The Pretender

Animorphs #23

by K.A. Applegate

Someone's looking for Tobias. Someone who says she's his long-lost cousin. Tobias isn't sure the person is telling the truth, but she's really nice, and knows a lot about him. And what she tells Tobias definitely gets his attention.

It seems a lawyer has discovered Tobias's father's last will and testament. So, Tobias needs to attend the reading. His cousin even offers to go along. But something just doesn't feel quite right. That's when Tobias and the other Animorphs decide to do a little checking on this "cousin." And what they discover will change the rest of Tobias's life...

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens, Fantasy, Aliens

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

also published under the name Katherine Applegate

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

So there's a scene in this book that has stuck with me for years, ever since I first read it as a kid. Tobias is in human morph, sitting in a trap he very much knows is there, with an enemy watching, waiting for him to slip up, and he gets some unbelievably unexpected news. The only thing that saves him is that he's so unused to being a human anymore, he doesn't really make facial expressions. His face is perfectly blank when his world is turned upside down. I actually think about that scene a lot, and it's been at least fifteen years since I've read the book.

This is a Tobias book, so of course that means it's Existential Crisis Time. Is he a hawk? Is he a human? Is he some weird combo of both? And now that he knows his father was Elfangor in human morph, is he also somehow part alien? Existential crisis well deserved, in my opinion.

There are two things going on in this book plot-wise. First, a lawyer has been poking around school looking for Tobias, and the other Animorphs inform him that he claims to have a letter from Tobias's dead father, and that a long-lost cousin has appeared, wanting to take Tobias in and give him a human. All the Animorphs, including Tobias, smell a trap. Second, a Hork-Bajir child has wandered away from the hidden colony, and all the Hork-Bajir and Animorphs search for him, knowing it could be very bad if the Yeerks are the ones that find him.

And of course, their worst fears come to pass. Tobias's "cousin" turns out to be Visser Three in morph, because the lawyer who found the letter from Elfangor to Tobias was a Controller and nearly shit his pants when he read Elfangor's name, along with the word "Andalite". And Bek the lost Hork-Bajir is soon captured by the Yeerks, and they set up a trap to catch the other free Hork-Bajir who will no doubt come to rescue him, and who have been steadily freeing other Hork-Bajir Controllers to join their free colony.

I can't really remember if Tobias's identity crisis continues after this, but for now he has managed to find some peace when he realizes that all humans, even ones not trapped in the bodies of hawks, constantly have to make the same choices he does, between the animal side that just wants to survive, or to hurt those going after you, and between doing the oftentimes harder thing of looking the other way, taking the more peaceful, evolved action. There isn't much story after he finds out the identity of his real father, but he also seems to find comfort in the idea that he, too, has a duty he has to perform, just like his father, and that has to come first.

Next up, oh my god, the Helmacrons.

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone’s looking for Tobias, claiming to be a cousin of his. It’s a trap. Tobias has an identity crisis and considering how much this has slowly been building up, it feels perfectly natural and earned. It’s a strong installment that further fleshes out Tobias as a character.

[Trevor Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Applegate what the actual fuck?

So you’re gonna give Tobias mental moral battle making him unable to kill prey then make him starve and then make him eat roadkill. You’re gonna make him think he’s got a new family member that actually cares about him and wants to take him in but turns out that was all a ruse by Visser 3. You’re gonna make him and Rachel talk about how and why they can’t be together. Oh and you’re gonna tell him that his father wasn’t actually his father but in fact was the alien that gave them the morphing powers… the same one they saw eaten alive. All on his birthday. 🥳

Fuck you.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

FIRST REVIEW / MAY 6, 2015
As usual, Tobias' books are introspective and thoughtful, ruminating on the nature of humanity and his own status as something in-between. One of the most stirring moments is towards the end, when he realises that mankind itself balances between savagery and sainthood. The kids also discuss warmongering -- Rachel declares that when you're pushed, you should push back, citing the Nazis and WWII, at which point Cassie shoots back about Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Again, surprisingly sophisticated for a children's series, and like I keep repeating, war is the overarching, underlying, fundamental question of this entire series. When and how do you fight back, or sink to the enemy's level? How far do you bloody your own hands? How much is necessary?

The actual plot of this book is great, a perfect follow-up to the Andalite Chronicles and Hork-Bajir Chronicles, as it touches on both Tobias' parentage and the free Hork-Bajir colony -- it's especially fantastic seeing that colony flourish and grow, and the new character of Jara and Ket's daughter, Toby, who's already canny to the harsh measures the Hork-Bajir have to take if they expect to survive in this world:

I wondered about the image of Hork-Bajir and humans living side by side if the Yeerks were defeated. Humans didn't have a great record of getting along with people different from themselves. Humans killed one another over skin color or eye shape or because they prayed differently to the same god. Hard to imagine humans welcoming seven-foot-tall goblins into the local Boy Scout troop when they couldn't even manage to tolerate some gay kid.

Get pushed, push back. Toby had already seen it. She knew that the Hork-Bajir would need to be strong to defend themselves against humans once the Yeerks were defeated.

The opportunity for a normal human life is also dangled in front of Tobias, which is an occasional temptation amongst the Animorphs -- like when Rachel, many books ago, was offered the chance to move away with her father. The urge to abandon their fight is utterly understandable, but they're still trapped in this cycle, fighting for the guy next to them in the foxhole.

---------------------------------

SECOND REVIEW / JUNE 9, 2020
In addition to the call-out above wrt the Middle East and the way humans treat people of other races or sexualities, there's also this realisation by Tobias:

"The Hork-Bajir trusted Andalites to save us from the Yeerks. The Andalites failed. The Andalites took care of their own. We must do the same. We are grateful to the humans called Animorphs. But do you say we should trust all humans?"

Well, she had me there. It was way too easy to see a day when the Yeerks were defeated and these Hork-Bajir were left behind on Earth. What would happen to them? Humans didn't exactly have an unblemished record of tolerance for different races. After all, before this valley had belonged to the Hork-Bajir, it had probably been inhabited by Native Americans.

They're small references, but it's honestly more than I'd ever expect from most middle-grade fiction, particularly back in the 90s. Also, the fact that they're able to joke about their past trauma just kills me, these poor kids:

"Pick a bug, any bug," Rachel said with a laugh. "Flea, fly, mosquito. A bug's a bug."

"Yeah, right," Marco muttered. "I'm an ant and I get chomped in half, I'm a flea and I almost get stuck in morph. I don't have a good record with bugs."

"I got slapped as a fly," Jake offered, like that was helpful.

Plus, this is another small detail, but I love Visser Three's respect for Elfangor; I love me some good nemeses and rivals, so the way he stands up for and defends his old enemy's memory is just ?? it got me in my heart somehow??

ANYWAY, this is such a solid book, tying up loose ends that were introduced a whole ten books ago and Tobias finally, finally learning the truth about his family, plus him and Rachel finally talking, out loud and directly, about their relationship and discussing its challenges and how they want to be together but can't. Waaaaugh my feelings!!

Favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.

[Nemo (The ☾Moonlight☾ Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brought to you by The Moonlight Library!

Tobias has been contacted by a long-lost cousin who wants to take him in after the reading of his father’s will. One of the free Hork-Bajir babies has gone missing. Tobias is having an identity crisis. Just your average day for your average Bird-Boy.

