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Animorphs #15
The Escape
Almost nothing could be as bad as finding out your mother is Visser One. The most powerful of all Vissers. The leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. But it happened to Marco. And even though he's been handling it pretty well, he knew there'd come a time when he'd have to face her again. Knowing that the Yeerk in her brain had taken his mother away.
So when Marco, the other Animorphs, and Ax discover that Visser One is overseeing a secret underwater project, they know they have to check it out. But Marco's not sure if this is a battle he'll be able to fight....
So when Marco, the other Animorphs, and Ax discover that Visser One is overseeing a secret underwater project, they know they have to check it out. But Marco's not sure if this is a battle he'll be able to fight....
163 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
About the author
K.A. Applegate
256 books516 followersalso published under the name Katherine Applegate
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews
May 26, 2020
FIRST REVIEW / MAR 18, 2015
I am unmitigatedly, unabashedly, a Marco fangirl, and so I can't really help but give this 5 stars. Just as the strain is heavy on Jake to always be the confident leader, Rachel to be their gung-ho fearless one, Ax to be their knowledgeable galactic expert -- in Marco's POV books you can see him struggling with his own role as the comedian, the one keeping everyone else's spirits up. The group is a finely-tuned gyroscope, and if any piece of it gets out of sync, the others falter. Marco does his best to hide his depth and nuance, too, but things finally come to a head in this one, as the situation with his mother escalates. Just, fuck, all my feelings. His helplessness and murderous rage and obsession with not being pitied hits the heartstrings.
This book also advances the overarching story a bit more too, revealing that the Yeerks are carrying on other invasions of other planets, and the stakes on the other side of the galaxy are pretty damned significant...
The stuff with the sharks also bored itself into my memory when I read this in my youth. But I am deathly afraid of sharks so, uh, of course it would.
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SECOND REVIEW / MAY 1, 2020
I've fallen way behind on reviews thanks to #pandemiclife, so my reviews this month are going to be rushed haphazard garbage, sorry!
I still absolutely love this book, though. The terror of the mission, Marco trying to keep his secrets on lock, and the fact that these poor kids (they are not even in high school yet!!) are having to face questions like this:
The ending is so lovely and bittersweet: Rachel reaching out to make Marco feel better, him realising that it might be the truth rather than just a lie to appease him, him having to consciously decide whether or not to continue to nurse that helpless hope, even as much as hope hurts -- and then that last note about where he learned his tragicomic coping strategies to begin with. The parent-child feelings in this one had me tearing up all over again.
Favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
I am unmitigatedly, unabashedly, a Marco fangirl, and so I can't really help but give this 5 stars. Just as the strain is heavy on Jake to always be the confident leader, Rachel to be their gung-ho fearless one, Ax to be their knowledgeable galactic expert -- in Marco's POV books you can see him struggling with his own role as the comedian, the one keeping everyone else's spirits up. The group is a finely-tuned gyroscope, and if any piece of it gets out of sync, the others falter. Marco does his best to hide his depth and nuance, too, but things finally come to a head in this one, as the situation with his mother escalates. Just, fuck, all my feelings. His helplessness and murderous rage and obsession with not being pitied hits the heartstrings.
This book also advances the overarching story a bit more too, revealing that the Yeerks are carrying on other invasions of other planets, and the stakes on the other side of the galaxy are pretty damned significant...
The stuff with the sharks also bored itself into my memory when I read this in my youth. But I am deathly afraid of sharks so, uh, of course it would.
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SECOND REVIEW / MAY 1, 2020
I've fallen way behind on reviews thanks to #pandemiclife, so my reviews this month are going to be rushed haphazard garbage, sorry!
I still absolutely love this book, though. The terror of the mission, Marco trying to keep his secrets on lock, and the fact that these poor kids (they are not even in high school yet!!) are having to face questions like this:
“Erek didn’t mean anything bad. You know that,” Jake said. “He just meant–”
“I know what he meant,” I snapped. “He meant if it came to crunch time, would I destroy my own mother to protect the mission? That’s what he meant.”
