’t much room in the hawk for mercy. So I get the sense that it’s much easier for Tobias to push down his more human emotions when he’s cruising around in hawk-mode, especially if he’s hunting. You don’t want your compassion for living creatures to get in the way of that dinner you need. Yet this means that it becomes ever more difficult for Tobias to process his feelings, and I think we really see that here.
Basically, The Test is a roller coaster of emotion. In addition to the prominent problems of our protagonist, Applegate shows Cassie breaking ranks once again when it comes to the morality of a mission. The Animorphs have gone from “how do we fight the Yeerks” to “should we even be doing this” and seeing the Yeerks as a more diverse, rather than monolithic, enemy. In an era where a lot of villains came in Saturday morning cartoon flavour-of-the-week cookiecutter squads of minions and bad guys, this kind of shades-of-grey portrayal is stunning. In this book we’re reminded that there are Yeerks who are much worse than Visser Three (like Taylor), Yeerks who want peace, and of course, Yeerks who are just there, Yeerking it out. And as the Animorphs come to terms with this, it becomes harder and harder to accept just wholesale slaughtering Yeerks as a way of fighting their invasion.
Tobias’ voice ultimately carries this one. It’s not a coincidence that this book was written by the same ghostwriter who did The Illusion. Tobias isn’t usually my favourite character/narrator, but I have to admit that a lot of his books are just good, and this is no exception.
I’ll finish with another retro tech thought: wow, the lengths to which Ax goes to get Internet out in their little hideaway, and the whole thought of dialing in to go onto AOL. Wild.
Next time: Cassie is stranded in Australia! Let’s guess how many stereotypes we’ll get to see.
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #42: The Journey | #44: The Unexpected →
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
December 26, 2017
Another single-day read, because I had to finish this one quickly. 4.5 stars!
I feel like the planned missions have been sidelined for a while: background noise, haven't had much focus on them lately, as the Animorphs were derailed by extra-dimensional adventures, the arrival of the Andalites, the buffahuman incident, more Andalites, the Helmacrons, etc. So this one comes as a breath of fresh air: a reminder that they do still have day-to-day missions, harrying and striking at the Yeerk empire.
Ghostwriter: Ellen Geroux, the best of the best! She's still picking up the pieces from #33 and Tobias' torture and PTSD (the handling of it is very, very good: I loved the line about how people think that when the physical wounds heal, that you're all better -- but you're not). This book features the inevitable return of Taylor, yet also a bit to do with the Yeerk peace movement as well.
Plus, most importantly, the Animorphs are directly facing more hard-line moral and ethical questions: the issue of how much is acceptable in a war, how much collateral sacrifice they can accept as a means to an end. That debate in the food court was fantastic, with Cassie arguing for their souls in a way that I understood this time, and doesn't come across as empty moralising. Their task ultimately doesn't even sit right with Rachel, of all people, either -- and Tobias, normally quite sensitive, seems to have become surprisingly harsh after all of his experiences.
And like, despite all the Tobias feelings in this book, that's not what wrecked me in the end, but Cassie. Cassie. Oh, my goddddd. Tears welled up in my eyes in a freakin Pret a Manger at lunchtime while finishing this book.
Other good things: the horror of the Taxxon morph, plus a bit more Andalite worldbuilding which I always appreciate.
Also, at one point they name a website, and it turns out that an Animorphs fan back in the day registered the EarthIsOurs. I spent a little while poking around the web archive of it, and giggling to myself. This was what the internet looked like in the late 90s/early 2000s, y'all! There are so many old ugly nostalgic Animorphs fansites still rusting away out there, like archaeological sites.
Plus, this fansite administrated by the same people, ahhh. I just read the chat transcript with KAA and it offered some REALLY thoughtful and intelligent commentary on the series from Applegate herself. If someone else follows those links, though, I don't recommend reading the chat unless you already remember/know details about the ending of the series.
Anyway. Back to the point: this book is great, well-written and emotional, as I've come to expect from Geroux. These moral questions are just going to keep plaguing them more and more, but you can see the issues fracturing the team already.
Favourite spoilery quotes below:
I feel like the planned missions have been sidelined for a while: background noise, haven't had much focus on them lately, as the Animorphs were derailed by extra-dimensional adventures, the arrival of the Andalites, the buffahuman incident, more Andalites, the Helmacrons, etc. So this one comes as a breath of fresh air: a reminder that they do still have day-to-day missions, harrying and striking at the Yeerk empire.
Ghostwriter: Ellen Geroux, the best of the best! She's still picking up the pieces from #33 and Tobias' torture and PTSD (the handling of it is very, very good: I loved the line about how people think that when the physical wounds heal, that you're all better -- but you're not). This book features the inevitable return of Taylor, yet also a bit to do with the Yeerk peace movement as well.
Plus, most importantly, the Animorphs are directly facing more hard-line moral and ethical questions: the issue of how much is acceptable in a war, how much collateral sacrifice they can accept as a means to an end. That debate in the food court was fantastic, with Cassie arguing for their souls in a way that I understood this time, and doesn't come across as empty moralising. Their task ultimately doesn't even sit right with Rachel, of all people, either -- and Tobias, normally quite sensitive, seems to have become surprisingly harsh after all of his experiences.
And like, despite all the Tobias feelings in this book, that's not what wrecked me in the end, but Cassie. Cassie. Oh, my goddddd. Tears welled up in my eyes in a freakin Pret a Manger at lunchtime while finishing this book.
Other good things: the horror of the Taxxon morph, plus a bit more Andalite worldbuilding which I always appreciate.
Also, at one point they name a website, and it turns out that an Animorphs fan back in the day registered the EarthIsOurs. I spent a little while poking around the web archive of it, and giggling to myself. This was what the internet looked like in the late 90s/early 2000s, y'all! There are so many old ugly nostalgic Animorphs fansites still rusting away out there, like archaeological sites.
Plus, this fansite administrated by the same people, ahhh. I just read the chat transcript with KAA and it offered some REALLY thoughtful and intelligent commentary on the series from Applegate herself. If someone else follows those links, though, I don't recommend reading the chat unless you already remember/know details about the ending of the series.
Anyway. Back to the point: this book is great, well-written and emotional, as I've come to expect from Geroux. These moral questions are just going to keep plaguing them more and more, but you can see the issues fracturing the team already.
Favourite spoilery quotes below:
July 25, 2022
We begin this story with a glaring plot hole.
A little boy named Bobby has gone missing in the woods and Tobias takes it upon himself to search for Bobby before finding the boy using thought-speak and leading the boy’s father to him.
Bobby is deaf. I’m not sure why Applegate made the kid deaf only to make him hear a few paragraphs later but ok.
Anyways, Tobias screws up and gets captured to be studied because he revealed the thought-speak to Bobby’s father in helping rescue the kid. And then we run into Taylor, a different disabled character who was fully down to be invested and enslaved in exchange for beauty and a new arm. The way Applegate handles and depicts disability in this series is definitely…interesting to say the least.
Moving on to the actual plot of this installment.
There’s a civil war brewing amongst the Yeerks and an unfriendly, familiar face recruits the Animorphs for assistance. In a particularly painful and cruel addition to the series, we see the bulk of the Animorphs stoop to new lows and truly resemble the Andalites in the worst way possible (except for Cassie, of course).
We get some major confirmation on where everyone stands on mass murder and sacrificing the innocents caught in the middle. We get a hard look at how propaganda shapes us. We see an uneasy conflict of ethics when it comes to how this team wants to win the war.
It’s anxiety-inducing on top of Tobias’ internal struggle with how he views himself and where he fits in this seemingly never-ending war.
Jesus.
CW: war, violence, death, grief, slavery, recurring references to torture, ableism + internalized ableism, mass murder, terrorism
A little boy named Bobby has gone missing in the woods and Tobias takes it upon himself to search for Bobby before finding the boy using thought-speak and leading the boy’s father to him.
Bobby is deaf. I’m not sure why Applegate made the kid deaf only to make him hear a few paragraphs later but ok.
Anyways, Tobias screws up and gets captured to be studied because he revealed the thought-speak to Bobby’s father in helping rescue the kid. And then we run into Taylor, a different disabled character who was fully down to be invested and enslaved in exchange for beauty and a new arm. The way Applegate handles and depicts disability in this series is definitely…interesting to say the least.
Moving on to the actual plot of this installment.
There’s a civil war brewing amongst the Yeerks and an unfriendly, familiar face recruits the Animorphs for assistance. In a particularly painful and cruel addition to the series, we see the bulk of the Animorphs stoop to new lows and truly resemble the Andalites in the worst way possible (except for Cassie, of course).
We get some major confirmation on where everyone stands on mass murder and sacrificing the innocents caught in the middle. We get a hard look at how propaganda shapes us. We see an uneasy conflict of ethics when it comes to how this team wants to win the war.
It’s anxiety-inducing on top of Tobias’ internal struggle with how he views himself and where he fits in this seemingly never-ending war.
Jesus.
CW: war, violence, death, grief, slavery, recurring references to torture, ableism + internalized ableism, mass murder, terrorism
November 16, 2024
Ahhh, Tobias has too good of a heart ❤️!
October 10, 2013
See the full review on The Moonlight Library!
Tobias and the Animorphs have made a deal with ex-Sub Visser Taylor, the insane Controller who tortured Tobias, to blow up the Yeerk Pool using natural gas and Taxxon morphs. But is it all a clever trap to eliminate the ‘Andalite bandits’ once and for all?
Here’s a little tidbit you might find interesting. Taylor gives the Animorphs a web address to contact her: http://www.EarthIsOurs.com. It doesn’t exist anymore, but back when this book was first published, it DID exist - because of course I visited it. Like in the book, it consisted of an image of Earth and a contact box. I copied the Animorphs and sent a random message saying “We’re in.” It’s totally not original, and I wonder how many emails that host got saying just that! Totes hilarious.
January 28, 2016
I almost wanted to put this book down by the time I was halfway through, it hurt so much to read. I read it slowly, and each word was like another stab in my heart for Tobias. I can only imagine how much harder it must have been to write it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the term “poured my blood, sweat, and tears” into something was created just for this book. Thankfully, after about page 90 or so, it finally got easier to read – if only because there was an active mission that the Animorphs were undertaking, and there was (slightly) less introspection and harsh self-analysis on Tobias’ part. Slightly.
In this book, Tobias is still haunted by his torture at the Yeerk Taylor’s hands, and confirms that he has spent even more time than usual in his own mind – not very healthy in general, and least of all for any of the Animorphs. He takes a risk and saves a deaf child, and he feels he is “stronger” for it – as if he needs to prove to anyone how strong he can be. However, he gets hurt and then captured by animal control, where Taylor finds him and recaptures him. This time, though, it is not about torturing him for secrets about the Andalite bandits. No, this time, Taylor claims to have joined the Yeerk Peace Movement, and that they are arranging something big to tip the balance in favor of the peace movement. Taylor pushes Tobias’ buttons, and in consequence, also pushes the Animorphs buttons. The plan she proposes is dangerous, and with a high innocent casualty rate, but the Animorphs still go along with it because it means causing significant damage to the Yeerk invasion force of Visser Three and turning the tide of the war.
As the mission unfolds, however, Tobias and the other Animorphs find themselves back in the age-old moral dilemma about harming innocents for the greater good. It will be enough for a member of the team to sit out the mission, something that has always been an option, but which no one had ever chosen to do before. And Tobias personally finds himself, perhaps without realizing it at first, having to face the fears that the torture brought out in him instead of burying them deep as he has been doing.