Like I said, this novel is pretty much about Tobias’ identity crisis. Mostly it flitters between his inability to defend his territory from another hawk, and his indecision on whether he can permanently become human again and bow out of the war. He fights between being too human and being too hawk and in his moments of weakness ends up sinking to his lowest ever – eating roadkill. But hey, whatever it takes to survive, right? He can’t depend on the other Animorphs to bring him food when his only problem is the other hawk he won’t fight – oh year, and did I mention every time he tries to hunt he gets these weird flashes of head-hopping that is never really resolved?

I love Tobias. I love his angst and his indecision – which in itself is another decision. I think he’s brave and valiant and he has a strong sense of what’s right and wrong tempered with his predator’s view of the world. So it pains me to see him hang out with Rachel and have her not really understand why he won’t permanently become human again. Not even for her.

And who exactly is the pretender? If you don’t know the spoiler, the fact that Tobias’ mysterious cousin Aria is really Visser Three in morphs suspecting the homeless kid who disappeared around the same time the Andaliate bandits appeared, then the pretender might actually be Tobias. He’s pretending to be a bird. Or maybe he’s pretending to be human. Either way it fits him perfectly.

This book is important to the overall storyline, especially if you haven’t read the Andalite Chronicles. This book reveals that Elfangor was Tobias’ real dad. It’s a pity we never see Ax’s reaction to this revelation. I think sometimes the guys refer to each other as uncle/nephew, but they’re more focused on the best friends forever aspect. Anyway, because Tobias is awesome and you should love him, you’ll enjoy this as one of the better Animorphs books. Don’t miss it.

[Gavin Hetherington · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tobias and Rachel. Been shipping it since the 90s.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back on the Animorphs re-read train with The Pretender, our first Tobias book in what feels like forever. Tobias leads the Animorphs in rescuing a captured free Hork-Bajir child; meanwhile, he has to deal with the usual teenage angst: some woman claiming to be his cousin wanting to take care of him, a letter from his departed father to be read on his birthday, and another red-tailed hawk muscling in on his prime feeding grounds.

The usual.

The B plot (or A plot? I don’t know which is which) is not great here. After The Hork-Bajir Chronicles we have a much better idea of Hork-Bajir life and culture. Applegate drops some references into this story, but for the most part this is your standard “Animorphs have to break into a Yeerk facility and sabotage it” plot. It just has some added Hork-Bajir muscle and some new punchlines from Marco. So in terms of the challenges the Animorphs face, there is nothing really new here, which is probably why Applegate spends surprisingly little time on this plot.

Tobias’ arc totally steals the show here. I know this was a Nickelodeon show when it was a TV show (so I think it was on YTV here in Canada, if I remember correctly), but Tobias was an angsty CW boy before the CW existed or had angsty boys on it. He just drips with regret and self-loathing and self-pity. Don’t get me wrong: I feel a lot of sympathy for him. This is well-deserved angst, not “some other person likes the person I like” angst. (Which I guess is also legitimate angst, if you’re at the age where that’s your life. I was never that age.)

I enjoy the way Applegate offers Tobias a legitimate, difficult dilemma. He can morph his human body and become Tobias the human again—but after two hours, that’s it. He can have a regular life, but he won’t be an Animorph any more. On the one hand, this would be a huge relief. He wouldn’t be under direct threat from the Yeerks. He could eat human food and sleep in a proper bed. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be in the fight any more. And his life as a human seemed pretty crappy, to be honest.

This book also directly addresses Tobias/Rachel for the first time in a while. Rachel pretty much comes out and says that if Tobias were human she would date him. It’s heartbreaking, especially because I totally ship Tobias/Rachel. Her conversations with Tobias are the best part of this book, because she is all about keeping it real. She’s like, “This is what it is. You’re a hawk, but you’ll never be a hawk.” And Rachel—who, let’s not forget, is the most gung ho, warlike of the Animorphs—advocates for Tobias to drop out and become human again.

Almost as if she is envious of that option. Almost.

Tobias has an out. He doesn’t take it. Does that make him a hero? I don’t know. Even at this point in the series, I think Applegate has already come down pretty hard on the “in war, there are no heroes” theme: Tobias has done his share of questionable things, and he will go on to do more questionable things, as will the rest of the Animorphs.

Speaking of questionable things, next time, You’ll Never Believe How Cassie Shrinks Her Waistline With This One Easy Trick!

My reviews of Animorphs:
← The Hork-Bajir Chronicles

[Swankivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ooh, a Tobias book. He finds out about his heritage, finally, and has to make a choice about whether to believe this lying sack of crap or stay in the fight against the Yeerks. ::Grumble::

Notable moments and inconsistencies:

In this book Tobias mentions the Ellimist and this is the first time the narration suggests there might not be more than one Ellimist. Ax always suggests the Ellimist is part of a race of Ellimists. But this book is the first time when it's been suggested "the Ellimist" might be the only one of his kind. (That's actually the case, but the Ellimist prefers to pretend there are more.)

Cassie is recognized by Ax in a harrier morph. Up to this point she's never used a harrier morph, so it's assumed she acquired it in this book or shortly before. However, she never uses it after either, so it's possible the author just forgot that Cassie's usual bird morph is an osprey.

In this book Tobias points out that Rachel's eagle morph is male, and that eagles and hawks don't mate anyway. This is pretty close to discussing actual sexuality, which doesn't happen often in these books. But since Tobias and Rachel like each other, this was an interesting place to put it. However, unless he just didn't realize he was wrong at the time, Tobias identified Rachel's eagle morph as female in a previous book.

Twice very close together in this book, the narration brings up "controversial" issues of the time. In discussing Tobias and Rachel being different species (which makes it difficult for them to date), Rachel brings up Jake and Cassie being different races and how "no one but a moron cares about that," so clearly a message is relayed in favor of interracial relationships. And shortly after that, in discussing humans' failure to get along with each other, Tobias's narration suggests it's unlikely humans will accept Hork-Bajir if they can't even tolerate gay people in their Boy Scouts. So, pro-homosexuality as well. Unusually progressive for a kids' book to just slide these issues in without actually focusing on them . . . and very refreshing!

Tobias uses a flea morph in this book, but it is not acquired in this book unless it's just not mentioned. Tobias could not have gotten a flea morph when everyone else did because he was not morph capable during the events of #2, and in #21 when most of the others became fleas he didn't go with them. He also uses the flea in later books, but this is the earliest in the series he uses it.

It's unclear why Aria is in the helicopter at the exact time when Tobias can see her. Visser Three clearly had to have a human morph to fit in the helicopter in order to come to the facility, but since he almost always uses a male human morph and has more than one, it seems a little too convenient that he happened to be using the Aria morph at the time he was called to the facility.

[Grapie Deltaco · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH MY GOD ????

So much to unpack. Holy shit.

With more clarity on Tobias’ home life and family situation before he became a hawk, we also see this internal struggle to identify with his humanity. Tobias has no true home to go back to. No family to love him, but he’s developing one with the Animorphs (especially with Rachel).

However, in order to truly be accepted by them and be a human would mean to permanently morph and lose morphing entirely. He would need to let go of being a hawk- a state of being that almost feels more natural to him that existing physically as a human. He would need to step away from the Animorphs as a participant in this war.

He is trapped in a cycle of self loathing of knowing he will never truly be a hawk or a well-loved human boy. When there’s hope for a family life and to be loved in a way he never has been, we uncover the truth of Tobias’ parentage.

His ongoing battle with being fully in-line with any identity grows more complex and we finally get to hear verbal confirmation on what his relationship with Rachel is.

What a brutal soap-opera installment.

CW: war, slavery, violence, death, grief, parental abandonment

[Suvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my, the ending got me all teary-eyed. That's some heavy stuff for kids. And I know I would have absolutely loved it back then. FEELS.