Jake grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. “And?”
I was still mad. But I knew why I was mad. It wasn’t that Erek had insulted me somehow. It was that Erek was right.
“I don’t know, Jake,” I said. “I don’t know.”
The ending is so lovely and bittersweet: Rachel reaching out to make Marco feel better, him realising that it might be the truth rather than just a lie to appease him, him having to consciously decide whether or not to continue to nurse that helpless hope, even as much as hope hurts -- and then that last note about where he learned his tragicomic coping strategies to begin with. The parent-child feelings in this one had me tearing up all over again.
Favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
August 13, 2015
Marco books might be the best books if you’re looking to jump into Animorphs. After fifteen books that might very well be the case. Applegate, cognizant of course that random books from this series would end up on library shelves the world over, with unconscionable gaps as a result of poor funding and attrition, tries her best to summarize the key points at the beginning of every book. But Marco does it best: succinct, but with that typical Marco humour. Like Jake, Marco knows what it’s like to have a family member who is a Controller. But Marco’s mother isn’t just some random Yeerk … she’s Visser One, one of the most powerful members of the Yeerk Empire.
And now she’s back on Earth, doing nasty things with sharks.
That sounded wrong, sorry. She’s back on Earth, planning to invade a planet with a sentient aquatic species by modifying hammerhead sharks. Which frankly sounds terrifying, and I’m very glad that the Yeerks are only using Hork-Bajir on Earth. Can you imagine if Sharknado was a thing back in the 1990s? Visser One would be all over that.
And so the Yeerks develop actual sharknado technology and win the war. Thanks, Hollywood.
Anyway, so The Escape is obviously most notable for the return of Marco’s mother and the feelings that result. Marco has to make the whole “save your mother or save the world” choice, with Applegate once again foreshadowing how bad it’s going to get by the end of this whole war. And now the rest of the Animorphs know that his mother is Visser One, so that’s cool.
Also, Tobias has his morphing powers back. He used them a little in the last book, but now we get to see him acquire a couple of new animals. I love his hesitance because he can’t fly in something like a dolphin or shark morph. It’s hard, sometimes, to get a read on Tobias’ character; we forget he’s just this goofy, shy kid who really doesn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. So no wonder he’s reluctant to leave behind his hawk form—which he is used to now—for another strange animal experience.
The entire underwater setting is a welcome change of pace. Marco does a great job describing the nature of the shark mind and what it’s like to be able to sense electromagnetic fields and just be a stone-cold killing machine.
It’s also important to note that, for once, the Animorphs’ plan actually works fairly well. They infiltrate the base, sabotage it, and escape without too much hullabaloo. Maybe they’re finally not sucking at this whole saving-the-world thing.
All in all, definitely an enjoyable instalment in the series. It has some series moments, but they don’t eclipse the rest of the book. This is mostly about the plot, the Yeerks’ machinations, and Marco’s feels for his mom. It’s good stuff.
Next time, the Animorphs venture onto the strange and glorious information superhighway! And it is glorious.
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #14: The Unknown | #16: The Warning →
And now she’s back on Earth, doing nasty things with sharks.
That sounded wrong, sorry. She’s back on Earth, planning to invade a planet with a sentient aquatic species by modifying hammerhead sharks. Which frankly sounds terrifying, and I’m very glad that the Yeerks are only using Hork-Bajir on Earth. Can you imagine if Sharknado was a thing back in the 1990s? Visser One would be all over that.
Random Yeerk: Visser, my host’s family was watching a program on their primitive video transmission devices—
Visser One: You can just say “television.” It’s fine, really.
Random Yeerk: —ah, yes, Visser. Anyway, we were watching the primitive television devices. One of their longer-form fictional documentaries—
Visser One: They’re called “movies.”
Random Yeerk: —ah, yes, Visser. One of their longer-form fictional movies was on. Something about these creatures we’re experimenting on being carried by tornados and deposited on the land.
Visser One: That sounds like it would end badly for the sharks.
Random Yeerk: Oddly enough, Visser, no. More so the humans.