Despite appearances in the previous books, Tobias has not been doing well after he was tortured within an inch of his life by the Yeerk Taylor in The Illusion (Animorphs, #33). I was glad – not really the right word, maybe relieved? – that this book picked up with him trying to deal with what had happened to him, the torture itself, and how emotionally raw and scarred it left him. Torture is no simple matter, and he was tortured thoroughly, both physically and possibly more painfully, emotionally. Addressing the state Tobias is in after that chapter in his life is a very important thing. If K. A. Applegate had not explored his state of mind after the torture and reverted back to the whole bird-vs-human dilemma which book #33 tried to backtrack to, it would have undermined Tobias as a full, developed, complicated character, not to mention left open a huge area of discussion. The Animorphs books are exceedingly good at bringing tough moral, emotional, and war-related issues to the forefront, and approaching them in a matter which breaks them down, analyzes them, and makes them not only understandable, but hopefully more bearable in that all readers - no matter if they be a child or an adult - may gain empathy for people who have suffered any measure of what is brought up in Animorphs.
Though I have to say, I was grateful that the book used the events of the mission to deeper explore Tobias’ internal struggle and pain, because I think I would have been a sobbing mess if things had continued as they were at the beginning of the book. And that is no stretch of the truth.
There were too many poignant quotes to only choose one like I normally do… so instead, you get four:
All these normal people – moms and dads, kids and grandparents – represented the very thing we were fighting for. Humanity.
Evil, even the worst evil, has banal origins every human can understand.
But there is always a choice
There’s no real point in worrying about what you might have done. The past is the past […] Let it go
Quotes and comments:
My friends, the Animorphs, the ones who fight the Yeerk invasion of Earth, say that since my capture, I live too much of life in my head. They must be right. I’d almost missed everything. – page 3 – Even more so than after you were first trapped as a hawk…
See, it wasn’t long ago that the Yeerks captured me. A crazed and insane human-Controller made my life a hell for several excruciating hours. I survived. I even thought the torture was over. I didn’t realize that torture doesn’t end when you’re freed.
People think it does. People who’ve never been through torture think that when the physical injuries heal, you’re healed, too. They’re wrong. – page 4
My name is Tobias. I'm a human. I'm a hawk. If you want to find something in the forest, you'd do well to ask me.
There's nothing I don't see. -page 7
In this book, Tobias is still haunted by his torture at the Yeerk Taylor’s hands, and confirms that he has spent even more time than usual in his own mind – not very healthy in general, and least of all for any of the Animorphs. He takes a risk and saves a deaf child, and he feels he is “stronger” for it – as if he needs to prove to anyone how strong he can be. However, he gets hurt and then captured by animal control, where Taylor finds him and recaptures him. This time, though, it is not about torturing him for secrets about the Andalite bandits. No, this time, Taylor claims to have joined the Yeerk Peace Movement, and that they are arranging something big to tip the balance in favor of the peace movement. Taylor pushes Tobias’ buttons, and in consequence, also pushes the Animorphs buttons. The plan she proposes is dangerous, and with a high innocent casualty rate, but the Animorphs still go along with it because it means causing significant damage to the Yeerk invasion force of Visser Three and turning the tide of the war.
As the mission unfolds, however, Tobias and the other Animorphs find themselves back in the age-old moral dilemma about harming innocents for the greater good. It will be enough for a member of the team to sit out the mission, something that has always been an option, but which no one had ever chosen to do before. And Tobias personally finds himself, perhaps without realizing it at first, having to face the fears that the torture brought out in him instead of burying them deep as he has been doing.
Despite appearances in the previous books, Tobias has not been doing well after he was tortured within an inch of his life by the Yeerk Taylor in The Illusion (Animorphs, #33). I was glad – not really the right word, maybe relieved? – that this book picked up with him trying to deal with what had happened to him, the torture itself, and how emotionally raw and scarred it left him. Torture is no simple matter, and he was tortured thoroughly, both physically and possibly more painfully, emotionally. Addressing the state Tobias is in after that chapter in his life is a very important thing. If K. A. Applegate had not explored his state of mind after the torture and reverted back to the whole bird-vs-human dilemma which book #33 tried to backtrack to, it would have undermined Tobias as a full, developed, complicated character, not to mention left open a huge area of discussion. The Animorphs books are exceedingly good at bringing tough moral, emotional, and war-related issues to the forefront, and approaching them in a matter which breaks them down, analyzes them, and makes them not only understandable, but hopefully more bearable in that all readers - no matter if they be a child or an adult - may gain empathy for people who have suffered any measure of what is brought up in Animorphs.
Though I have to say, I was grateful that the book used the events of the mission to deeper explore Tobias’ internal struggle and pain, because I think I would have been a sobbing mess if things had continued as they were at the beginning of the book. And that is no stretch of the truth.
There were too many poignant quotes to only choose one like I normally do… so instead, you get four:
All these normal people – moms and dads, kids and grandparents – represented the very thing we were fighting for. Humanity.
Evil, even the worst evil, has banal origins every human can understand.
But there is always a choice
There’s no real point in worrying about what you might have done. The past is the past […] Let it go
Quotes and comments:
My friends, the Animorphs, the ones who fight the Yeerk invasion of Earth, say that since my capture, I live too much of life in my head. They must be right. I’d almost missed everything. – page 3 – Even more so than after you were first trapped as a hawk…
See, it wasn’t long ago that the Yeerks captured me. A crazed and insane human-Controller made my life a hell for several excruciating hours. I survived. I even thought the torture was over. I didn’t realize that torture doesn’t end when you’re freed.
People think it does. People who’ve never been through torture think that when the physical injuries heal, you’re healed, too. They’re wrong. – page 4
My name is Tobias. I'm a human. I'm a hawk. If you want to find something in the forest, you'd do well to ask me.
There's nothing I don't see. -page 7
November 30, 2015
This is one of the few Animorphs books where I just sort of stare at the cover for a while because it so perfectly encapsulates the book itself (the original cover, not any reprints). The human Tobias, ghostly behind the morphing sequence, looks like he's all of 9 years old, not the near-high-schooler that he actually is. And the morphing sequence is hawk to Taxxon, a creepy lobster-centipede beast with too many eyes and a tongue that reaches off of the cover itself. It is an ugliness that is consuming this kid who is way too young for any of this.
I appreciate so much that Applegate & Co. picked up the torture story from #33; that was way too big and important to leave behind for the rest of the series. So Taylor's reintroduction feels a bit forced, but once she's in, she's in and I utterly believe all that Tobias is fighting in working with her. Listening in on the pain and self-doubt and drive to prove himself and all of the mess that the torture shoved into him is so powerful here because it's never sappy. Tobias's confusion and deep, deep anguish felt real the whole way through--and then it gets coupled with the absolute crazy of the Taxxon morph and also Tobias's need to pretend to be an Andalite. Having already read The Andalite Chronicles and the fate of the trapped Andalite there, the Taxxon morph was that much more overwhelming and crushing. I was so glad we got both Tobias' and Ax's reactions to it, showcasing again that even though these guys have been morphing for literally years now, they still don't have it totally under control for every new morph.
I pretty much couldn't with the ending; the way Cassie's story goes largely undescribed is perfectly executed to make it as heartbreaking as possible, somewhat like the scariest horror stories are those that only suggest the man with the knife behind the door. I don't even want to know the ferocity her actions took, but it really is the continuing downward spiral of the Animorphs as they begin to see that war cannot be won with pure morals.
I appreciate so much that Applegate & Co. picked up the torture story from #33; that was way too big and important to leave behind for the rest of the series. So Taylor's reintroduction feels a bit forced, but once she's in, she's in and I utterly believe all that Tobias is fighting in working with her. Listening in on the pain and self-doubt and drive to prove himself and all of the mess that the torture shoved into him is so powerful here because it's never sappy. Tobias's confusion and deep, deep anguish felt real the whole way through--and then it gets coupled with the absolute crazy of the Taxxon morph and also Tobias's need to pretend to be an Andalite. Having already read The Andalite Chronicles and the fate of the trapped Andalite there, the Taxxon morph was that much more overwhelming and crushing. I was so glad we got both Tobias' and Ax's reactions to it, showcasing again that even though these guys have been morphing for literally years now, they still don't have it totally under control for every new morph.
I pretty much couldn't with the ending; the way Cassie's story goes largely undescribed is perfectly executed to make it as heartbreaking as possible, somewhat like the scariest horror stories are those that only suggest the man with the knife behind the door. I don't even want to know the ferocity her actions took, but it really is the continuing downward spiral of the Animorphs as they begin to see that war cannot be won with pure morals.
December 5, 2020
4.5.
Tobias books are interesting. Since Cassie, Jake, Marco, and Rachel have had about 8-9 books at this point, they’ve had plenty of time to be explored. In fact, some of their books have been pure filler and fluff. Even Ax, who has had even less books than Tobias, has had some of this (IIRC, The Experiment is fine, but doesn’t do much to develop Ax). But every single Tobias book essentially works to complete his character arc, and all are pretty devastating.
In The Test, we learn that Tobias is still dealing with the aftereffects of being tortured.. ten books ago. He’s been fairly quiet in the series since then, and it seems clear the rest of the Animorphs have been walking on eggshells around him, worried about saying the wrong thing.
We begin the book with Tobias doing a good deed- there’s a search for a little boy in the woods underfoot, and Tobias helps the searchers find him via thoughtspeak. After the reunion between boy and father, he’s hit by a golden hawk, brought to a rehabilitation clinic, and told by the employees there’s that “you’re da bird!” I’m dying. But she holds up a newspaper with the headline that a hawk lead searchers to the lost boy, and he realized the Yeerks will realize he’s trapped at this facility, and realizes he made a major mistake.
He gets captured by his past torturer, Taylor, who suggests the Animorphs work with her so they can work together to create a better democracy and destroy Visser 3. He brings this back to the Animorphs, and Tobias meets with her (morphed as Taylor, which is badass and creepy) where she shares that she wants the Animorphs to tunnel through to the Yeerk pool in Taxxon morph, and then she’ll pump in natural gas and then light it on fire, thus destroying the entire Yeerk pool. During this, Taylor’s host breaks through and tells them not to trust her.
Cassie flat out refuses to do it, and sits out. Everyone else is shaky on the morality of it all, but feels like it’s an opportunity they shouldn’t pass up. So Tobias and Ax take turns morning Taxxon and dig.
(Throughout the entire book, btw, Tobias is just incredibly sad, replaying a lot of the untruths Taylor told him during his being tortured, and it’s a lot to handle).
Of course it’s a trap, and Taylor traps them in the tunnel and floods it with natural gas. They almost die down there, but the gas is turned off. They escape to find Cassie, inconsolable. She had learned that the Yeerk peace faction was also being targeted (they all feed on the same day) and so she did what she could to abort the mission, thus saving the Animorphs lives. In order to end the mission, she had to attack the facility ON HER OWN. Tobias described the wreckage: “I saw the bodies. Human bodies. Maybe half a dozen... sprawled now every which way. They were alive- barely. They’d apparently been on the losing end of one very fierce battle.”
We’re nearing the end of the series, and seeing some of our poor Animorphs flagging. I just wanna give ‘em a hug.
Tobias books are interesting. Since Cassie, Jake, Marco, and Rachel have had about 8-9 books at this point, they’ve had plenty of time to be explored. In fact, some of their books have been pure filler and fluff. Even Ax, who has had even less books than Tobias, has had some of this (IIRC, The Experiment is fine, but doesn’t do much to develop Ax). But every single Tobias book essentially works to complete his character arc, and all are pretty devastating.
In The Test, we learn that Tobias is still dealing with the aftereffects of being tortured.. ten books ago. He’s been fairly quiet in the series since then, and it seems clear the rest of the Animorphs have been walking on eggshells around him, worried about saying the wrong thing.