[Cienna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bird boy becomes bunny boy to test out vegetarian lifestyle. Not for him.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic character study for Tobias. This book feels like one big tormented monologue and I love every bit of it.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot
We learn that someone's looking for Tobias, this person who supposedly says she's his long-lost cousin. Tobias isn't so sure of the person's honesty about this fact or it's a trap cooked up by the Yeerks to flush out a member of the Animorphs.

It seems a lawyer has discovered Tobias's father's last will and testament. So, Tobias needs to attend the reading. His "cousin" even offers to go along. But something just doesn't feel quite right. That's when Tobias, the other Animorphs, and Ax decide to do a little checking on this "cousin." And what they discover will change the rest of Tobias's life...

Tobias and his inner demons

Ever since the first book when Tobias was first trapped in his hawk morph, he has struggled with conflicting instincts and emotions as both hawk and human, to survive in the wild with his human instincts in his hawk body.

Tobias in this book, is struggling to survive, to find sustenance as he is battling with a wild hawk for territory and being forced to live off roadkill as he has been dealing with panic attacks while hunting for food and of course dealing with his two conflicting emotions and instincts: hawk's instincts and his human emotions.

He's also finding him forgetting certain details about his old human life, for example: his birthday, what his mother looks like, the more time he's a hawk 24/7 despite regaining his ability to morph again back into his human form thanks to the Ellimist.

Once he finds out about the possibility that he has a long lost cousin despite suspecting it could quite easily be a trap concocted by the Yeerks to capture him and lead to the capture of the others if the Yeerks get smart about the Animorphs' identities.

This cousin could provide Tobias with a real home, a roof over his head, three meals a day, school, and more importantly there's Rachel.

One positive out of all of this and Tobias' continuing struggle to hold onto his humanity and being out of touch with physical characteristics of humanity ultimately saves his life as Visser Three, in Aria morph, observes Tobias, desperate to see whether Tobias reveals any visible reaction to his parental revelation - Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, which makes Ax his biological uncle.

But because Tobias is so completely out of touch being human, as hawks do not have facial emotions, his lack of a reaction convinces Visser Three and DeGroot that Tobias is totally unaware of Elfangor and Andalites.

Tobias feigns that his father was nuts and that the will is useless if he doesn't get any money from it, further convincing both Controllers of his ignorance. "Aria" then fabricates an excuse for no longer being able to adopt Tobias. As Tobias leaves, he overhears DeGroot suggesting that they should infest Tobias anyway, only for the Visser to reply that he is ashamed that Elfangor's son isn't a warrior, and deems Tobias as a waste of a host body.

Overall, this inner turmoil that Tobias has been struggling with since Book One eventually saved his life in this book and by extension his friends, for now, as the Yeerks and including Visser Three, disregarding Tobias and the possibility of being connected to the Animorphs whatsoever, the perfect cover.

By the end of the book, Tobias finds a temporary peace with his dual identities and becomes more confident as he overcomes his panic attacks but also protects the baby bunnies from the rival hawk.

Relationships

Marco and Rachel's relationship is also slightly touched on; when Rachel remarks that in the old days, Marco would find a girl to bother, Marco puts his arm around Rachel's shoulders and states that he now has only one girl to bother. Rachel then laughs and shrugs Marco off playfully, inciting a pang of jealousy in Tobias.

This also brings up Tobias' feelings regarding Rachel and their unconventional relationship which both Rachel and Tobias recognize the limitations of their budding romance. Since their relationship is going through a rough patch considering she's human and he's stuck in hawk morph and they can't do "normal things" that "normal couples" do when in love and Tobias struggles with his identity and his worth to the group and their overall mission against the Yeerks and for someone of Tobias' age to juggle the positives and negatives of his emotional existential crisis, no kid should go through.

With this revelation of the possibility of Tobias having a long lost cousin, Rachel points out there is a chance of Tobias reverting to his human form and having a normal life again but at the cost of his ability to morph and being an essential member of the Animorphs and Rachel being well aware of his struggle to survive in the wild as a hawk and she's not wrong either.

Yeerks .... finally thinking smart for once lol

Chapman has begun looking for Tobias, whom he has realized has missed school for several months and is not living with either of his legal guardians (since both have caught on that Tobias hasn't been living with each legal guardian).

Rachel overhears about what Chapman's up to and discovers that it is because Tobias's father's lawyer, a man named DeGroot, wishes to read Tobias a legal document. To complicate the matter, a woman named Aria, a supposed nature photographer from Africa, has arrived, claiming to be Tobias' cousin and looking to give him a home, of course, alarms go off with the Animorphs as they smell a trap, despite at one point Tobias is juggling with the legitimacy of this claim.

All the while, a young Hok-Bajir, Bek, has gone missing from the sanctuary eventually both the free Hok-Bajir led by the seer Toby and the Animorphs join forces to free Bek and potentially free other Hok-Bajir Controllers from their enslavement which led to both teams learning Aria's true identity as Visser Three in human morph, this blunder alerts Tobias and the Animorphs, which allows Tobias to later foil the Yeerks' plans and saving Animorphs and the free Hok-Bajir from infestation.

As plans go, it's not bad, as the Yeerks are finally dabbling with the possibility that the Animorphs could have human members. If they only knew lol

Conclusion

From this point on, my memories of Tobias continues to struggle with his dual identities and moral dilemma due to this issue throughout the series I can't remember but from this point on Tobias has found emotional peace and confidence that he previously lacked and he has renewed purpose and newfound identity after learning his biological relation to Elfangor and Ax.

Overall, an emotional rollercoaster through Tobias' eyes, of what it means to be human, relationships, survival, and his worth, not just for himself but his contribution to the group, one thing that bothered me even to this book, if the problem is Tobias being stuck in his hawk form and reluctance to be trapped in his human morph and removing his role within the group, couldn't he reacquire the morphing ability from the morphing cube??? It could work as an audience we know so little of the limitations or possibilities of the morphing cube, and don't know if this issue will come back in discussion in later books.

[Juushika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good Tobias book, and this one seems like it must have been particularly fun to write. Applegate seem to have run out of fucks to give--the explicit references to Jake and Cassie's interracial relationship and "hard to imagine humans welcoming seven-foot-tall goblins into the local Boy Scout troop when they couldn't even manage to tolerate some gay kid" are both refreshingly, even startlingly, honest. And this is Tobias at peak woobie. The writing isn't incredibly consistent--Tobias seems to cope well as a supporting character but then has sudden crises when he's a narrator, and Rachel's insistence that he give up the fight seems out of character--but I appreciate it when episodic narratives sideline the A-plot in order to focus on a character's emotional arc, and Tobias's unsolvable, accessible inner turmoil has stuck with me almost word for word since I was thirteen and still holds up as an adult reader. A solid 4.5* book, bumped up because it made me have an entire feeling.

[Noella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the reason I like the books narrated by Tobias is because his installments are always important and not filler material. The Predator really made me emphathise with Tobias. Out of all the Animorphs, his situation has got to be the most unfortunate. The book starts out with Tobias in his red tailed hawk form hunting for food. Every time he hunts, he can't help it but picture himself as the prey. His human thoughts have caused him to fail at hunting and survive on roadkill. His identity is a huge question mark. Is he a hawk? Or is he human?

Out of the blue, someone claiming to be his cousin appears and offers to take care of him. Along with Rachel's encouragement, Tobias deliberates the possibility of morphing and staying in his human form to live a normal life. This book was quite depressing and tragic as Tobias is told the truth about his parentage on his birthday.