Visser One: Hmm … I suppose if we created vortices using our Blade ships … yes. Yes, that could work. In fact, that’s brilliant. Keep this up and I might have a replacement for Visser Three in the near future.
Random Yeerk: *salutes*
And so the Yeerks develop actual sharknado technology and win the war. Thanks, Hollywood.
Anyway, so The Escape is obviously most notable for the return of Marco’s mother and the feelings that result. Marco has to make the whole “save your mother or save the world” choice, with Applegate once again foreshadowing how bad it’s going to get by the end of this whole war. And now the rest of the Animorphs know that his mother is Visser One, so that’s cool.
Also, Tobias has his morphing powers back. He used them a little in the last book, but now we get to see him acquire a couple of new animals. I love his hesitance because he can’t fly in something like a dolphin or shark morph. It’s hard, sometimes, to get a read on Tobias’ character; we forget he’s just this goofy, shy kid who really doesn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. So no wonder he’s reluctant to leave behind his hawk form—which he is used to now—for another strange animal experience.
The entire underwater setting is a welcome change of pace. Marco does a great job describing the nature of the shark mind and what it’s like to be able to sense electromagnetic fields and just be a stone-cold killing machine.
It’s also important to note that, for once, the Animorphs’ plan actually works fairly well. They infiltrate the base, sabotage it, and escape without too much hullabaloo. Maybe they’re finally not sucking at this whole saving-the-world thing.
All in all, definitely an enjoyable instalment in the series. It has some series moments, but they don’t eclipse the rest of the book. This is mostly about the plot, the Yeerks’ machinations, and Marco’s feels for his mom. It’s good stuff.
Next time, the Animorphs venture onto the strange and glorious information superhighway! And it is glorious.
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #14: The Unknown | #16: The Warning →
September 26, 2023
Marco’s mom has been infested with Visser One, the leader of the Yeerks. And now she’s come back to earth to oversee a special project. The Animorphs investigate. Naturally Marco wants to save his mom. A cool underwater adventure that not only further fleshes out Marco as a character but also advances the overarching plot a little bit.
May 29, 2017
This is the first Marco book that's really worked for me on a Marco level. I really liked The Android, but not because of Marco, more because the idea of the Chee and the Pemalites just took over that book and drowned everything else out. Sure, there's a subplot involving Marco's dad getting his groove back slotted in there, but it's the Pemalites you come away remembering, because awwwww, sad. His first book, despite the presence of clear stakes, felt a little too slight for me.
But with The Escape, Marco's internal life goes beyond "disguises pain with humor" for the first time. Actually, it takes that base and makes it more poignant. The kids learn that the Yeerks are getting up to something in a secret underwater base, and Visser One (Marco's mother, yes) is up to some hoobedy-boobedy with a new alien species called the Leerans, who are psychic. SO: They need to somehow get into an underwater fortress, that is guarded by weirdly intelligent hammerhead sharks by the way; somehow avoid the psychic alien who could immediately sense not only that they are Animorphs in disguise, but that the "Andalite bandits" are really humans; and then on top of all that, find out what is going on at the base, and shut it down.
I found the way that Marco responded to everything pretty compelling. He spends the first half of the book trying to pretend that nothing is wrong. Nobody but Jake knows that Marco's mom is Visser One, and on top of that, Marco has to deal with the traumatic memory of being bitten in half by a shark, which is triggered by their encounters with the hammerheads. But he can't pretend, and the others notice his odd behavior, his failure to crack jokes in the face of imminent death, his out of character reticence. And then, not only does he have to face his mother/Visser One—
There's this lovely little moment where he thinks that for him, there's no decision between right and wrong, heroic and un-heroic, like there is for Jake. There's only funny, and not funny. It's a chilling, sad moment where you see what this fight has started do to someone with Marco's personality. It's a much different type of trauma than we've seen with the others. It's balanced in the end by Marco choosing to believe that his mother has survived, but you can see how all these traumas and victories at cost are going to bit by bit affect him.