We begin the book with Tobias doing a good deed- there’s a search for a little boy in the woods underfoot, and Tobias helps the searchers find him via thoughtspeak. After the reunion between boy and father, he’s hit by a golden hawk, brought to a rehabilitation clinic, and told by the employees there’s that “you’re da bird!” I’m dying. But she holds up a newspaper with the headline that a hawk lead searchers to the lost boy, and he realized the Yeerks will realize he’s trapped at this facility, and realizes he made a major mistake.
He gets captured by his past torturer, Taylor, who suggests the Animorphs work with her so they can work together to create a better democracy and destroy Visser 3. He brings this back to the Animorphs, and Tobias meets with her (morphed as Taylor, which is badass and creepy) where she shares that she wants the Animorphs to tunnel through to the Yeerk pool in Taxxon morph, and then she’ll pump in natural gas and then light it on fire, thus destroying the entire Yeerk pool. During this, Taylor’s host breaks through and tells them not to trust her.
Cassie flat out refuses to do it, and sits out. Everyone else is shaky on the morality of it all, but feels like it’s an opportunity they shouldn’t pass up. So Tobias and Ax take turns morning Taxxon and dig.
(Throughout the entire book, btw, Tobias is just incredibly sad, replaying a lot of the untruths Taylor told him during his being tortured, and it’s a lot to handle).
Of course it’s a trap, and Taylor traps them in the tunnel and floods it with natural gas. They almost die down there, but the gas is turned off. They escape to find Cassie, inconsolable. She had learned that the Yeerk peace faction was also being targeted (they all feed on the same day) and so she did what she could to abort the mission, thus saving the Animorphs lives. In order to end the mission, she had to attack the facility ON HER OWN. Tobias described the wreckage: “I saw the bodies. Human bodies. Maybe half a dozen... sprawled now every which way. They were alive- barely. They’d apparently been on the losing end of one very fierce battle.”
We’re nearing the end of the series, and seeing some of our poor Animorphs flagging. I just wanna give ‘em a hug.
August 7, 2014
Tobias's serious stuff is tested by having to revisit his torturer. As if he isn't psychically scarred enough by having been tortured and being trapped as a bird who occasionally pretends to be a boy and being in such a weird position as far as his relatives and relationships . . . now he has to face it again? If these kids had therapists, the therapists would need therapists after hearing their stories.
Notable moments and inconsistencies:
This book is ghostwritten by Ellen Geroux.
Tobias is trying to rescue little Bobby, but has to go for help because he "doesn't have a morph that can haul Bobby out of there." Tobias's large land morphs include a polar bear, a horse, and a bull, not to mention his own human self; "I don't have a morph for that" seems like a poor excuse.
When Tobias is imprisoned after getting injured, he claims he can't morph even though the Yeerks might come and get him, because there are video cameras recording him. After the humans left, it would have been much more practical to morph into a fly and get out of the cage than it was to just sit and wait to be found. Tobias seems to be making a lot of stupid decisions in this book.
This book incorrectly uses the term "jerry-rigged." The accepted terms are "jerry-built" or "jury-rigged." Something that's "jerry-built" is inexpertly thrown together and it's always an insulting term. "Jury-rigged" just means that you rather ingeniously thought of a temporary solution.
This book again mentions "AOL," even though their fake version of AOL in a previous book was called "Web Access America."
In this book they say that Taxxons are only given as hosts to low-ranking Yeerks, because their insane hunger is very hard to master. But in a previous book, it's established that two of the Council members--the highest-ranking Yeerks in existence--have Taxxon hosts (albeit Taxxon hosts who are fed scraps of meat nearly constantly).
Two new Andalite terms are introduced in this book: unschweet, which is a process of cutting an Andalite's fur as a dishonor, and notallssith, which means being unable to control a morph.
It's been said in other books that sometimes Yeerks try to escape a dying host's head "before the death reaches them." And yet in this book Taylor suggests she will survive if she crouches inside the skull of her host inside a reinforced metal shell. It seems like if the host dies, she should die too regardless of whether the Yeerk's physical body is preserved--unless she disengages completely from the brain somehow, and that isn't specified.
Notable moments and inconsistencies:
This book is ghostwritten by Ellen Geroux.
Tobias is trying to rescue little Bobby, but has to go for help because he "doesn't have a morph that can haul Bobby out of there." Tobias's large land morphs include a polar bear, a horse, and a bull, not to mention his own human self; "I don't have a morph for that" seems like a poor excuse.
When Tobias is imprisoned after getting injured, he claims he can't morph even though the Yeerks might come and get him, because there are video cameras recording him. After the humans left, it would have been much more practical to morph into a fly and get out of the cage than it was to just sit and wait to be found. Tobias seems to be making a lot of stupid decisions in this book.
This book incorrectly uses the term "jerry-rigged." The accepted terms are "jerry-built" or "jury-rigged." Something that's "jerry-built" is inexpertly thrown together and it's always an insulting term. "Jury-rigged" just means that you rather ingeniously thought of a temporary solution.
This book again mentions "AOL," even though their fake version of AOL in a previous book was called "Web Access America."
In this book they say that Taxxons are only given as hosts to low-ranking Yeerks, because their insane hunger is very hard to master. But in a previous book, it's established that two of the Council members--the highest-ranking Yeerks in existence--have Taxxon hosts (albeit Taxxon hosts who are fed scraps of meat nearly constantly).
Two new Andalite terms are introduced in this book: unschweet, which is a process of cutting an Andalite's fur as a dishonor, and notallssith, which means being unable to control a morph.
It's been said in other books that sometimes Yeerks try to escape a dying host's head "before the death reaches them." And yet in this book Taylor suggests she will survive if she crouches inside the skull of her host inside a reinforced metal shell. It seems like if the host dies, she should die too regardless of whether the Yeerk's physical body is preserved--unless she disengages completely from the brain somehow, and that isn't specified.
August 7, 2025
Classic Animorphs morality. Should they even be fighting the war? Can they stop if they wanted to? Great use of the Taxxon morph here, finally. Is it morally ok to side with a faction of your enemy, can you trust that they are really on your side, and does it even matter? Is it a paradox that to create a democracy, you must start with an unelected leader? You know, the things we were all thinking at age 12.
May 28, 2024
I’m glad everyone acknowledges that they wouldn’t have survived the torture Tobias did
#HeMadeDifferent
#HeMadeDifferent
April 6, 2019
Some books which repeat premises/content, like The Journey (Book 42) feel redundant; some show how far the series has come. This has a concept similar to The Underground (Book 17), but its pacing and tone veer in another direction. It's the second significant look at the Taxxons, and it's so much--frenzied, morbid, dehumanizing. The Animorphs are privy to none of the more humanizing aspects of Taxxon worldbuilding explored in The Andalite Chronicles, which works well alongside the non-PoV, largely offscreen drama of Cassie's ethical dilemma and subsequent violence: the horror here is centralized in Tobias's PTSD, Taylor's unreliability, and the violence of inhabiting a Taxxon, but also decentralized, the fridge horror of imagining the struggle of the Taxxon resistance (against Yeerks, against their own appetite), of imagining Cassie's experience at the pumping station.
It's not flawlessly written (this is petty, but the dialog tags and thoughtspeak grunting/panting is weirdly conspicuous) and numerous low-consequence adventures can grate despite that I love the ending--but I this another "distinctly darker than I'd expect for MG" success.
(Ellen Geroux ghostwrote three of my favorites, 33, 43, and 45! She does grim so well.)
It's not flawlessly written (this is petty, but the dialog tags and thoughtspeak grunting/panting is weirdly conspicuous) and numerous low-consequence adventures can grate despite that I love the ending--but I this another "distinctly darker than I'd expect for MG" success.
(Ellen Geroux ghostwrote three of my favorites, 33, 43, and 45! She does grim so well.)
May 8, 2023
2.5 stars. Lots of big plot holes and baffling behavior in this one.
February 23, 2015
OK LIKE WAS IT NOT ENOUGH??? Tobias went through an abusive childhood, became permanently trapped in a hawk morph, then got captured and tortured by a yeerk and was forced to relive every traumatic experience in his past, then in THIS BOOK YOU GOTTA HAVE HIM NOT ONLY COME FACE TO FACE TO HIS TORTURER AGAIN BUT ALSO MORPH A FREAKING TAXXON?????????? WHYYYY
March 3, 2022
We got another Tobias book baby, which means it's time to get sad. With it we see Ellen Geroux pop up again, already after The Familiar. This is basically a sequel to The Illusion, which was her introduction, so it makes sense to have her pen the followup. That's the one where Tobias got tortured by complicated human controller Taylor.
Her writing remains the same, it's clear she just gets it. She's especially good at tapping into the deeper ideas of the series and handling tone well, being engaging and downbeat. The plot is that Taylor pops up again, telling Tobias that she is getting sick of Visser 3 and is hatching a plan to take care of him, needing the help of the "Andalite" bandits. She wants to use some gas int the Yeerk pool or something like that. It'll deal a big blow but possibly get rid of more innocent Yeerks in the process.
Can they trust her to not backstab them? You can likely figure that one out. This was pretty good, but there's not much to say about it. I feel like at this point the pretty good ones are hare to review as now we're just repeating the stuff the books tend to do well, but not in a bad way.
As usual with Tobias, this is a downer a lot of the time. Just from chapter one, we see the effects torture had on him, how it gives him intrusive thoughts. I thought to myself "oh this is gonna be a fun one". Eventually it focuses on them doing her plan, and we get them digging a lot, basically a better version of The Underground lol.
As the cover shows, we get Taxxon morphi9ng and it's as delightfully gross as you'd expect. But another interesting morph comes with when Tobias ends up morphing Taylor. This is interesting as she is of the opposite gender, and given the theories about Tobias you already see...yeah this is interesting. Sadly this isn't really explored and the section is short. Even taking aside all the stuff we get into, Tobias morphing into the person who tortured him should have been a bigger thing than it was. Ah well.
Taylor is slightly less interesting here but she still works well, going into full villain mode but still being a solid threat. We really see how she can be here, and it's interesting to see. She strikes that balance really well most of the time. We again explore how far they could be willing to go, do sometimes the ends justify the means and all that. It's been done but I liked what we got here, especially a moment near the end.
The ending itself works, the reveal of what was really going on works and the ending note is a solid one. Sometimes these books can just end on these satsyfying emotional notes. Taylor's fate is left up in the air here, and according to the wiki...this is her final appearance? What? How? It doesn't feel like this "arc" is totally done yet, and we've got enough books to go.
That's a shame, maybe the next Tobias book will at least close it off in a deeper way. Anyway, this one doesn't give me a lot to talk about, but it was another especially solid one. It can get especially downbeat and while it's the most amazingly memorable one ever, I think it's a worthy follow up to Taylor's debut.
That's really about it. Next time, Cassie goes down under. We'll see how that goes. See ya then.
On a side note, Tobias' cover model finally got updated to match his original description. Too little too late frankly, even the books updated his hair to "dirty blond", but whatever. Alright, that's all.
Her writing remains the same, it's clear she just gets it. She's especially good at tapping into the deeper ideas of the series and handling tone well, being engaging and downbeat. The plot is that Taylor pops up again, telling Tobias that she is getting sick of Visser 3 and is hatching a plan to take care of him, needing the help of the "Andalite" bandits. She wants to use some gas int the Yeerk pool or something like that. It'll deal a big blow but possibly get rid of more innocent Yeerks in the process.
Can they trust her to not backstab them? You can likely figure that one out. This was pretty good, but there's not much to say about it. I feel like at this point the pretty good ones are hare to review as now we're just repeating the stuff the books tend to do well, but not in a bad way.