[Bonesy]

This is one of my all-time favorite Animorphs books because it has everything to do with Tobias, my favorite character. This is the book where he finds out that Elfangor is his father, although he doesn't realize it until the end. I think every Tobias fan freaked out when this book came out. At first, it tricks you into thinking he's actually going to more to human eventually, and possibly live with his "cousin". Meanwhile, they also have to rescue a younger Hork-Bajir that somehow got away from the valley. This is also the first book where Tobias and Rachel actually admit, out loud, that they have a "thing" of some kind (I was always a huge Tobias-Rachel shipper, whatever the term for that is called).

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

October 12, 2022 audiobook review here.
May 27, 2021 reread:
   Tobias is having a harder time of things than usual. And given how tough his life can be as a hawk, that’s saying something. First, there’s a drought, so less prey, another hawk is nudging in on Tobias’ meadow stealing what little food is available, not to mention whenever Tobias tries to hunt he flashes to being the prey and misses the meal. Then, there’s a young Hork-Bajir who has gotten lost, and they need to find him before humans or Yeerks find him and then find the free Hork-Bajir colony. The icing on the cake? Tobias gets word that his real father, not the man he thought was his father, has left him a will to be read on his next birthday, and a woman named Aria appears claiming to be his cousin and wanting to take him in and give him a family again.
   I don’t know what’s up between 2015 and 2021 me, but this time reading through The Pretender, I felt it a lot more. Sure, there are some awfully convenient coincidences – when is there not at least one in an Animorphs book? – and some things seem like they should be a stretch, but then right there on the page, we’re essentially gifted the thought process that makes it not so much a stretch. At the very least, it gives us a semi-plausible explanation – which reminds us that despite all they’ve been through, the Animorphs are still kids, kids in an incredible and terrible situation, and who have had to really adapt and think outside of the box, especially as anyone is a potential Controller and therefore threat.
   Basically, I underestimated the power of this book going into it. I remembered the key reveal which happened in it (I don’t think I’ll ever forget it), though nearly all the details surrounding it had gone away in the five years since I last reread this book. There’s a lot going on, pulling Tobias and thus the reader in several directions, yet it does manage to come together and stick the ending. After all, life isn’t easy; it is a balancing act. It’s how you handle what comes at you that makes a difference in how things will go. Just like how Tobias is still learning to balance his hawk instinct and his human empathy, and realizes that the two are not really all that different after all. So I’m bumping this up to 4 stars, from the original 3.

Favorite quotes:
   Sometimes all the communicating that people do just seems irrelevant. Action is what counts. – page 75

    [Toby said,] “A fool is strong so that others will see. A wise person is strong for himself.” – page 116

   Every human – Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, all humans – kind of lives on that edge between savage and saint. And the thing is that sometimes when you get pushed you do have to push back. And other times, you have to turn the other cheek. […] I guess the trick is to figure out when to do which thing. When to fight, when to let up. A balancing act. And even if I went back to being human, that balancing act wouldn’t go away.
   Maybe realizing that should have made me feel bad. But it didn’t. Just made me feel human. – page 119-120

   See, I had a duty, too. And who is there to remind you that what you want for yourself is less important than doing what is necessary and right? – page 150-151

Inconsistency/typo:
[I saw] a harrier I knew as Cassie. – page 34 – Except, Cassie has an osprey morph. Ax has the harrier.
…T-rex feetfirst, on one of the men. – page 88 – “feetfirst” should be “feet first”

August 11, 2015 review – 3 stars:
    After the grim darkness and very solid-feeling plot of the David trilogy, this Tobias book actually was a bit of a letdown. It lacked some of the oomph that we had just gotten, though it did try, and in the second half it did make up some of it. But not all or enough. I wanted to love it, I really did. I mean, it is the book which includes a Big Reveal about Tobias’ past. And there were aspects that lived up to expectation, but they were not as numerous as I would have liked.

    In this book, we have the juxtaposition of Tobias learning about a long-lost will from his “real” father coupled with the appearance of a long-lost cousin who can offer him a home, and the capture of a young free Hork-Bajir by the Yeerks. The two plots manage to intertwine in a way that makes sense, though it feels a little forced, and a little too convenient.

    The biggest highlight for me was the reading of the will, and what it revealed. I had been waiting and waiting for this reveal to happen since I picked the series back up again after 15 years.

        But that’s what worried me most. Temptation.

    [Rachel] had left the window open, as she often did. Sometimes I’d come by and do her homework for her. I don’t know why. Some weird desire to stay in touch with my old life, I guess. – page 13

    “[…] I guess she contacted this lawyer of your dad’s. She told him and Chapman she wanted to take you in.” [Rachel told me]
    < Take me in? >
    “Give you a home, Tobias. A home.” – page 16 – Magic words, right there. “A home.” Something Tobias has never really had, not as a human, not as a hawk.

    Mostly I was just nervous. What was I going to discover? What was I going to learn? What temptations would I have to face?
    Strange word, temptations. Strange concept. But that’s what worried me most. Temptation. – page 19 – Temptation is a powerful thing. Tobias is wise to be worried about temptation; it can blind you to what is right in front of your face.

    I relaxed a little. But I was baffled. Water? Coffee? Soda? What was the right answer?
    “Um… um…”
    Good grief. You’d think it was Final Jeopardy and the category was Obscure Modern Poets. I was so out of practice being human.
    “I’d like a Coke!” I practically yelled.
    DeGroot pressed his intercom. “Ingrid, our young friend here would like – ”
    “—a Coke. Yes, I heard him. All the way out here.” – page 25 – Haha! I like the dichotomy of Tobias is confused by the question of which drink he wants, but he can go ahead and liken it to Jeopardy. Also, this scene gives us a little more information about where this series might be taking place – an area of the US that uses both “soda” and “Coke”. Based on the usages of sode/pop/Coke, the range of red-tailed hawks, the range of humpback whales, the proximity to the ocean and also mountains and rivers that comprise the Animorphs locale, my guess is that they probably live along the south-eastern seabord of the US. Second guess would be southern California, except they have expressed that the weather can get quite chilly, which I perceive as chillier than what is typical for southern California. Then when also coupled with places that K. A. Applegate has lived, I think my narrowest guess would be that they live in North or South Carolina. Plus there is a Marriott resort on the ocean, and a Hyatt property in the city, and some smaller islands off the coast.

    “[…] Rachel, you’re with Tobias. Figure out if DeGroot and this Aria woman are Controllers. Follow them. Watch them. How long do we have till your birthday, Tobias?”
    < Um… three days? > I asked.
    “Today’s the twenty-third. When’s your birthday?”
    < The twenty-fifth. I think. Twenty-sixth? >
    Marco laughed, then I guess he realized I wasn’t kidding.
    < I don’t… I don’t exactly remember. Not for sure. But I think it’s in three days. > I forced a laugh. < Just don’t ask me how old I am in bird years. > -- page 49 – Even though he’s only been a hawk for a number of months – can we safely estimate about 8-10 months? It’s so hard to even try to keep track of time in this series what with hardly any markers of passage of time – he has already forgotten so much about being human, right down to his own birthday. And as a kid, birthdays are a big thing. My guess is that the will was to be read to him on his 13th or 14th birthday. It is definitely not his 16th or 18th birthday, for sure. Not to mention how he had almost forgotten his last name. It’s like since becoming an Animorph and getting trapped in morph, his comprehension of his existence is down to the basics. The bare necessities, nothing superfluous like birthdays or last names. (So his birthday, I think I figured last night, is actually the 26th. I think.)