I haven't mentioned the thing with the sharks yet, because it stretched my ability to suspend my disbelief, almost to the limit. I get that the Yeerks wanted to engineer water-based soldiers without having to use them as hosts; it would allow them to invade a planet full of psychic aliens. But . . . making sharks smart, giving them implants . . . it just seemed pretty silly. Even if they could pull it off? What, are they going to literally empty the ocean of sharks? They'd need a hell of a lot of them for an invasion of Leera. I think humans would notice that, which would ruin this whole thing where the Yeerks are trying not to alert humans they are here.
Anyway, the silliness and implausibility of the plot would have been more of a problem if it wasn't backed up by good character work for Marco, but it was, so I feel like I can just let it go.
Next up: Jake, and something about a Yeerk website? I have no memory of it, so I guess everything will be a fun surprise.
But with The Escape, Marco's internal life goes beyond "disguises pain with humor" for the first time. Actually, it takes that base and makes it more poignant. The kids learn that the Yeerks are getting up to something in a secret underwater base, and Visser One (Marco's mother, yes) is up to some hoobedy-boobedy with a new alien species called the Leerans, who are psychic. SO: They need to somehow get into an underwater fortress, that is guarded by weirdly intelligent hammerhead sharks by the way; somehow avoid the psychic alien who could immediately sense not only that they are Animorphs in disguise, but that the "Andalite bandits" are really humans; and then on top of all that, find out what is going on at the base, and shut it down.
I found the way that Marco responded to everything pretty compelling. He spends the first half of the book trying to pretend that nothing is wrong. Nobody but Jake knows that Marco's mom is Visser One, and on top of that, Marco has to deal with the traumatic memory of being bitten in half by a shark, which is triggered by their encounters with the hammerheads. But he can't pretend, and the others notice his odd behavior, his failure to crack jokes in the face of imminent death, his out of character reticence. And then, not only does he have to face his mother/Visser One—
There's this lovely little moment where he thinks that for him, there's no decision between right and wrong, heroic and un-heroic, like there is for Jake. There's only funny, and not funny. It's a chilling, sad moment where you see what this fight has started do to someone with Marco's personality. It's a much different type of trauma than we've seen with the others. It's balanced in the end by Marco choosing to believe that his mother has survived, but you can see how all these traumas and victories at cost are going to bit by bit affect him.
I haven't mentioned the thing with the sharks yet, because it stretched my ability to suspend my disbelief, almost to the limit. I get that the Yeerks wanted to engineer water-based soldiers without having to use them as hosts; it would allow them to invade a planet full of psychic aliens. But . . . making sharks smart, giving them implants . . . it just seemed pretty silly. Even if they could pull it off? What, are they going to literally empty the ocean of sharks? They'd need a hell of a lot of them for an invasion of Leera. I think humans would notice that, which would ruin this whole thing where the Yeerks are trying not to alert humans they are here.
Anyway, the silliness and implausibility of the plot would have been more of a problem if it wasn't backed up by good character work for Marco, but it was, so I feel like I can just let it go.
Next up: Jake, and something about a Yeerk website? I have no memory of it, so I guess everything will be a fun surprise.
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
April 20, 2024
*** 3.35 ***
Marko, Hammer Sharks and Viscer 1!👍
Marko, Hammer Sharks and Viscer 1!👍
March 23, 2015
Behind Marco's joker facade is a boy who's struggling to stay happy in light of his circumstances. Everyone thinks Marco's mother is missing and possibly dead but only Marco and Jake know that she's been taken by the Yeerk known as Visser One. Marco doesn't tell anyone else since he wants to put up a strong front and prevent the others from pitying him. It was really emotional when he had to
The Escape introduced us to a new race, the Leerans who possess the power to spill secrets. They are especially deadly in the hands of the Yeerks since the Animorphs will be in danger of being exposed as humans and not the Andalites the Yeerks think they are. The bulk of the action and adventure takes place underwater in the ocean, where the Animorphs discover a facility the Yeerks have been using to expand the brains of sharks, to infest them and use them as weapons. I like that Marco possesses a different dynamic with each member of the Animorphs. I especially liked banter with Tobias. Speaking of Tobias, his stunt in acquiring a dolphin morph was hilarious!!