As usual with Tobias, this is a downer a lot of the time. Just from chapter one, we see the effects torture had on him, how it gives him intrusive thoughts. I thought to myself "oh this is gonna be a fun one". Eventually it focuses on them doing her plan, and we get them digging a lot, basically a better version of The Underground lol.
As the cover shows, we get Taxxon morphi9ng and it's as delightfully gross as you'd expect. But another interesting morph comes with when Tobias ends up morphing Taylor. This is interesting as she is of the opposite gender, and given the theories about Tobias you already see...yeah this is interesting. Sadly this isn't really explored and the section is short. Even taking aside all the stuff we get into, Tobias morphing into the person who tortured him should have been a bigger thing than it was. Ah well.
Taylor is slightly less interesting here but she still works well, going into full villain mode but still being a solid threat. We really see how she can be here, and it's interesting to see. She strikes that balance really well most of the time. We again explore how far they could be willing to go, do sometimes the ends justify the means and all that. It's been done but I liked what we got here, especially a moment near the end.
The ending itself works, the reveal of what was really going on works and the ending note is a solid one. Sometimes these books can just end on these satsyfying emotional notes. Taylor's fate is left up in the air here, and according to the wiki...this is her final appearance? What? How? It doesn't feel like this "arc" is totally done yet, and we've got enough books to go.
That's a shame, maybe the next Tobias book will at least close it off in a deeper way. Anyway, this one doesn't give me a lot to talk about, but it was another especially solid one. It can get especially downbeat and while it's the most amazingly memorable one ever, I think it's a worthy follow up to Taylor's debut.
That's really about it. Next time, Cassie goes down under. We'll see how that goes. See ya then.
On a side note, Tobias' cover model finally got updated to match his original description. Too little too late frankly, even the books updated his hair to "dirty blond", but whatever. Alright, that's all.
April 29, 2025
Taylor (or Sub-Visser Fifty-One) returns in The Test, a solid entry in the Animorphs series that takes the lingering repercussions of The Illusion (Book 33) and brings them to the forefront, forcing Tobias to team up with his tormentor.
Once again, characterization reigns supreme. Tobias's PTSD from his ordeal in The Illusion has been more than hinted at in the books that followed, so credit to the series for not shoving it aside until now. Because of the groundwork laid beforehand, this story carries significant weight, even though I’ve read far better Tobias-centric installments. What I particularly appreciate is how this book underscores the idea that Tobias—along with the rest of the Animorphs—will never fully move past their experiences fighting the Yeerks. It’s one of the most enduring truths of the series’ themes.
As for Taylor (or Sub-Visser Fifty-One), I’m unsure how to feel. Once again, the story leaves room for the possibility that she got away, which I’m fine with. However, the reveal of her ultimate plan in the final chapter—where she was allegedly working with Visser Three to eliminate both the Andalite Bandits and the Yeerk Peace Movement in one fell swoop—feels convoluted without proper context. Additionally, if her plan required Taylor’s host to die, why did she ask Tobias to become her host? If he had said yes, how would that have played out? How would the plan to blow up the Yeerk Pool have worked then? The whole setup feels a bit too convoluted and messy to articulate properly. Then again, given that her insanity was already well established to both the Animorphs and the reader, maybe it wasn’t supposed to make complete sense. Who knows?
Far from bad and definitely an improvement over the previous installment.
50 down, 12 to go.
Once again, characterization reigns supreme. Tobias's PTSD from his ordeal in The Illusion has been more than hinted at in the books that followed, so credit to the series for not shoving it aside until now. Because of the groundwork laid beforehand, this story carries significant weight, even though I’ve read far better Tobias-centric installments. What I particularly appreciate is how this book underscores the idea that Tobias—along with the rest of the Animorphs—will never fully move past their experiences fighting the Yeerks. It’s one of the most enduring truths of the series’ themes.
As for Taylor (or Sub-Visser Fifty-One), I’m unsure how to feel. Once again, the story leaves room for the possibility that she got away, which I’m fine with. However, the reveal of her ultimate plan in the final chapter—where she was allegedly working with Visser Three to eliminate both the Andalite Bandits and the Yeerk Peace Movement in one fell swoop—feels convoluted without proper context. Additionally, if her plan required Taylor’s host to die, why did she ask Tobias to become her host? If he had said yes, how would that have played out? How would the plan to blow up the Yeerk Pool have worked then? The whole setup feels a bit too convoluted and messy to articulate properly. Then again, given that her insanity was already well established to both the Animorphs and the reader, maybe it wasn’t supposed to make complete sense. Who knows?
Far from bad and definitely an improvement over the previous installment.
50 down, 12 to go.
September 27, 2022
Will 2022 be the year I finally finish the Animorphs series? Perhaps. My plan of just reading a few every month seems to never pan out and I've spent literal years reading this series and sometimes only get through 4 total. But it's a good series. I like it, so I'm going to try to finish it before the end of the year!
And at this point of the series every book is written by a ghost writer. Other reviewers have done a fantastic job chronicling these; and I appreciate checking prior to jumping in. This writer is one of my least favorite. Like the story is fine, lots of call backs to earlier books. But the style!! Ugh, short, choppy sentences throughout the entire book that made for a clunky reading experience.
Otherwise a wild story that ends in Cassie questioning everything once again.
And at this point of the series every book is written by a ghost writer. Other reviewers have done a fantastic job chronicling these; and I appreciate checking prior to jumping in. This writer is one of my least favorite. Like the story is fine, lots of call backs to earlier books. But the style!! Ugh, short, choppy sentences throughout the entire book that made for a clunky reading experience.
Otherwise a wild story that ends in Cassie questioning everything once again.
June 24, 2020
The Animorphs reread continues! This one was emotionally intense, with a lot of focus on the moral quandary and Tobias having to interact with the Yeerk who tortured him (this is somehow still a kids' series). Also a really unpleasant Taxxon morph.
November 1, 2023
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
)
Narrator: Tobias
Plot: Our favorite Yeerk psychopath/torturer is back! Taylor shows up once again and is ready and able to make Tobias’s already generally miserable existence that much worse.
Oh, Tobias books. Always good for all the feels.
On one of his usual fly-overs above the woods, Tobias stumbles upon a search and rescue attempt for a small boy who’s been lost. Communicating through thought-speak with the father, Tobias successfully leads rescuers to the kid. But he’s quickly taken out by a golden eagle. Luckily, the human rescuers save the “superhero hawk,” and Tobias awakes in a cage in the clinic. He sees on TV that his rescue has become a news story and knows that odd animal behavior like this is sure to attract the Yeerks. And sure enough, soon Hork Bajir barge into the clinic and nab his cage. On their way out, they’re attacked by the Animorphs who are there on a rescue mission. In the madness, Taylor, Tobias’s torturer/nemesis from several books ago, shows up and manages to knock out Tobias with a gas and steal him away. During the madness, however, Tobias manages to acquire Taylor.
He wakes up in a grimy trailer. Taylor proceeds to try to convince him that she is on the outs with the Yeerks, and that she and other Yeerks have decided to form a rebel force against leadership that they see as failing them. They want the “Andalite bandits” to help. She then opens the cage and lets Tobias go free. He immediately heads to Rachel’s house and the two decide to meet with the others.
At Cassie’s barn, after discussing the likelihood that Taylor is cray cray, Jake leaves the decision to Tobias. He decides that they need to hear more. Using a janky computer set-up that Ax has devised, they log in to a webpage that Taylor had given Tobias and leave a message board comment agreeing to meet up. They do so at Borders bookstore where Tobias comes in his new Taylor morph while the others take up positions around the store. The two Taylors sit down and the real Taylor begins detailing her mission: she wants the “Andalites” to morph Taxxon and tunnel down to the Yeerk pool. Then she will release a natural gas pipeline leak that will explode, killing tons of Yeerks. In exchange for their help, Taylor will get them access to Visser Three. During the meeting, however, the real girl, Taylor, briefly breaks through and tries to warn Tobias off.
At the mall, the group meets up once again to decide whether to go through with Taylor’s plan. While expressing various levels of disgust and ruthlessness, they all decide on the mission, except for Cassie who refuses to participate. She briefly mentions that large number of human hosts will be killed, but focuses mostly on the idea that the Yeerk Peace movement might also be hurt by this action. She compares it to blowing up the mall that they’re all sitting in now. This makes everyone uncomfortable, but the others see the strategic advantage as too high to miss out on.
The next day, Ax and Tobias (in Andalite morph) meet up with Taylor to acquire a Taxxon she has captured. It goes about as well as expected, with Ax having to kill the Taxxon but both still managing to acquire it. They then meet up with the other Animorphs near the natural gas station to begin tunneling. Cassie is there to see where they will be working, but will be leaving, still refusing to participate.
Tobias morphs first and struggles to control the Taxxon morph. After almost killing his friends, he realizes that he will never be able to completely control the Taxxon’s all-consuming hunger, but instead can only direct it towards tunneling, eating the dirt as he goes. As he comes up against the two-hour time limit, he is just able to regain enough control to demorph. Then it is Ax’s turn. Ax, too, manages to gain cautious control of the Taxxon and begins tunneling. However, again, close to the two hour limit, the others realize that he’s lost some degree of control because he is not responding and has not returned to the surface to de-morph. They go after him, only to discover him almost passed out at the end of the tunnel. Turns out that Taxxons, in their crazed hunger, will literally kill themselves through exhausted eating of things that don’t contain nutrients, like dirt. They manage to get him to demorph, however, and Tobias once again takes over tunneling duty.
At last, he breaks into the top of the Yeerk pool. Looking down, he sees the usual chaos of weeping hosts and the horrible pool. But he also notices a large group of humans that look oddly calm, even determined. Before he has a chance to wonder too much about this, Taylor shows up and begins taunting him and trying to convince him in joining her attempt to take over the Yeerk Empire. When he refuses, she jabs him with her paralysis gas again and runs back up the tunnel. He tries to call out to warn the others, but they respond that they’ve already been paralyzed and are helpless to do anything.
Tobias manages to drag himself back up the tunnel. He catches up to her just as she reaches the gas line, but isn’t able to stop her before she blows a hole in it and toxic gas shoots out, knocking out the air and pushing them all back down the tunnel towards the Yeerk pool. The Animorphs all manage to catch on to each other through various holds and bites, and Taxxon!Tobias scrambles to keep hold on the tunnel walls, breaking off many legs in the process. Tobais’s Taxxon body is more able to handle the lack of clean air, and he manages to drag his barely conscious friends back up the tunnel to fresh air. They realize the gas has been turned off and all demorph.
They get to the main gas building and find Controlled!humans laying on the floor, badly injured. In a back room, they find Cassie crying. She had turned off the gas and was struggling with having to viciously attack the people in the gas building to accomplish it.
The next day, Tobias and Rachel fly to a private beach that they have discovered. Once their, Rachel demorphs and Tobias morphs his human body. Rachel confirms that Jake had told Cassie that she could warn the Yeerk Peace group, and once she had, she discovered that all of the Yeerks in the movement had organized to feed at the pool on the same days. And one of those days was the day of Taylor’s attack. Taylor had been working with Visser Three the entire time and the plan had been to take out both the “Andalite bandits” and the Yeerk Peace movement all in one hit, pinning the disaster on the Yeerk Peace participants to boot. Rachel tries to reassure Tobias that they couldn’t have known, that they operated on the best information they had, and that through their actions they saved the Yeerk Peace group. Tobias wonders if Taylor survived. But, in the end, he and Rachel hold hands and agree that they can’t worry about what is done, but only move forward.