    [Rachel is morphing to bald eagle.]
    She grew smaller. But she was becoming one of the largest birds in existence.
    Was she more beautiful to me because she was a bird now? No, of course not. For one thing, eagles and hawks don’t mate. For another, her eagle morph is male.
    But sometimes it seemed to me that this body suited her better than her own. Her own body misled people with superficial resemblances to the glossy images of magazine models. This body was Rachel: fast, strong, smart, intense, and dangerous. – page 51

    < […] I morphed to human and called the hotel [to find which room she’s in]. >
    < How did you get a quarter for the phone? > [Rachel asked.]
    < With these eyes? Coins shine in the sunlight. You fly around outside coin-op Laundromats or the drive-through lane at McDonald’s, you’ll find a dropped quarter sooner or later. >
    Rachel laughed like that was the funniest thing in the world. < You are the world champion of coping with weird situations, > she said. – page 53 – He kind of has to be, I mean, his entire life has become one huge weird situation in more ways than one.

    < I can’t see clearly. > [Tobias said.]
    < Probably a good thing. She’s changing. > [Rachel replied.]
    < Ah. You mean she’s changing clothes, right? Not morphing. >
    < She’s morphing from a pair of sweatpants and T-shirt into a dress. The dress is, oh, about three, four years out of date. >
    […]
    < The glare is shifting. Is it safe to look? >
    < Are you always this nice about being a Peeping Tom? >
    < I am never a Peeping Tom, > I said sharply. Then I softened my tone. < I cannot use my superpowers for evil. >
   Rachel laughed. < Okay to look now. > -- page 56-57 -- A cute little exchange, and it also dissipates any suspicion Rachel might have ever had about Tobias peeping in on her before/after visiting her.

    I wanted to ask why a Controller would care about the conditions of the animals in that hideous zoo. But I didn’t. I guess I’ve gotten so I say less and less. Sometimes all the communicating that people do just seems irrelevant. Action is what counts. – page 75 – Oh Tobias, if you could only see today’s technology-driven world! As for the Controller part of the question: Even Controllers have to act like they care about some things when around other people/non-Controllers – it’s called keeping up a cover. Just like Tom does. Just like Chapman does.

    < Come with me, Bek, > I said to the terrified Hork-Bajir baby.
    < Ket Halpak? >
    < Um…yes. Come. > -- page 88 – Typos! Tobias would/should not be using thought-speak with Bek. And Bek definitely would not be using thought-speak.

    I’d been assuming this was all a trap. I’d been assuming Aria was a Controller.
    But she wasn’t. She was what she said she was. A human woman looking for her long-lost cousin Tobias.
    My last excuse for remaining a hawk, for refusing to become human again, was lost. Now I could have a home. Now I could have a family.
    True. All of it true.
    I could have a home. Like a human being. A home!
    I would not kill my breakfast. I would not eat roadkill. I would sleep in a bed. And Rachel would look at me without having to hide the pity in her eyes. – page 104 – Despite everything, and how well Tobias seemed to have adapted to his life as Bird-boy, he had never really given up one of his most basic hopes: to have a home. Not a house, not a place to live, but a home with family who actually cared about him.

    “[…]Jake figures they’ll take Bek there. As bait.”
    < Or at least that’s what Jake wants to believe, > I said resentfully. < Jara and Ket and Toby trusted me with that information. Maybe Jake’s just looking for an excuse to squeeze the Hork-Bajir to reveal this place to us. >
    Rachel looked at me like she was going to argue. Then she kind of laughed. “Maybe. Jake has gotten more subtle.” – page 106 – Finally, an action of Rachel’s that does seem continuous with her growth in the last book. While I enjoyed the whole riding on cop cars and Tobias pulling off the impossible stunt to hold on to a helicopter, I was wondering what was going through Rachel’s head. Then again, maybe there was no hesitation from her for the very reason that none of it was a battle. Yeah, we’ll go with that.

    “I don’t care that you ate roadkill! Stop being an idiot! I care about you. And when I see you doing that, I know things are going wrong for you. But you’re off in your own little hawk world and no one is allowed to help you. You’d rather starve than ask for help. You can’t ever admit that your life may suck because then you’ll feel weak.”
    < I’m a hawk, > I snapped. < A bird of prey. When we’re weak, we die. That’s the law for us. I’m not a human being. Not anymore. No one helps a hawk. A hawk lives by his eyes and wings and talons. >
    “You’re a hawk?” Rachel sneered. “You talk, Tobias. You read. You have emotions. Those are human things, not hawk things.”
    < I know! I know! Don’t you think I know? That’s why I’m going hungry. Because I’m not hawk enough. That’s why I let Bek get away, because I was human enough to care more about my pain and fear than I cared about doing what I had to do. > -- page 108 – A tough conversation for both Tobias and Rachel, but one that needed to be said, one where points about Tobias/his life had to be said out loud and made “real”.

    “[…]Or… or you can be a human again. All human. You can live with this Aria and eat at the table and sleep in a bed” [Rachel said.]
    < And never fly, > I said. < Never fly again. Never see with hawk’s eyes. Never morph again. I know you guys would all be nice to me, but I’d lose all of you. I’d lose being an Animorph. >
    “You wouldn’t lose me,” Rachel said.
    For a long while neither of us spoke. Then Rachel, in a whisper, said, “What am I supposed to do, Tobias? I’m a girl. You’re a bird. This is way past Romeo and Juliet, Montagues and Capulets. This isn’t Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio coming from different social groups or whatever. It’s not like you’re black and I’m white like Cassie and Jake. No one but a moron cares about that. We are…we can’t hold hands, Tobias. We can’t dance. We can’t go to a movie together.”
    < I…God, Rachel, don’t you think I know all that? Don’t you think I want to have all that? But I can’t keep changing. I can’t keep becoming something different. >
    “One more change, Tobias. Back to human. You’d be free of this stupid war and free of all the danger of living as a hawk. I wouldn’t have to worry about you anymore.” – page 109 – Rachel learned a lot in the David trilogy about voicing her feelings, and she’s finally voicing them to the one who needs to hear them most: Tobias. I like how she off-handedly dismisses the whole “Should blacks and whites be in relationships?” ‘issue’ as something that should not be an issue. But she’s also forgetting that Tobias can become human for up to two hours at a time – he could go to a school dance with her. They could walk down the street and hold hands together. It wouldn’t be the same as if he were human all the time, sure, but at least it would be something. Plus, “I’d lose being an Animorph” – this is a big thing for Tobias. He didn’t really have any friends before becoming an Animorph, and now he has both friends and family in the Animorphs.

    “[…]But the Hork-Bajir will respect themselves. A fool is strong so that others will see. A wise person is strong for himself. The Hork-Bajir will be strong for the Hork-Bajir. That way, when the Yeerks are all gone, we will still be strong.” [Toby said.] – page 116 – Such wise words out of such a young Hork-Bajir, even a seer. I wonder about the maturity rate and lifespan of Hork-Bajir even more now. I mean, they’ve only been free for a few months, right? And while I think Ket was already carrying Toby when her and Jara were freed, Toby would still be very young by any standards. Wise beyond her years due to being a seer and her interactions with Tobias, but still young.

    I wondered about the image of Hork-Bajir and humans living side by side if the Yeerks were defeated. Humans didn’t have a great record of getting along with people different from themselves. Humans killed one another over skin color or eye shape or because they prayed differently to the same god. Hard to imagine humans welcoming seven-foot-tall goblins into the local Boy Scout troop when they couldn’t even manage to tolerate some gay kid. – page 118 – Wow, should we even unpack this? And sadly, all of these things are just as true today as they were when the Animorphs series was written. We’re still fighting for equality and for understanding between “different peoples”.