I felt this was a solid book in the series and can't wait to return to Marco's POV.
The Escape introduced us to a new race, the Leerans who possess the power to spill secrets. They are especially deadly in the hands of the Yeerks since the Animorphs will be in danger of being exposed as humans and not the Andalites the Yeerks think they are. The bulk of the action and adventure takes place underwater in the ocean, where the Animorphs discover a facility the Yeerks have been using to expand the brains of sharks, to infest them and use them as weapons. I like that Marco possesses a different dynamic with each member of the Animorphs. I especially liked banter with Tobias. Speaking of Tobias, his stunt in acquiring a dolphin morph was hilarious!!
I felt this was a solid book in the series and can't wait to return to Marco's POV.
September 15, 2017
(Originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com.)
Narrator: Marco
Plot: In what is now becoming the usual “save the animals” opening scene of many of these stories, we see Marco and crew in the mall on a mission to morph parrots at the Rain Forest Cafe in an attempt to discourage them using live birds going forward. Obviously, this was Cassie’s plan. After making enough of a nuisance of themselves to get the job done (think parrots spewing vulgarities at customers in line), Marco and Jake run into Erek, our friendly Chee insider, on the way out who informs them that the Yeerks are up to no good. It seems that the Yeerks are trying to take over a world populated by psychic water aliens called Leerans. Obviously, this would be disastrous for the Animorphs, since psychic Controllers could see through their morphs instantly. What’s more, the base of operations, located out in the ocean, deep underwater, is being run by none other than Visser One, Marco’s Controlled mom.
They decide to check it out in dolphin morph. Problem being, Tobias with his new morphing ability, doesn’t have a dolphin morph. This leads to a little scene of them all trekking off to The Gardens where Tobias has to dive bomb a dolphin in hawk morph to try and acquire its DNA. He ends up getting his talons stuck in the dolphin’s skin and is only saved from drowning by a well-timed controlled crash by seagull!Marco.
All morphed dolphins, and Ax as a shark, the crew zero in on the underwater compound. They are quickly surrounded by a crew of hammer head sharks. Bizarrely, the sharks seem to be operating as a pack. Marco, having been almost bit in half by a shark back in book 4, is understandably more panicked than the rest and quickly gets out of there, followed by the others.
Knowing they still need to get into the compound somehow, the Animorphs make their way to the new aquatic center in town which has hammer head sharks. They go at night, but through a few mishaps, Ax is spotted by a Controller guard on duty. They attempt to escape, eventually resorting to having Ax tail swipe away the glass holding in the massive aquarium. Marco barely escapes being eaten by a hammer head, subduing it by acquiring its DNA. The others follow suit.
Marco goes a bit nuts about the fact that he was the first to run back when they were dolphins. The appeal of the fearlessness of the shark overtakes him and he foolishly tries to morph shark in the school pool. He’s interrupted by a pair of bullies who start mocking him and taking jabs at his mom. He’s only saved (from attacking them or discovery) by Jake who shows up and calms things down.
Back in the ocean, this time morphed as sharks, the group make their way into the compound, following the other sharks. They find themselves trapped in a queue that is injecting things into the sharks’ heads that they guess is what the Yeerks are using to control the sharks. Unable to escape, they all are injected as well. It’s only later when they demorph and try to morph fly to more easily make their way around the compound that they realize what’s happened: Yeerk trackers/control devices have been implanted into their heads, preventing them from morphing small animals whose skull cavities can’t fit the tracker. Instantly, somehow getting rid of these trackers becomes the new priority.
The group splits up. Rachel, Cassie, and Jake go battle morph to provide a distraction. Ax, Tobias, and Marco make their way further into the compound to try and find a solution. They discover that there is a fail safe built into the compound that would dissolve the trackers if the compound itself was destroyed. Marco gets discovered by Visser One, but is able to trick her into believing that he is a Controller computer technician who was sent to work on the compound. Escaping from her, he re-joins Ax and Tobias. Ax sets the computer to auto-destruct, and the group re-joins the others to fight.