A Hawk’s Life: Per the usual, this Tobias book deep dives into all of the issues. I think this might be a reason why Tobias, Marco, and Jake books are often listed as the most popular by other fans. Each of these three have ongoing challenges that they face throughout the entire series, and it’s a rare book for any of them that doesn’t touch on one of the main themes important to that character. Marco’s, of course, is his mother. Jake’s is his struggles with leadership and his own growing ruthlessness. And Tobias has…a bunch! And, unlike Jake and Marco, every single Tobias book has one of these issues, if not multiple, at its heart.
Not only does he have the challenges of his life as a hawk, and with it, the biggest question of all “who is he?” But he also struggles with what lead to his life as a hawk. And then, after his book before this one, he continues to feel the psychological repercussions of his capture and torture at the hands of Taylor. These last two, cowardice and the PTSD from torture, are a big focus for him in this book.
Throughout the book, Tobias struggles with his ongoing reaction to being tortured by Taylor. He sees his own reaction as one of cowardice and weakness, one that only Taylor knows. Whether she actually thinks of him this way or not, we do see her clearly taking advantage of his insecurities on these points throughout the book. In response, Tobias also insists on being the one to interact with Taylor the most. All of these thoughts come to a head when he comes up to the Yeerk pool and is looking out over it with Taylor whispering her evil words into his ear. At the same time, he sees the spot where he hid out way back in book one and became stuck as a hawk. He questions whether this, too, was a form of cowardice. That he could have done more to avoid this fate, but some part of him was too scared to go back to the challenges of the life he had before.
There’s a lot of great exploration of all of these topics, and less than what one could hope for as far as resolutions go. There are a couple throw-away lines towards the end where Tobias resolves once again not to fret about the past, but we’ve all heard that before. However, even without reaching any grand conclusions, I really enjoyed the deeper look into Tobias’s psyche and the fact that the events from his torture session are still playing large in his mind, even before Taylor shows up.
Our Fearless Leader: Jake’s got some typical “big leader moments,” what with knowing that Tobias ultimately needs to be the one to decide whether to go forward with working with Taylor, to accepting the fact that Cassie disagrees with their plan to the point of refusing to participate, but decides that the group will go on without her. There’s also a pretty dark moment, pretty important in the grand scheme of things, that if Tom is a victim of this attack, that is a risk worth taking for the larger advantage.
For all of that, this book sits very oddly with the last Jake book being the one that handled the topic of terrorism so thoroughly. Throughout his entire last book, Jake struggled with the question of terrorism and its role in warfare. He also was routinely horrified by it and saw it as one of the biggest markers of how wrong things had gone in that alternate reality. But here, in what is clearly the biggest act of terrorism the Animorphs would have ever participated in (hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent humans and Hork Bajir, and others, would die in this attack), he doesn’t seem to have any thoughts on the matter or references to his past struggles. Perhaps if his terrorism book had come earlier in the series, it would be easier to buy that he had hardened himself since then to making decisions like this. But…it was literally two books ago. It reads as really strange.
Xena, Warrior Princess: We see Rachel operating as Tobias’s primary support system throughout the book. She’s the one who constantly turns to him to see how he is dealing with the whole Taylor business, and she’s the one to talk him around in the end.
But we also seem some interesting shifts for herself throughout the book. It’s no surprise that she’s one of the first ones to be on-board for the mission when they are discussing next steps in the mall. Action is always preferred to inaction for Rachel, and she (with Marco and often Jake) is more likely to fall on the ruthless side of things as far as necessary sacrifices in war. But we also see her have a pretty major breakdown about three-fourths of the way through the book, questioning whether they are doing the right thing. It’s a really nice moment that serves as a reminder that a well-drawn portrayal of Rachel’s character can, and should, include more than just her ruthless (often shown as “mindless”) streak.
Peace, Love, and Animals: There’s some pretty good stuff for Cassie’s character in this book. One thing I did find very strange, however, was the focus of her objections when they all met to discuss Taylor’s plans in the mall. From a reader perspective, it seems pretty clear that her focus on the Yeerks Peace movement was a not very subtle way for the author to hint that that was going to come up as a thing later in the book. This group isn’t referenced too often, so it makes some sense to bring them up early on. But…as far as characterization goes, it ends up playing very oddly for Cassie herself. She gets out maybe one line about the innocent humans who will die in this attack before switching the entire rest of her argument to the Yeerks Peace movement. And as a natural thought process or argument, it reads very oddly and makes Cassie seem to have strange, if even condemnable, priorities towards the “good” Yeerks over innocent human victims. Beyond making it seem like her own values are out of line, this argument is always going to be a harder sell to the rest of the Animorphs, who, while impressed by Cassie’s ability to form a connection with a Yeerk, have no personal attachments of their own. As a character who we know is a keen manipulator, a Cassie free from needing to do authorial work with foreshadowing would have known that pressing the innocent human line would have been a better route to convincing the others.
There’s also the moment in the end where Cassie saves them all by taking matters into her own hands. This is the kind of story that would have been great to read from Cassie’s perspective! She would have had some great insights into the humanity of choices like this with regards to the larger mission, but then would have to challenge her own values with the choice to attack human Controllers to save the Yeerk pool and her friends. Really, the more I write about it, the more I can just envision this as a Cassie book and wish we had it, especially given the general weakness of most of her books.
The Comic Relief: Marco doesn’t have a whole lot in this book. Even the number of jokes he has is pretty tamped down. This kind of makes sense since Marco is definitely one of the characters with a more peripheral relationship with Tobias.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax is the other Animorph to get to experience the joy that is morphing Taxxon. He manages to discover that the Taxxons have a hibernation state that allows him to gain more control over the morph, but then, in the end, he, too, succumbs to the morph and almost dies/passes the time limit when he gets stuck at the end of the tunnel. There’s also an interesting little bit where he cuts off some of Andalite!Tobias’s fur in an effort to make Tobias look less like an identical copy of Ax when they go to meet Taylor. He explains that cutting fur is a form a discipline that serves as a reminder of wrong-doing until the fur grows back out and the offense is forgotten. Just another interesting little tid-bit of Andalite society!
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: Obviously all of the Taxxon stuff. Not only morphing the disgusting Taxxon body, but the entire experience. Looking at it, though, I couldn’t help but start to wonder how Taxxons even exist, biologically speaking. The hunger thing seems to strong that it would override every other natural instinct. As we saw with Ax, Taxxons will literally kill themselves through futile eating of non-nutrient rich things, like dirt. We’ve seen them cannibalize themselves at the slightest injury as well. How are they not extinct??
Couples Watch!: We get a handful of sweet, little moments for Tobias and Rachel throughout the story. For one, the first thing he does when Taylor releases him in the beginning of the book is to fly to Rachel’s. Together, they decide what to do from there. Thoughts of Rachel are also the only thing that breaks through the hunger-haze when he first morphs Taxxons. He gets caught up in the hunger and imaging eating his friends, but when he gets to Rachel, it stops him up short and gives him just enough of a break to regain control. And then, obviously, at the end we have the two of them on their private beach, holding hands and talking themselves through what could have been a huge disaster of a mission.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: Taylor is the real villain of this book, even if the plan behind it all is laid at Visser Three’s feet. Taylor is a very interesting villain in her own right, as she was given quite a bit of page time and backstory in her first book. Here, we get further glimpses into her madness. However, many of these glimpses ultimately ended up just being frustrating teases. We get the brief break-through from the real Taylor at the bookstore, where she warns Tobias away (why this isn’t given more weight when they’re all considering what to do would also fit under the “Terrible Plan” segment). And Tobias himself wonders several times about the breakdown between Yeerk and girl. Before, Taylor was a willing host, having chosen this reality to restore her beauty. But clearly something has gone wrong since, and she’s fighting against her Yeerk. This is really interesting! And it goes…nowhere. We never get any answers to this and it’s the kind of frustrating add-on that I wish had just been cut out. It doesn’t add anything to the story as it is, but instead just leaves annoying questions in its wake, making it feel like there was much more story to be had here than what we are ultimately given.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: As we know, Tobias books are often big on the tears. This one’s discussion of cowardice and Tobias’s fears that he’s a coward at heart is pretty rough. Not only does he feel that he somehow “failed” while be tortured, exposing his “true nature” to his torturer, Taylor, but he also worries that he’s always been a coward. And that this cowardice was part of the reason that he ended up trapped as a hawk; he was too scared to approach life as a boy any longer. Beyond the obvious horrors of his human life (like living with his terrible aunt and uncle and the constant bullying), he even worries that part of him was scared of the joy, too, like being with Rachel. In some of the previous books, we’ve seen him deal with the fact that his hawk form has allowed him to keep careful control on that relationship, both to Rachel’s frustration and to his own shame. The moments when he’s hanging out above the Yeerk Pool looking directly at the spot where he hid so long ago are pretty heart-wrenching.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: There are a good number of awful plans in this book, both on the part of the Animorphs and the Yeerks. For one, as I mentioned in Jake’s section, it’s hard to buy that there weren’t more objections to the general terrible nature of the plan and the high human collateral it would entail.
(Full review on the blog)
Narrator: Tobias
Plot: Our favorite Yeerk psychopath/torturer is back! Taylor shows up once again and is ready and able to make Tobias’s already generally miserable existence that much worse.
Oh, Tobias books. Always good for all the feels.
On one of his usual fly-overs above the woods, Tobias stumbles upon a search and rescue attempt for a small boy who’s been lost. Communicating through thought-speak with the father, Tobias successfully leads rescuers to the kid. But he’s quickly taken out by a golden eagle. Luckily, the human rescuers save the “superhero hawk,” and Tobias awakes in a cage in the clinic. He sees on TV that his rescue has become a news story and knows that odd animal behavior like this is sure to attract the Yeerks. And sure enough, soon Hork Bajir barge into the clinic and nab his cage. On their way out, they’re attacked by the Animorphs who are there on a rescue mission. In the madness, Taylor, Tobias’s torturer/nemesis from several books ago, shows up and manages to knock out Tobias with a gas and steal him away. During the madness, however, Tobias manages to acquire Taylor.
He wakes up in a grimy trailer. Taylor proceeds to try to convince him that she is on the outs with the Yeerks, and that she and other Yeerks have decided to form a rebel force against leadership that they see as failing them. They want the “Andalite bandits” to help. She then opens the cage and lets Tobias go free. He immediately heads to Rachel’s house and the two decide to meet with the others.
At Cassie’s barn, after discussing the likelihood that Taylor is cray cray, Jake leaves the decision to Tobias. He decides that they need to hear more. Using a janky computer set-up that Ax has devised, they log in to a webpage that Taylor had given Tobias and leave a message board comment agreeing to meet up. They do so at Borders bookstore where Tobias comes in his new Taylor morph while the others take up positions around the store. The two Taylors sit down and the real Taylor begins detailing her mission: she wants the “Andalites” to morph Taxxon and tunnel down to the Yeerk pool. Then she will release a natural gas pipeline leak that will explode, killing tons of Yeerks. In exchange for their help, Taylor will get them access to Visser Three. During the meeting, however, the real girl, Taylor, briefly breaks through and tries to warn Tobias off.
At the mall, the group meets up once again to decide whether to go through with Taylor’s plan. While expressing various levels of disgust and ruthlessness, they all decide on the mission, except for Cassie who refuses to participate. She briefly mentions that large number of human hosts will be killed, but focuses mostly on the idea that the Yeerk Peace movement might also be hurt by this action. She compares it to blowing up the mall that they’re all sitting in now. This makes everyone uncomfortable, but the others see the strategic advantage as too high to miss out on.
The next day, Ax and Tobias (in Andalite morph) meet up with Taylor to acquire a Taxxon she has captured. It goes about as well as expected, with Ax having to kill the Taxxon but both still managing to acquire it. They then meet up with the other Animorphs near the natural gas station to begin tunneling. Cassie is there to see where they will be working, but will be leaving, still refusing to participate.