[Jonathan Pongratz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original Review at Jaunts & Haunts

5/5

I gave this book five coming of age stars!

The blurb pretty much explains the core plot of this novel with one exception. The free Hork Bajir are a large part of this novel and play a very important role. It even ties into the Hork Bajir Chronicles (the last book). How great is that?

Anywho, back to the beginning. This novel is clearly in Tobias's POV if you couldn't tell by the cover. He's been struggling lately in his hawk form, having difficulty when hunting. To make matters worse, a cousin claims to be looking for him and wants to take care of him. 

Tobias and the other Animorphs don't know what to expect, but go along with the meeting to avoid suspicion. Does Tobias really have family out there that cares for him? Is there something darker underneath the surface of this offer?

It feels kinda dumb saying that this is a memorable Tobias novel since there's only been what, four of them so far? But I really mean that. This was a great portrayal of Tobias coming to terms with not only who he is, but what he wants out of life and what is most important to him. 

Obviously, Tobias is the star, but I really loved his interactions with Rachel specifically this time around. I freaking knew it! (not telling you, you can't make me!) The others are there too and it felt very well-balanced. 

The plot was really great, even though I was skeptical at the beginning. There was a lot of heart in this story, some interesting revelations, and plenty of action too! I especially liked how the Hork Bajir came more into the picture on this one. It really solidified how great this book was for me. 

I honestly have no negative things to say. I dare not speak ill of this wonderful book! Though, I will admit, I am well aware that the next one is in Cassie's POV, so I'm desperately hoping that Applegate doesn't throw her in front of the bus again. 

Definitely give The Pretender a read, it's totally worth it!

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series really does get better, more mature, and darker. Great.

But there's a weird Matthew Shepard reference in this one, intended to be a sign of how intolerant humans are. I suspect it was very "current year" in 1998, but it really just feels obscure, embarrassing & dated now. Matthew Shephard was not a victim of a homophobic hate-crime -- he was killed by a former lover because they represented two halves of an Intermountain American drug war. His killer used the "gay panic" defense out of a misguided belief that it would secure a lighter sentence; then gay rights activists glommed onto that because it fit their narratives & goals perfectly. For a full dive into the reality of the Matthew Shepard case, I recommend The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard by Stephen Jimenez, a gay journalist who set out to write a commemorative puff-peace about Shepard but wound up thoroughly demoralized by the discovery that A) the whole narrative was a lie, and B) his own community didn't CARE that it was a lie because the lie was so helpful to their cause.

I suppose that's the problem with trying to capture the feel & mindset of a particular point in time through fiction. You wind up dating your work in more ways than you'd expect.

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 4 ***

Tobias maybe has a family member who wants him?

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Hard to imagine humans welcoming seven-foot tall goblins into the local Boy Scout troop when they couldn't even manage to tolerate some gay kid"

After getting more backstory, we return to the main series with Tobias book number 3. He's had a really solid track record so far and thankfully this keeps it up. There's not a whole lot to say about it though.

This time, we've got a couple plots. The main one has Tobias finding out that there is a letter from his real father that is meant to be read on his birthday, and on top of that, a woman named Aria claims to be his cousin, meaning if is all true, he could finally have a real home again.

Meanwhile, a baby Hork-Bajir accidentally wanders out of the colony and they must track him down. So the wraparound stuff from Hork-Bajir Chronicles is mentioned, and while it's easy to understand either way, it seems you were meant to read it first, thus making it the first truly mandatory special edition book, sort of.

The twist from Andalite Chronicles is brought up again and not having read that one does improve this book and gives it slightly more tension. That's all neat but onto the contents. It's a lot of what we've gotten before, as Tobias grapples with what he is, especially after the events of The Change. That gives it an extra edge, despite some repetition setting in.

We get a lot of Tobias being a downer, which is effective. His deal gets a deeper layer here, grappling with being both hawk and human nature. I really like where this goes, as it brings up humans also have to deal with problems with instinct, I mean just look at Rachael. It's an interesting point in all this.

Pacing's good, it has a lot going on, decent action, and handles other plots reasonably well. I like that we see more of how not everything turns out well, while having a nice ending. It's done well. For complaints, Visser 3 is quite smart here, if getting a bit overly complicated, until the end when he acts a bit out of character given how he's been so far. It's weird and a bit forced.

So I'd fix this, but besides some repetition of themes we've seen before, that's about it. And yep, that quote is real. We've had some unexpected things get mentioned/shown, but that is up there. I love it.

Overall, this may be my favorite Tobias book so far, possibly. It balances deeper character stuff, action and story better the previous two did. It has more standout moments/aspects than The Change, as solid as that one was. Repetition can't be helped given Tobias' entries are spread out so it's not as egregious and we get that extra layer due to what happened in The Change.

Either way, a really solid one for the most part. Again, not a whole lot to say here, really. Well, that's a lot heavy books in a row, both in terms of plot and relevance to the story. The series is maturing a fair bit now, graduating past logging and whatnot.

...Yeah, we need a lighter book after all this. Next time, we get that, and Cassie gets saddled with it. I feel like this may be a downgrade from The Departure but we'll see. Oh and after that a new era begins but we'll get there.

See ya then.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's funny how the cover of this book is from Predator to Prey. What a normal life for Tobias. :]

(I'll make a "what did you think?" for this one because Tobias is such a great character)

Reasons why I liked Tobias:
* Tobias is a loser, or so he and the bullies think. I like characters who think they're so pathetic. Idk why, I just do.
* Tobias has an excellent background story from family to his own self. His character's so big when it comes to tragedies I can't help but love him.
* Tobias has many suicidal thoughts. I do not approve of suicide, or self-harm, alright, but who can stop anyone from having these thoughts? Sometimes you hit ground level and you just fight it. And Tobias, my dear, fought it. That is strength.
* Tobias seems not convinced that he deserves love and care. See, characters like him had it bad and that means the end of their plots are either going to go down tragedy lane or the opposite. But either way, it will make you wish you live in their world: so you can be happy for them, or so you can comfort them.
* Tobias validates my humanity. Haha, that sounds wrong, but anyway, reading Tobias books makes me feel things like sadness, or happiness, and hey those things are not easy to feel...at least for me. I don't get that a lot from reality zone.

Dear Tobias, I know how your life will turn out but...hang on.

Memorable quote from this book:
"I cannot say that I love you, my son, because I do not know you. But know that I wanted to love you. Know that, at least." - Elfangor to Tobias

(I feel like a little kid once again)

[Amalia Dillin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been waiting/anticipating this Tobias book for a while and it didn't disappoint. Whether he wanted to admit it previously or not, there was definitely always a part of Tobias who longed to belong. Being an Animorph gave him one facet of that feeling of belonging, but it also showed him how much he was missing. And this is the book where he has to face all of that and figure out what's more important to him and how he wants to go forward.

This is another storyline that really stuck with me hard from my initial reading back in 1998 and today.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my all-time favorite book from the main series, hands down. My mind was blown over and over again; I'm not ashamed to say I cried for hours when I first read the "big twist." Ever since I read this book, Tobias has been my favorite character, because despite the fact that he doesn't live in a human body, he struck me as the most human of them all.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Quickie Review

A different sort of episode in this series, but a good one nonetheless.

Score: 4/5

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Tobias book was introspective and insightful. It once again explored his identity crisis but finally revealed his heritage to him in an interesting way.

[Bon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhh I forgot about the Tobias I Am Your Father stuff!