Visser Three conveniently shows up in a massive snake morph. A mad battle takes place between the Animorphs, the Controllers, and Visser Three and Visser One in the background. A Leeran shows up and tries to tell the Vissers that the morphed beings are humans. Visser One dismisses this, thinking the Leeran has confused Marco’s gorilla morph for a human, since the two are closely related.
Visser One manages to suspend the countdown for the self-destruct, prompting Rachel and Ax to go after her. Rachel is about to kill her when Marco yells for her to stop, admitting that Visser One is his mother. Ax knocks Visser One out instead. Still desperate to destroy the compound, Marco throws a chair through the glass wall, cracking it and sending the Yeerks running for cover. The Animorphs escape, with Marco thinking he sentenced his mother to death, and now knowing that the entire group will know his mother was/is Visser One. As they swim away, Rachel claims to hear a sub whirring away from the area, possibly containing Visser One. Marco accepts the hope this offers, renewing his drive to fight to free his mother in the future.
The Comic Relief: Have I mentioned that I love Marco books? He just has so much depth as a character. Not only is he just as witty as a narrator as he is as a supporting character in the other books, but there are many real issues that he deals with and brings to his stories, the biggest of which is obviously the struggle with his mother.
But here we also had a few other things that he goes through. One has to do with the fact that he ran first from the sharks. It’s a nice call back to the fact that they all never fully recover from the trauma inflicted on them in all of these fights. He was almost bit in half by a shark; that’s bound to stick with you. And the fact that he is then drawn to the fearlessness of the shark as a way to deal with his insecurities about his own bravery is just excellent.
He’s also very self-aware as a character, and the fact that he’s the most analytical of the group is on full display. Both he and Jake have Controllers in their family, but Marco is the only one who has fully thought out what saving this person would really cost (at least as far as we know, Jake hasn’t mentioned most of this). He goes over the fact that if he saved her the Yeerks wouldn’t just let it go:, they’d be tracked, likely discovered, and the all of the other Animorphs would be discovered and the war lost. Knowing this, even though he fights to save her, he doesn’t know how it will ever be possible.
He also is very practical even through all the pain of confronting his mother, constantly fighting the urge to alert her and reassure her that he’s fighting to save her.
And I’m not someone who does emotional, stupid things. Sometimes I wish I were.
Lastly, when it counts, Marco does the right thing, no matter the personal cost. This practical weighing of odds, of personal issues and the good of everyone else, leads him to destroying the compound, not knowing if his mother will make it out alive. I’m not sure any other character could have done this (maybe Rachel, but she would have done it from a very different emotional place).
As I’ve said before and will probably keep repeating, Marco is the character I would aspire to be in this series.
Our Fearless Leader: There are a few notable moments between Jake and Marco. First, when they all go to The Gardens for Tobias to get a dolphin morph, March impetuously decides to snag a ride on a roller coaster while in seagull morph, pulling Jake along with him. It’s a small moment of pure fun between two best friends. And, in a moment of rare vulnerability afterwards, Marco asks Jake whether they’re still the same, even after it all, deep down. (Clearly he’s also thinking about whether his mom is still his mom even after being a Controller for so many years).
The second moment is the reinforcement of the fact that Jake must be known at their high school as the bully repeller. We know that he saved Tobias from bullying, and when Marco is being made fun of by the bullies at the pool, Jake steps in once again. Jake has to be a fairly popular guy at this school, what with all of these good deeds and his ability to control bullies.
Jake also provides most of the support for Marco throughout this book as the only one who knows the truth about Visser One until the end where it becomes more broadly known.
Xena, Warriar Princess: Rachel doesn’t do a lot in this book, other than be gung ho in her usual semi-crazy way. She’s all for it when Marco suggests splitting into groups with one group morphing battle morphs and providing a distraction.
Naturally, Rachel agreeing with me convinced me I was obviously wrong.