Tobias morphs first and struggles to control the Taxxon morph. After almost killing his friends, he realizes that he will never be able to completely control the Taxxon’s all-consuming hunger, but instead can only direct it towards tunneling, eating the dirt as he goes. As he comes up against the two-hour time limit, he is just able to regain enough control to demorph. Then it is Ax’s turn. Ax, too, manages to gain cautious control of the Taxxon and begins tunneling. However, again, close to the two hour limit, the others realize that he’s lost some degree of control because he is not responding and has not returned to the surface to de-morph. They go after him, only to discover him almost passed out at the end of the tunnel. Turns out that Taxxons, in their crazed hunger, will literally kill themselves through exhausted eating of things that don’t contain nutrients, like dirt. They manage to get him to demorph, however, and Tobias once again takes over tunneling duty.
At last, he breaks into the top of the Yeerk pool. Looking down, he sees the usual chaos of weeping hosts and the horrible pool. But he also notices a large group of humans that look oddly calm, even determined. Before he has a chance to wonder too much about this, Taylor shows up and begins taunting him and trying to convince him in joining her attempt to take over the Yeerk Empire. When he refuses, she jabs him with her paralysis gas again and runs back up the tunnel. He tries to call out to warn the others, but they respond that they’ve already been paralyzed and are helpless to do anything.
Tobias manages to drag himself back up the tunnel. He catches up to her just as she reaches the gas line, but isn’t able to stop her before she blows a hole in it and toxic gas shoots out, knocking out the air and pushing them all back down the tunnel towards the Yeerk pool. The Animorphs all manage to catch on to each other through various holds and bites, and Taxxon!Tobias scrambles to keep hold on the tunnel walls, breaking off many legs in the process. Tobais’s Taxxon body is more able to handle the lack of clean air, and he manages to drag his barely conscious friends back up the tunnel to fresh air. They realize the gas has been turned off and all demorph.
They get to the main gas building and find Controlled!humans laying on the floor, badly injured. In a back room, they find Cassie crying. She had turned off the gas and was struggling with having to viciously attack the people in the gas building to accomplish it.
The next day, Tobias and Rachel fly to a private beach that they have discovered. Once their, Rachel demorphs and Tobias morphs his human body. Rachel confirms that Jake had told Cassie that she could warn the Yeerk Peace group, and once she had, she discovered that all of the Yeerks in the movement had organized to feed at the pool on the same days. And one of those days was the day of Taylor’s attack. Taylor had been working with Visser Three the entire time and the plan had been to take out both the “Andalite bandits” and the Yeerk Peace movement all in one hit, pinning the disaster on the Yeerk Peace participants to boot. Rachel tries to reassure Tobias that they couldn’t have known, that they operated on the best information they had, and that through their actions they saved the Yeerk Peace group. Tobias wonders if Taylor survived. But, in the end, he and Rachel hold hands and agree that they can’t worry about what is done, but only move forward.
A Hawk’s Life: Per the usual, this Tobias book deep dives into all of the issues. I think this might be a reason why Tobias, Marco, and Jake books are often listed as the most popular by other fans. Each of these three have ongoing challenges that they face throughout the entire series, and it’s a rare book for any of them that doesn’t touch on one of the main themes important to that character. Marco’s, of course, is his mother. Jake’s is his struggles with leadership and his own growing ruthlessness. And Tobias has…a bunch! And, unlike Jake and Marco, every single Tobias book has one of these issues, if not multiple, at its heart.
Not only does he have the challenges of his life as a hawk, and with it, the biggest question of all “who is he?” But he also struggles with what lead to his life as a hawk. And then, after his book before this one, he continues to feel the psychological repercussions of his capture and torture at the hands of Taylor. These last two, cowardice and the PTSD from torture, are a big focus for him in this book.
Throughout the book, Tobias struggles with his ongoing reaction to being tortured by Taylor. He sees his own reaction as one of cowardice and weakness, one that only Taylor knows. Whether she actually thinks of him this way or not, we do see her clearly taking advantage of his insecurities on these points throughout the book. In response, Tobias also insists on being the one to interact with Taylor the most. All of these thoughts come to a head when he comes up to the Yeerk pool and is looking out over it with Taylor whispering her evil words into his ear. At the same time, he sees the spot where he hid out way back in book one and became stuck as a hawk. He questions whether this, too, was a form of cowardice. That he could have done more to avoid this fate, but some part of him was too scared to go back to the challenges of the life he had before.
There’s a lot of great exploration of all of these topics, and less than what one could hope for as far as resolutions go. There are a couple throw-away lines towards the end where Tobias resolves once again not to fret about the past, but we’ve all heard that before. However, even without reaching any grand conclusions, I really enjoyed the deeper look into Tobias’s psyche and the fact that the events from his torture session are still playing large in his mind, even before Taylor shows up.
Our Fearless Leader: Jake’s got some typical “big leader moments,” what with knowing that Tobias ultimately needs to be the one to decide whether to go forward with working with Taylor, to accepting the fact that Cassie disagrees with their plan to the point of refusing to participate, but decides that the group will go on without her. There’s also a pretty dark moment, pretty important in the grand scheme of things, that if Tom is a victim of this attack, that is a risk worth taking for the larger advantage.
For all of that, this book sits very oddly with the last Jake book being the one that handled the topic of terrorism so thoroughly. Throughout his entire last book, Jake struggled with the question of terrorism and its role in warfare. He also was routinely horrified by it and saw it as one of the biggest markers of how wrong things had gone in that alternate reality. But here, in what is clearly the biggest act of terrorism the Animorphs would have ever participated in (hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent humans and Hork Bajir, and others, would die in this attack), he doesn’t seem to have any thoughts on the matter or references to his past struggles. Perhaps if his terrorism book had come earlier in the series, it would be easier to buy that he had hardened himself since then to making decisions like this. But…it was literally two books ago. It reads as really strange.
Xena, Warrior Princess: We see Rachel operating as Tobias’s primary support system throughout the book. She’s the one who constantly turns to him to see how he is dealing with the whole Taylor business, and she’s the one to talk him around in the end.
But we also seem some interesting shifts for herself throughout the book. It’s no surprise that she’s one of the first ones to be on-board for the mission when they are discussing next steps in the mall. Action is always preferred to inaction for Rachel, and she (with Marco and often Jake) is more likely to fall on the ruthless side of things as far as necessary sacrifices in war. But we also see her have a pretty major breakdown about three-fourths of the way through the book, questioning whether they are doing the right thing. It’s a really nice moment that serves as a reminder that a well-drawn portrayal of Rachel’s character can, and should, include more than just her ruthless (often shown as “mindless”) streak.
Peace, Love, and Animals: There’s some pretty good stuff for Cassie’s character in this book. One thing I did find very strange, however, was the focus of her objections when they all met to discuss Taylor’s plans in the mall. From a reader perspective, it seems pretty clear that her focus on the Yeerks Peace movement was a not very subtle way for the author to hint that that was going to come up as a thing later in the book. This group isn’t referenced too often, so it makes some sense to bring them up early on. But…as far as characterization goes, it ends up playing very oddly for Cassie herself. She gets out maybe one line about the innocent humans who will die in this attack before switching the entire rest of her argument to the Yeerks Peace movement. And as a natural thought process or argument, it reads very oddly and makes Cassie seem to have strange, if even condemnable, priorities towards the “good” Yeerks over innocent human victims. Beyond making it seem like her own values are out of line, this argument is always going to be a harder sell to the rest of the Animorphs, who, while impressed by Cassie’s ability to form a connection with a Yeerk, have no personal attachments of their own. As a character who we know is a keen manipulator, a Cassie free from needing to do authorial work with foreshadowing would have known that pressing the innocent human line would have been a better route to convincing the others.
There’s also the moment in the end where Cassie saves them all by taking matters into her own hands. This is the kind of story that would have been great to read from Cassie’s perspective! She would have had some great insights into the humanity of choices like this with regards to the larger mission, but then would have to challenge her own values with the choice to attack human Controllers to save the Yeerk pool and her friends. Really, the more I write about it, the more I can just envision this as a Cassie book and wish we had it, especially given the general weakness of most of her books.
The Comic Relief: Marco doesn’t have a whole lot in this book. Even the number of jokes he has is pretty tamped down. This kind of makes sense since Marco is definitely one of the characters with a more peripheral relationship with Tobias.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax is the other Animorph to get to experience the joy that is morphing Taxxon. He manages to discover that the Taxxons have a hibernation state that allows him to gain more control over the morph, but then, in the end, he, too, succumbs to the morph and almost dies/passes the time limit when he gets stuck at the end of the tunnel. There’s also an interesting little bit where he cuts off some of Andalite!Tobias’s fur in an effort to make Tobias look less like an identical copy of Ax when they go to meet Taylor. He explains that cutting fur is a form a discipline that serves as a reminder of wrong-doing until the fur grows back out and the offense is forgotten. Just another interesting little tid-bit of Andalite society!
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: Obviously all of the Taxxon stuff. Not only morphing the disgusting Taxxon body, but the entire experience. Looking at it, though, I couldn’t help but start to wonder how Taxxons even exist, biologically speaking. The hunger thing seems to strong that it would override every other natural instinct. As we saw with Ax, Taxxons will literally kill themselves through futile eating of non-nutrient rich things, like dirt. We’ve seen them cannibalize themselves at the slightest injury as well. How are they not extinct??
Couples Watch!: We get a handful of sweet, little moments for Tobias and Rachel throughout the story. For one, the first thing he does when Taylor releases him in the beginning of the book is to fly to Rachel’s. Together, they decide what to do from there. Thoughts of Rachel are also the only thing that breaks through the hunger-haze when he first morphs Taxxons. He gets caught up in the hunger and imaging eating his friends, but when he gets to Rachel, it stops him up short and gives him just enough of a break to regain control. And then, obviously, at the end we have the two of them on their private beach, holding hands and talking themselves through what could have been a huge disaster of a mission.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: Taylor is the real villain of this book, even if the plan behind it all is laid at Visser Three’s feet. Taylor is a very interesting villain in her own right, as she was given quite a bit of page time and backstory in her first book. Here, we get further glimpses into her madness. However, many of these glimpses ultimately ended up just being frustrating teases. We get the brief break-through from the real Taylor at the bookstore, where she warns Tobias away (why this isn’t given more weight when they’re all considering what to do would also fit under the “Terrible Plan” segment). And Tobias himself wonders several times about the breakdown between Yeerk and girl. Before, Taylor was a willing host, having chosen this reality to restore her beauty. But clearly something has gone wrong since, and she’s fighting against her Yeerk. This is really interesting! And it goes…nowhere. We never get any answers to this and it’s the kind of frustrating add-on that I wish had just been cut out. It doesn’t add anything to the story as it is, but instead just leaves annoying questions in its wake, making it feel like there was much more story to be had here than what we are ultimately given.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: As we know, Tobias books are often big on the tears. This one’s discussion of cowardice and Tobias’s fears that he’s a coward at heart is pretty rough. Not only does he feel that he somehow “failed” while be tortured, exposing his “true nature” to his torturer, Taylor, but he also worries that he’s always been a coward. And that this cowardice was part of the reason that he ended up trapped as a hawk; he was too scared to approach life as a boy any longer. Beyond the obvious horrors of his human life (like living with his terrible aunt and uncle and the constant bullying), he even worries that part of him was scared of the joy, too, like being with Rachel. In some of the previous books, we’ve seen him deal with the fact that his hawk form has allowed him to keep careful control on that relationship, both to Rachel’s frustration and to his own shame. The moments when he’s hanging out above the Yeerk Pool looking directly at the spot where he hid so long ago are pretty heart-wrenching.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: There are a good number of awful plans in this book, both on the part of the Animorphs and the Yeerks. For one, as I mentioned in Jake’s section, it’s hard to buy that there weren’t more objections to the general terrible nature of the plan and the high human collateral it would entail.