[Joshua Glasgow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m slowly going back through the Animorphs series out of order, just based on which one appeals to me most in the moment, listening to them as audiobooks. I’ve only listened to a handful so far and this is the first I’ve selected for which Tobias is narrator. The performer is Michael Crouch and I believe he does a very good job of conveying Tobias’ cracked psyche; he imbues the performance with a strained sense of confusion, frustration, and resentment that matches the character perfectly. It’s taken me some time to get on board with the performers who portray Jake (MacLeod Andrews) and Marco (Ramón de Ocampo), but I felt Crouch fit the character immediately.

When I first read and rated this book in February 2020, I gave it 3 stars and did not write a review to explain my rating. I was speeding through the series at the time, so I read this in the context of many books of a similar nature. This time, I approached the book as a standalone—and taking it on its own, I was very impressed. I’m nearly tempted to give the book a 5-star rating. It achieves so much what makes Animorphs so special: some very cool action scenes, wrestling over how to make a moral decision, gut-punch writing, and a whole heaping helping of inner turmoil. In fact, I’d argue that the inner turmoil in this one is far more compelling than the plot that incites it. There’s some good in the plot, but there’s some that frustrates, too. For instance, the big battle that the book leads up to is yada-yada-yada-ed away, something that happens more frequently as the series progresses, and I find that annoying. As I said, though, it’s nearly forgivable because the character work is so stellar.

At the start of the series, Tobias overstayed the two-hour morph limit and became trapped in the form of a red-tailed hawk. Much later on, the god-like Ellimist gave him the power to morph again, including the power to morph into his human body… but the twist is that the red-tailed hawk is now his true form. This puts Tobias in a bind: he can either continue life as a bird, separated from his friends and all of humanity because of his unique state, or he can overstay the two-hour limit again and become human permanently—never feeling the freedom of flying again, no longer being an Animorph. Or rather, on a deep level his mind is already made up. It’s been made up since the day he became a nothlit. He relishes the freedom of the bird life, but even as a bird he feels like an outcast. He felt like a failure as a boy, he feels like a failure as a bird.

When this book begins, Tobias is being threatened by another hawk who has moved into his meadow. The two of them are competing for food and over the course of the book Tobias is literally starving from lack of prey, but because he feels like he isn’t a “true” hawk his heart isn’t in the fight. Rather than confront his opponent, whom he could easily overpower thanks to his ability to morph, he resigns himself to wasting away. The human part of Tobias here rejects his hawk-ness; he imagines that other people must see him as gross or callous: “I was human enough to know that people—humans—would be disgusted by the sight of my killing and eating a baby rabbit. They would rather I at least go after the adult female. But they’d be wrong. Life in the meadow isn’t a Disney movie. If I killed the mother, the babies would all die. If I killed only the baby, the mother would survive to breed again. Breed more babies for me to take. To rip apart. To eat.”

This review might just end up being a series of direct quotes from the book. Almost all of these books include a quick overview of the overarching plot, so here Tobias does explain who the Yeerks are, how the Animorphs got the power to morph, and how he became “trapped” as a red-tailed hawk. He’s still down on himself, though, so once again the description is powerful: “Trapped in a world where another bird can be a dangerous enemy. Trapped in a world where I must kill to eat. And not like humans do, where they hire someone else to draw the blood and shatter the bone and then get the food in sanitized plastic packages at the supermarket. I must kill my own food. I must swoop down and drive the sharp talons into the brain, into the neck. I must feel the heart stop beating. After . . . after I have already begun to feed.” This is intense just reading it from the page, but hearing Crouch performing these passages only gives them greater weight.

I also want to discuss a part when Tobias was talking about his former life as a human. His parents had died (…or did they?) and he was shuffled back and forth between an aunt and uncle, neither of whom cared for him at all. On top of that, he says, “bullies were drawn to me like a mosquito to a sweaty neck”. That language is so evocative; you know, rather than “like a moth to a flame” or something. I am jealous of this writing. I am aware that many of the Animorphs books were written by ghostwriters, though I’m not certain how that works exactly, i.e. whether Applegate and Grant contribute parts and the ghostwriters flesh it out, whether they just give an outline for the ghostwriters, or what. This entry has a dedication page thanking Michael Mates for his help in preparing the manuscript, so I assumed this was the ghostwriter. Because of how impressed I was with the writing, after I finished I tried to search Mates to see what more he has written. I discovered from Seerowpedia, the Animorphs wiki, that this is actually the first of the series to have a ghostwriter credit, BUT that the “ghostwriter” here is in fact Michael Grant! That is, the reason this book seems so well-written is because it actually was written by Applegate and Grant themselves! It shows.

The plot, or the A-story of the plot, I guess, because there’s a couple of threads here, is about Tobias learning that a lawyer has a letter for him from his “father” which is to be read to him on his birthday. Also, an alleged cousin has appeared from nowhere and has expressed interest in becoming his legal guardian. In human morph to meet with the lawyer, Tobias feels vulnerable and nervous but not for concerns about his safety. Rather, he was thinking: “What was I going to discover? What was I going to learn? What temptations would I face? Strange word, temptations. Strange concept. But that’s what worried me most. Temptation.” This is what I’m talking about, this inner monologue, this realistic stream-of-conscience mulling in his head about who he is and what he is capable of. And of course when he morphs into a human, the description of the transformation is wonderful. It always is. “Teeth appeared in my mouth with a grinding, disturbing sound that resonated in my expanding skull,” Applegate writes. At the lawyer’s office, he accepts a soda and marvels at the strange sensation of having this beverage after so long living as a bird. “I gripped the can self-consciously and pressed it to my beak. Lips. It had been a long time since I’d tasted sugar. I almost burst out laughing. It was like being Ax in human morph. The taste of sugar was overwhelming! And the coldness. I hadn’t felt cold in my mouth in a very long time.”

Shaken by his meeting with the lawyer, Tobias flies afterward to the valley of the free Hork-Bajir because he didn’t want to have to undergo questioning about what occurred during the meeting from his friends. There he meets Toby, a Hork-Bajir “seer” who was named after Tobias and who is far more intelligent than others of her species. “Toby had the kid of eyes that looked through you and made you feel like you needed to pull a robe on over your brain,” Applegate writes. Again, wow! This writing feels like something I would write, and it makes me wish I had. Toby notifies Tobias that a Hork-Bajir youth is missing and feared taken by the Yeerks. The search for this youngling and subsequent rescue attempt form the B-story.

Neither of these plotlines, about the lawyer/cousin and about the missing Hork-Bajir, are terribly interesting on their own, though they do give rise to a couple of kinda cool action scenes. In one, Tobias and Rachel (in bald eagle morph) pursue Tobias’s putative cousin, who is getting away from them in a taxi, by latching onto the lights of a cop car, and then when the police car starts its siren Tobias lets go and manages to catch the struts of a helicopter taking off. It’s a neat chase sequence, if a bit absurd, but the description of their zipping through the air performing these feats does a good job of emphasizing Tobias’ great pleasure in being a bird, in contrast with his self-deprecating talk at the beginning of the book. Also, there’s more language I loved in Tobias watching Rachel morph into the bald eagle: “Rachel is a beautiful girl. She’s beautiful in that way you know will last her whole life. She’ll be a beautiful woman. But beauty alone isn’t that big a thing. What makes Rachel ‘Rachel’ is what’s inside. And watching her morph to eagle was like watching her soul emerge through her flesh . . . Her face, never exactly soft or inviting, became forbidding and intense. Her blue eyes turned golden brown and glared with the fierce glare of a raptor.” Watching her morph was like watching her soul emerge through her flesh. That language! The word choice, the concept itself, it’s just perfect.