(Full review on the blog)
July 21, 2017
So Taylor is back. And she wants Tobias to help her create democracy. Or so she says. This is a deep book; Tobias is dealing with the after math of his torture, as is Rachel. Tobias is becoming hardened, even more than the others, and so is Cassie. I think the quotes speak for themselves in this one.
"Seems obvious to me," Marco answered. "It's the means, not the end, that interest her. She's keen on democracy because it's a process that will eject Visser Three."
"Do you always assume the worst of people?" Cassie asked.
"Always." Marco smiled. "People are who they are. My bet is that when Taylor failed to break Tobias with torture, the visser sent her packing. She's probably been plotting revenge ever since."
For a second, nobody spoke. Jake glared at Marco and I was pretty sure I knew why. I was guessing it was probably also the reason no one had mentioned how I'd been recaptured in the first place. No one had mentioned that I'd made a huge mistake by rescuing the lost kid. Now I realized why. Marco'd mentioned torture, something he was apparently not supposed to do when I was around, not even in passing.
Their hypersensitivity made me mad. Did they think the memory would mess me up? Couldn't they see me getting stronger? Couldn't they tell I'd be fine?
***
No one said anything. Silent agreement.
Except for Cassie.
Her eyes got wide. She began to stand up.
None of you guys are really thinking about this," she said in a voice that made a couple of older kids sitting at the table next to ours look up.
"Shhh."
"No," she said. "It's wrong. I won't. I don't want to judge you guys, but you're talking about strategy and risk like this is some computer game. Like there aren't others involved. Have you forgotten that we're supposed to be in this to save lives?"
Jake put his hand on her shoulder and gently encouraged her to sit back down. No one seemed to know what to say. She continued. She spoke very quietly, but urgently.
"Has anyone stopped to think that we'll be responsible for the death of hundreds, maybe thousands of people? People who already suffer the worst fate imaginable? And not that any of you care, but we'll be killing thousands of defenseless Yeerks right along with them."
"My God, you mean we'd be killing Yeerks?" Marco said with a straight face. "That's... that's unthinkable!"
No one laughed.
"Let her finish," Rachel whispered.
"They're not all like Visser Three," Cassie went on. "We know that. Some of the Yeerks and Controllers are just kids like us. They never had a choice. They participate or they're eliminated. And it's not like they get the information they need to make an informed decision. If you'd been raised since birth on empire progpaganda, you'd fight to take over Earth, too."
"You make an interesting argument," Ax said through a mouthful of nachos. "But there are a lot of inconsistencies between what you say and what you do." He swallowed noisily. "How can you make this argument knowing what you've done in the past?"
"That's different," Cassie responded forcefully. "I'm not against defending myself and you guys. I hate violence, but self-defense is justified, in all societies. Unlike murdering people..."
"Killing slugs," Marco corrected.
"Killing Yeerks when they're defenseless, when they're not engaged in battle, when they're not actively threatening our lives... no! You don't... why can't you... can't you see!" She stopped. I could almost feel the passion radiating from her body. "It's... it's just not right."
"But they are threatening our lives," Rachel insisted. "Not just ours, everyone's. Just by being who they are."
"Yeah, and why do you think they're at the Yeerk pool?" Marco put in. "I can tell you this much. It's not because they're planning Earth Day activities.
"Look, during World War Two we bombed factories and highways and railroads. Even regular cities. Just because someone's not wearing a uniform or carrying a weapon doesn't mean they're not fighting a war. I know this plan is bad, Cassie, but we've gotta think of the big picture."
***
"What about Tidwell, and others like him in the peace movement? They have to go to the pool because they'll die if they don't feed. For them, it's no different than eating."
"The peace movement Yeerks are a small minority," Jake countered coldly. "We can't really consider them, except maybe to warn them."
"Not consider them!" Cassie repeated disbelievingly. "What if your brother's at the pool when the gas explodes?"
Jake looked at his hands. "I guess it's a sacrifice I have to deal with in order to protect thousands more," Jake said, his voice now expressionless.
"Jake, I don't believe you!"
"You should," he said, looking back to Cassie. To me. "Besides, family involvement doesn't really come into play here. It can't. The Yeerk pool is a target. End of discussion. It's not like we're bombing a bunch of innocent people at the mall on a Friday afternoon..."
Again, I looked at the people alla round us. Families, couples, kids like us. Enjoying themselves. Here to see a movie, meet their friends, shop for clothes. They'd done the jobs they had to do at work or at school. Now was their chance to relax. Have fun.
Cassie looked around the food court, too, and then back at Jake.
"Isn't it?"
***
said Ax.
Marco asked.
Stop it!> she yelled suddenly.
I said.
I thought of all the stories Ax had told us of entire planets enslaved. Of how that couldn't be enslaved was killed. Of great and peaceful societies destroyed by Yeerks. A Yeerk was in the corner, not twenty feet away. A creature capable fo the greatest evil, cowardly hiding inside a human so that no one would see the threat. How many were there now? Thousands? Fewer? More? Every day there were more human slaves. It was my first thought in the morning and my last thought before I slept.
They'd killed Elfangor, my father. The father I never knew.
The day would come when there would be no one left. An entire planet erased. I couldn't let that happen.
I repeated.
***
But there is always a choice. In any and every situation. It's usually the choice between bad and worse. But it's still a choice.
"Come on," she said again. "Be my host. Offer me your body and you can have anything you want."
Choice. Traitor or...
I asked.
"It is a kind of freedom," she answered.
I asked.
"It is a kind of happiness," she replied.
***
I heard Rachel say.
I stepped around her. My rear legs weakened. Then I saw the bodies. Human bodies. Maybe half a dozen. Male and female. Suited to look like gas company workers.
Sprawled now every which way. They were alive -- barely. They'd obviously been on the losing end of one every fierce battle. None seemed conscious.
Yeerk slugs wriggled and writhed helplessly on the floor.
Jake gasped.
Marco added.
[...] I followed the sound. There was a door to what looked like a little office. I peered in.
And then I saw her, sitting with her elbows on a table, her head in her hands.
Cassie. Crying.
She had turned off the gas and saved our lives. She had done this.
She didn't look up. She didn't move.
With delicate Andalite arms, I tried to lift her from the chair. She stood but was limp in my arms.
Her sobs stopped. Halting half-gasps took their place. She turned in my arms, turned so that she stood and faced me. Her eyes, red and wet, stared up at mine. Salt streaks dried on her face.
"No," she said. "It will never be okay."
"Seems obvious to me," Marco answered. "It's the means, not the end, that interest her. She's keen on democracy because it's a process that will eject Visser Three."
"Do you always assume the worst of people?" Cassie asked.
"Always." Marco smiled. "People are who they are. My bet is that when Taylor failed to break Tobias with torture, the visser sent her packing. She's probably been plotting revenge ever since."
For a second, nobody spoke. Jake glared at Marco and I was pretty sure I knew why. I was guessing it was probably also the reason no one had mentioned how I'd been recaptured in the first place. No one had mentioned that I'd made a huge mistake by rescuing the lost kid. Now I realized why. Marco'd mentioned torture, something he was apparently not supposed to do when I was around, not even in passing.
Their hypersensitivity made me mad. Did they think the memory would mess me up? Couldn't they see me getting stronger? Couldn't they tell I'd be fine?
***
No one said anything. Silent agreement.
Except for Cassie.
Her eyes got wide. She began to stand up.
None of you guys are really thinking about this," she said in a voice that made a couple of older kids sitting at the table next to ours look up.
"Shhh."
"No," she said. "It's wrong. I won't. I don't want to judge you guys, but you're talking about strategy and risk like this is some computer game. Like there aren't others involved. Have you forgotten that we're supposed to be in this to save lives?"
Jake put his hand on her shoulder and gently encouraged her to sit back down. No one seemed to know what to say. She continued. She spoke very quietly, but urgently.
"Has anyone stopped to think that we'll be responsible for the death of hundreds, maybe thousands of people? People who already suffer the worst fate imaginable? And not that any of you care, but we'll be killing thousands of defenseless Yeerks right along with them."
"My God, you mean we'd be killing Yeerks?" Marco said with a straight face. "That's... that's unthinkable!"
No one laughed.
"Let her finish," Rachel whispered.
"They're not all like Visser Three," Cassie went on. "We know that. Some of the Yeerks and Controllers are just kids like us. They never had a choice. They participate or they're eliminated. And it's not like they get the information they need to make an informed decision. If you'd been raised since birth on empire progpaganda, you'd fight to take over Earth, too."
"You make an interesting argument," Ax said through a mouthful of nachos. "But there are a lot of inconsistencies between what you say and what you do." He swallowed noisily. "How can you make this argument knowing what you've done in the past?"
"That's different," Cassie responded forcefully. "I'm not against defending myself and you guys. I hate violence, but self-defense is justified, in all societies. Unlike murdering people..."
"Killing slugs," Marco corrected.
"Killing Yeerks when they're defenseless, when they're not engaged in battle, when they're not actively threatening our lives... no! You don't... why can't you... can't you see!" She stopped. I could almost feel the passion radiating from her body. "It's... it's just not right."
"But they are threatening our lives," Rachel insisted. "Not just ours, everyone's. Just by being who they are."
"Yeah, and why do you think they're at the Yeerk pool?" Marco put in. "I can tell you this much. It's not because they're planning Earth Day activities.
"Look, during World War Two we bombed factories and highways and railroads. Even regular cities. Just because someone's not wearing a uniform or carrying a weapon doesn't mean they're not fighting a war. I know this plan is bad, Cassie, but we've gotta think of the big picture."
***
"What about Tidwell, and others like him in the peace movement? They have to go to the pool because they'll die if they don't feed. For them, it's no different than eating."
"The peace movement Yeerks are a small minority," Jake countered coldly. "We can't really consider them, except maybe to warn them."
"Not consider them!" Cassie repeated disbelievingly. "What if your brother's at the pool when the gas explodes?"
Jake looked at his hands. "I guess it's a sacrifice I have to deal with in order to protect thousands more," Jake said, his voice now expressionless.
"Jake, I don't believe you!"
"You should," he said, looking back to Cassie. To me. "Besides, family involvement doesn't really come into play here. It can't. The Yeerk pool is a target. End of discussion. It's not like we're bombing a bunch of innocent people at the mall on a Friday afternoon..."
Again, I looked at the people alla round us. Families, couples, kids like us. Enjoying themselves. Here to see a movie, meet their friends, shop for clothes. They'd done the jobs they had to do at work or at school. Now was their chance to relax. Have fun.
Cassie looked around the food court, too, and then back at Jake.
"Isn't it?"
***
said Ax.
Marco asked.
Stop it!> she yelled suddenly.
I said.
I thought of all the stories Ax had told us of entire planets enslaved. Of how that couldn't be enslaved was killed. Of great and peaceful societies destroyed by Yeerks. A Yeerk was in the corner, not twenty feet away. A creature capable fo the greatest evil, cowardly hiding inside a human so that no one would see the threat. How many were there now? Thousands? Fewer? More? Every day there were more human slaves. It was my first thought in the morning and my last thought before I slept.
They'd killed Elfangor, my father. The father I never knew.
The day would come when there would be no one left. An entire planet erased. I couldn't let that happen.
I repeated.
***
But there is always a choice. In any and every situation. It's usually the choice between bad and worse. But it's still a choice.
"Come on," she said again. "Be my host. Offer me your body and you can have anything you want."
Choice. Traitor or...
I asked.
"It is a kind of freedom," she answered.
I asked.
"It is a kind of happiness," she replied.