Following the cousin, they discover the Hork-Bajir youth being held as a “freak” at a dingy roadside zoo. The Animorphs as a group decide to bust in to save the child, but Visser 3 shows up and morphs a Kaftid, a giant tentacled creature that spits acid. Tobias, morphed to Hork-Bajir during this scene, feigns surrender and then when the Visser’s guard is down slices off half of the Kaftid’s eight legs. Brutal! Unfortunately, they’re outgunned and the Animorphs fall back, losing Bek, the Hork-Bajir youth, once again. The Animorphs find out that Bek is now being held at a facility the Yeerks are building and which the free Hork-Bajir have been infiltrating; it’s pretty clear that the Yeerks want the Animorphs to come to them so they can be trapped. Toby argues that rather than try to sneak in to save Bek, they should attack outright – both the Animorphs and a group of free Hork-Bajir – to catch the Yeerks off-guard. She argues they should do this even if it means killing Hork-Bajir controllers, or even if it means losing Bek. “The Yeerks must not be allowed to think that they can use hostages against us,” she reasons. Cassie questions the logic, pointing out that she though the whole point of the mission was to save Bek. Toby disagrees: the point is to defeat the Yeerks. Cassie argues that the Yeerks won’t respect them for this moral stance, but will instead hit them back harder. Toby replies, “That is true. But the Hork-Bajir will respect themselves.”

This is where the meat of the book lies, in my view. It’s the most exciting thing about the series as a whole, honestly. The morphing and fight scenes are great, don’t get me wrong, but when the Animorphs sit around and make competing arguments about the moral implications of a course of action—ooh, that’s the good stuff. So here, Rachel agrees with the philosophy that if somebody pushes you, you have to push back. Cassie says this philosophy is how one rationalizes gang warfare. Tobias keeps thinking about it afterward and I find his thoughts on this so, so compelling:

“Get pushed, push back. The only way.
No, not the only way. There was another way. Don’t push to begin with. It’s the aggressors who start the cycle. It’s the guy who wakes up in the morning and decides he can’t get through the day without finding someone to attack, to insult, to hurt.
But where does that leave you? Letting jerks dictate your reactions? Always sinking to the level of whatever creep comes along?
My mind went to that other hawk. The one who wanted my territory. There it was: Push and push back. But it wasn’t a good comparison, was it? That hawk wasn’t human. All he had was instinct. Couldn’t blame him for doing what was natural.
So maybe humans were no better. Maybe you couldn’t blame a human animal for being an animal. Except my hawk opponent had no choice, no free will. He’d never heard ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ or ‘I have a dream’, or ‘All men are created equal’.
It suddenly occurred to me, right then, for the first time, that what I thought was so unique about me—that I was half instinctive predator, and half human being—wasn’t so unique after all.
Every human—Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, all humans—kind of lives on that edge between savage and saint. And the thing is that sometimes when you get pushed you do have to push back. And other times, you have to turn the other cheek . . .
I guess the trick is to figure out when to do which thing. When to fight, when to let up. A balancing act. And even if I went back to being fully human in mind and body, that balancing act wouldn’t go away.
Maybe realizing that should have made me feel bad. But it didn’t. Just made me feel human.”

I had to rewind the audiobook and listen to that again because it’s so good. ANIMORPHS, the series as a whole I mean, is always concerned with how to make moral choices, what even is a moral choice, and how do we live with the choices we’ve made. This discussion Tobias has with himself is an extraordinary example of that dialogue the series engages in, and it’s one that feels honest and true. I love it.

They go to the big battle and, as I mentioned, the book blah-blah-blahs past it, saying only that the battle went “badly” for the Animorphs and the free Hork-Bajir had to save the day. The reason for this is that Tobias sees his alleged cousin Aria there and realizes she is actually Visser 3 in morph. At that moment, he realizes how much having the option available to resume a normal human life meant to him. He falls to the ground and faints away, while repeatedly berating himself, < I hate you, Tobias. I hate you. I want you to die. > The following day is his birthday. He goes to hear the lawyer read the letter from his “father” and has to go alone because he now knows this IS a trap and that there are likely Yeerks surrounding the office on the lookout for any suspicious animals. He has to walk directly into a known trap alone. As it turns out, though, the letter is real: it’s a letter from Elfangor (the Andalite who gave them the morphing power), letting him know that through magical Ellimist shenanigans he was once a human nothlit and fathered Tobias before getting changed back into an Andalite. This is a big reveal for the series! It’s also a big reveal for Tobias himself, but because Visser 3—the being who murdered Elfangor, Tobias’ biological father—is sitting directly next to him, watching him for any sign of recognition, Tobias has to clamp down on any emotions he is feeling and pretend to be aloof, as if the letter was nonsensical to him. In his head, though, he’s thinking about that night at the construction site. Did Elfangor know, then? Did he sense it? He quivers slightly: “Tears! NO! NO! One tear and I would die.”

Tobias manages to get through this without giving himself away and Visser 3 dismisses him as a worthless street rat, not even worth infesting. Tobias leaves the office and gets far enough away that he can demorph back to his hawk form safely. “But then I morphed again. Back to human. See, I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry a lot, for a long time. And hawks don’t cry.” Another hard-hitting moment. I tend to believe that when the writing is framed in these short, punchy sentences it is more likely than not Katherine writing rather than Michael, though I don’t know if that is always true. Regardless, this style of writing is often the most visceral. It’s great.

The end of the book is a little strange. Thinking about Elfangor, about his having sacrificed himself and given the morphing power to some human children, Tobias is consoled by the realization that “what you want for yourself is less important than what is necessary and right”. That seems like an odd takeaway from this whole story and I don’t know whether I’m fully on-board with it. I’m not even sure that what Elfangor did, or what any of the characters do in this book, can be definitively characterized as “necessary and right”. So this feels like a bit of a stumble to me just at the finish line, and along with some quibbles with the plotlines (the cousin-is-Visser-3 reveal is a disappointing reset, for instance) I’m most comfortable changing my rating to 4 Goodreads stars. But read it as a 4.5 in actuality, maybe, because there is A LOT in this book which is spectacular. I cannot say it enough: I love this series.

[Kate Crabtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first read Animorphs, at age 14 or 15, I was so *heart eyes* in luv with Tobias. I mean, LOOK AT THAT COVER- even though the image on the cover didn't actually match his description in the books, I was hooked on that floppy hair. Swoon.

Anyway, now I realize why I was so into him- he's moody af, and a loner, and all these things would have been very appealing to me as a teen. I still like him as a character, and my heart feels a pang whenever he's going through something, but I'm over here yelling at the book, "Tobias, no! Don't silently fly away! Talk to your friends! You're going through a lot of shit right now and they want to help you, dangit!"

Tobias' books so far either focus on 1.) his backstory and Ellimist meddling, 2. Helping with the free Hork-Bajir project, 2.) dealing with living life as a hawk, and his book explores all of these, so it's extra MoOdY. There's some Tobias/Rachel relationship tension here that references the fact that they seem to realize they both LiKe each other and believe me, folks, I was HERE for that as a teen.

But what matters the most in this book is when Tobias is read the document left for him by Elfangor and the only thing that keeps him alive is his emotionless face because *sobs* HE HAS FORGOTTEN HOW TO SHOW EMOTION ON HIS FACE. Ugh. I just want to hug him.

If I remember correctly, I'm currently in the portion of the books where Animorphs peaked. Will I hate life when I tackle the later ghostwritten books? Time will tell.