***
I heard Rachel say.
I stepped around her. My rear legs weakened. Then I saw the bodies. Human bodies. Maybe half a dozen. Male and female. Suited to look like gas company workers.
Sprawled now every which way. They were alive -- barely. They'd obviously been on the losing end of one every fierce battle. None seemed conscious.
Yeerk slugs wriggled and writhed helplessly on the floor.
Jake gasped.
Marco added.
[...] I followed the sound. There was a door to what looked like a little office. I peered in.
And then I saw her, sitting with her elbows on a table, her head in her hands.
Cassie. Crying.
She had turned off the gas and saved our lives. She had done this.
She didn't look up. She didn't move.
With delicate Andalite arms, I tried to lift her from the chair. She stood but was limp in my arms.
Her sobs stopped. Halting half-gasps took their place. She turned in my arms, turned so that she stood and faced me. Her eyes, red and wet, stared up at mine. Salt streaks dried on her face.
"No," she said. "It will never be okay."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2022
So I have bad news for everyone, and that is that www.EarthIsOurs.com brings up a domain error. I know we were all excited to see Taylor's website.
So. Tobias working with his torturer. This is a shifty book, but the bones are good. I wouldn't say it's as strong as it could be, but this is primarily because the book doesn't want to go hard as the last Tobias book again (thank god) and the result is that it's more uncomfortable than torturous. Or more, torturous in that more subtle way of "I have trauma with this person and now I'm forced to be in a room with them". Which is its own kind of torment. There's also Tobias morphing Taxxon and being overwhelmed by the eating desire-- okay, so it's a Tobias book, they couldn't possibly let up on tormenting him that hard. There's also the inevitable double-cross and a moment of weird tension where Taylor says the following:
"A handsome species," she complimented,
sounding not like a teenage girl, but like a sly,
sophisticated Yeerk. "You deserve more than your
tradition allows."
I backed away.
"Your friends don't understand how powerful we Yeerks are," she continued. "But I know that
you do. We will have no place for your friends in our
new society, but you .. . every comfort you wish
would be yours. We could rule together. Join us."
what
There is this weird tension between them. In addition to Taylor not being... particularly well handled... this always stood out to me as an especially weird line. Taylor is not the foil that Tom or David make for other characters in the series. I don't think it would be easy to make a good foil for Tobias, but like, I don't know what she's even attempting here. I want to find the one Taylor x Tobias fan on the planet and sit them down for therapy. Anyways, the book ends with Cassie having to deal with everyone else's mess:
Cassie. Crying.
She had turned off the gas and saved our
lives. She had done this.
She didn't look up. She
didn't move.
With delicate Andalite arms, I tried to lift her
from the chair. She stood but was limp in my
arms.
It's okay. Everything's okay.>
Her sobs stopped. Halting half-gasps took
their place. She turned in my arms, turned so
that she stood and faced me. Her eyes, red and
wet, stared up at mine. Salt streaks dried on her
face.
"No," she said. "It will never be okay."
A really tender moment, and not the first breakdown by Cassie in the last few books. At this point she's being dragged through the last chunk of the war, a war that doesn't look like it's stopping or escalating substantially save for in that it keeps getting harder. It seems impossible the team is still going without blowing up on the spot.
So. Tobias working with his torturer. This is a shifty book, but the bones are good. I wouldn't say it's as strong as it could be, but this is primarily because the book doesn't want to go hard as the last Tobias book again (thank god) and the result is that it's more uncomfortable than torturous. Or more, torturous in that more subtle way of "I have trauma with this person and now I'm forced to be in a room with them". Which is its own kind of torment. There's also Tobias morphing Taxxon and being overwhelmed by the eating desire-- okay, so it's a Tobias book, they couldn't possibly let up on tormenting him that hard. There's also the inevitable double-cross and a moment of weird tension where Taylor says the following:
"A handsome species," she complimented,
sounding not like a teenage girl, but like a sly,
sophisticated Yeerk. "You deserve more than your
tradition allows."
I backed away.
"Your friends don't understand how powerful we Yeerks are," she continued. "But I know that
you do. We will have no place for your friends in our
new society, but you .. . every comfort you wish
would be yours. We could rule together. Join us."
what
There is this weird tension between them. In addition to Taylor not being... particularly well handled... this always stood out to me as an especially weird line. Taylor is not the foil that Tom or David make for other characters in the series. I don't think it would be easy to make a good foil for Tobias, but like, I don't know what she's even attempting here. I want to find the one Taylor x Tobias fan on the planet and sit them down for therapy. Anyways, the book ends with Cassie having to deal with everyone else's mess:
Cassie. Crying.
She had turned off the gas and saved our
lives. She had done this.
She didn't look up. She
didn't move.
With delicate Andalite arms, I tried to lift her
from the chair. She stood but was limp in my
arms.
It's okay. Everything's okay.>
Her sobs stopped. Halting half-gasps took
their place. She turned in my arms, turned so
that she stood and faced me. Her eyes, red and
wet, stared up at mine. Salt streaks dried on her
face.
"No," she said. "It will never be okay."
A really tender moment, and not the first breakdown by Cassie in the last few books. At this point she's being dragged through the last chunk of the war, a war that doesn't look like it's stopping or escalating substantially save for in that it keeps getting harder. It seems impossible the team is still going without blowing up on the spot.
September 14, 2015
I have mad respect for Tobias. If you're going to say bad stuffs about him I will go Rachel and MoriartyxRamsay you. I am not kidding. I will burn your house down and eat your whole family if you say one bad shit about this boy. Nothing personal, it's just how I show my love to my fictional... damn it. Right. He's fictional. Damn it, sorry I got carried away.
I've said this before but I will say it again: Tobias is my favorite character, the first ever fictional character I have ever loved. Theon Greyjoy might've been through a lot, same as Jojen Reed, but Tobias had been my friend for like, forever and we have this bond I can never have with future favorites. He's everything I'll never be but want to be. He makes decisions I could never make. While I would choose death over any inconvenience any time, Tobias would choose survival and winning against everything, everyone, that damaged him.
Maybe he's strong because he'd been through stuffs I'll never go through (right we'll never know, I have like 20 years more in earth, somebody would think about torturing me too right, or turning me into a red-tailed hawk forever, yeah fck off :]). But it's not just that. He knows which battle to pick, or more like which enemy to pick, and actually win it. I just can't imagine picking bird life over human, or accepting I have an Andalite for a father and everything else I've known since day 1 had been lies over lies. Or being captured, again, by Taylor Psycho Yeerk Girl who tortured me. Damn it, right. When I got to know it was her I want to go Miaka and just kill the shit out of this psycho, self-obsessed villain.
I'm just glad this one has lots of actions for Tobias. I'm glad the Taxxon morphing was over. I hated it that he has to do it, damn I mean, Taxxons are hella gross. *_*
This is a shitty review, right? Right. I can't get better at doing this thing, unfortunately. This is... I just say everything and hit save. Wharevs.
I've said this before but I will say it again: Tobias is my favorite character, the first ever fictional character I have ever loved. Theon Greyjoy might've been through a lot, same as Jojen Reed, but Tobias had been my friend for like, forever and we have this bond I can never have with future favorites. He's everything I'll never be but want to be. He makes decisions I could never make. While I would choose death over any inconvenience any time, Tobias would choose survival and winning against everything, everyone, that damaged him.
Maybe he's strong because he'd been through stuffs I'll never go through (right we'll never know, I have like 20 years more in earth, somebody would think about torturing me too right, or turning me into a red-tailed hawk forever, yeah fck off :]). But it's not just that. He knows which battle to pick, or more like which enemy to pick, and actually win it. I just can't imagine picking bird life over human, or accepting I have an Andalite for a father and everything else I've known since day 1 had been lies over lies. Or being captured, again, by Taylor Psycho Yeerk Girl who tortured me. Damn it, right. When I got to know it was her I want to go Miaka and just kill the shit out of this psycho, self-obsessed villain.
I'm just glad this one has lots of actions for Tobias. I'm glad the Taxxon morphing was over. I hated it that he has to do it, damn I mean, Taxxons are hella gross. *_*
This is a shitty review, right? Right. I can't get better at doing this thing, unfortunately. This is... I just say everything and hit save. Wharevs.
January 21, 2015
Loved this one. Loved Tobias and bringing back the Taylor storyline (even though she was awful.) The missions are getting tougher, mentally and physically. I agreed with both Cassie and the others; there's no best answer. You have to figure out who you're fighting for and what's worth losing to get it.
Quotes I loved:
Quotes I loved:
June 10, 2014
Ah, Tobias. The poor guy can't catch a break. Teased, abused, abandoned, stuck living as a hawk, undoubtably psychologically scarred from the war, and on top of that, tortured...and now he has to work with his torturer to take down Visser Three. And at most he is probably only fourteen. Jeez.
While Taylor's actions quickly became stereotypically evil, her backstory made her more complex - at least regarding Taylor-the-girl vs Taylor-the-Yeerk. I mean, selling out your mind, body, and family to regain beauty that was lost in a horrific fire? Extreme, and sad. And I'm sure some people would take that offer.
This was a really good one, very introspective. Goes into the idea of fear being the source of evil, as well as what constitutes a necessary sacrifice. Also deals with making choices, and the results of those choices. Heavy book. Once again, these books might be written for younger people, but the content and ideas are very much for a mature audience.
While Taylor's actions quickly became stereotypically evil, her backstory made her more complex - at least regarding Taylor-the-girl vs Taylor-the-Yeerk. I mean, selling out your mind, body, and family to regain beauty that was lost in a horrific fire? Extreme, and sad. And I'm sure some people would take that offer.
This was a really good one, very introspective. Goes into the idea of fear being the source of evil, as well as what constitutes a necessary sacrifice. Also deals with making choices, and the results of those choices. Heavy book. Once again, these books might be written for younger people, but the content and ideas are very much for a mature audience.
January 8, 2017
Animorphs is delicate to write. It's too easy to turn Cassie into the perfect sweet girl who is always right. Most of the time they avoid the pitfall.
This time they didn't.
When a crazy-ass torturer yeerk comes to them talking *democracy* with a shady plan even her human host broke free to warn them against - there is no way in hell none of the animorphs even thought this may be a trap. There is no way in hell Marco didn't mention it.
Had they discussed it and decided it had to be done anyway, or taken a "let's accept now and we'll see once we get going" approach, I could have bought it, but this had trap written all over it, and it was not even handwaved to hand Cassie the moral high ground on a platter. (And incidentally, there is no way Cassie didn't go and warn them instead of setting off on her own. She fucking yells "I can't do this by myself" in the very next book!
So I'm usually the last person to say the author is wrong but - here the authors were wrong.
This time they didn't.
When a crazy-ass torturer yeerk comes to them talking *democracy* with a shady plan even her human host broke free to warn them against - there is no way in hell none of the animorphs even thought this may be a trap. There is no way in hell Marco didn't mention it.
Had they discussed it and decided it had to be done anyway, or taken a "let's accept now and we'll see once we get going" approach, I could have bought it, but this had trap written all over it, and it was not even handwaved to hand Cassie the moral high ground on a platter. (And incidentally, there is no way Cassie didn't go and warn them instead of setting off on her own. She fucking yells "I can't do this by myself" in the very next book!
So I'm usually the last person to say the author is wrong but - here the authors were wrong.
February 21, 2017
I don't know. I mean. I feel like an argument could have been made that this should have been Cassie's book. She seems to be the one with the real moral crisis here. But Tobias v Taylor redux did not really have a lot of punch for me?
August 24, 2016
Another exciting adventure in this series!
February 27, 2019
I like that they return to the effects of torture on Tobias's mindset. The overall plot wasn't much, but it was definitely less filler than previous installations.
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