Yeah, right Marco! We’ve seen him base too many decisions on what Rachel decides to do to believe this! In the end, it’s also Rachel who “hears” the sub leaving the collapsing compound (obviously Visser One escapes, but it’s never clear whether Rachel really did hear this or is just providing comfort for Marco), providing hope for Marco that his mother escaped. My secret (not secret) alt-universe shipping of these two continues.
A Hawk’s Life: Poor Tobias and the dolphin incident! Not only is the dude already scared of water, but here he has to somehow acquire a dolphin while in hawk morph! And then gets stuck and ends up going on the worst dolphin roller coaster ride of his life. It’s no wonder that after it all, he’s a bit grumpy. And when Cassie starts fretting about how the dolphin is doing, we get this little exchange:
Tobias said. I asked him.
Sarcastic Tobias is a great Tobias.
Peace, Love, and Animals: Jake seems much more willing to go along on these little side missions when Cassie is the one coming up with them… When they’re all morphed as parrots saying ridiculous things to scare off customers, Cassie comes up with:
“Squuaaakkk! We should be flying free in our native habitat!”
Because of course she does. She, along with Marco, proves yet again that she’s one of the two more perceptive members of the group, quickly picking up on Tobias’s lack of enthusiasm to morph dolphin and his fear of water.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Marco’s introductions of characters are always the best of all the narrators. With Ax, we first meet him when he’s in human morph during the parrot mission, and Marco describes him and his food obsession thusly:
Ax would trade a Cinnabon for the Mona Lisa, straight across.
Ax also has a lot of knowledge about the Leeran race. He hacks the computer in the underwater compound to set it to auto-destruct, all while, of course, making many arrogant Andalite comments about superiority and such.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: The bit when Marco starts morphing fly and experiencing head pain, only to see Rachel shrinking and the device pushing through her head. Ick.
Couples Watch!: Not a whole lot. Towards the end, when the group is split up in the underwater compound, Tobias is pretty stressed about the delay in accessing the computer, snapping at Ax to hurry up so that they can join Rachel and the others who they can hear fighting in their battle morphs. He’s clearly worrying about her.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: The Visser drama continues! Visser One and Visser Three’s ongoing bitch fight is always a joy. Here, Marco essentially describes the complete and utter bizarreness of the scenario in the underwater compound when these two run into each other. There’s a massive battle going on all around them between “Andalite warriors” and their Controller underlings, but all they care about is sniping at each other in the middle of the room.
Also, when Marco is in is one-on-one with Visser One posing as a Controller computer technician, he claims that Visser Three killed the other three technicians who were supposedly meant to be accompanying him. Visser One is not at all surprised that this could be the case. Clearly, Visser Three has a bit of a reputation in this area.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: Marco books always deliver a big dose of the sads. For some reason, his mother being a Controller always strikes me as more tragic than Jake’s brother. Probably because Marco already grieved her death, and then got her back in the worst way, knowing she’s a Controller for Visser One. Here, when Marco is alone with Visser One, he has to fake being a Controller himself. At one point, the Visser comments that Marco needs to get better Control of his host body; her host is currently screaming and crying in her head, but she still has complete Control. This is so tragic because not only does poor Marco’s mom have to deal with being Controlled by Visser One, but she now thinks her son has been taken as well. This just has to sap away whatever small bits of hope remain to her.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: It’s not so much a terrible plan, as an “obviously flawed, but necessary course of action.” This is the first time we’re really seeing the challenges posed by Tobias’s new morphing ability and the fact that he needs to acquire DNA as a hawk. So, the dolphin was always going to be a problem. What I don’t get is why the hell they decided to go about this in broad daylight with a park full of people?? In the past, they’ve often snuck into The Gardens at night to get their morphs. So why they would choose to do this, the most obtrusive DNA acquisition they have ever attempted, in the middle of the day is beyond me. Actual quote from the book right as Tobias is dive-bombing the poor dolphin:
Cassie asked, way too late.
Favorite Quote:
This is a really long quote, but it’s probably the one and only quote that I’ve always remembered from this series and even referenced a few time over the years. I knew it was in a Marco book somewhere, so I was thrilled to see it pop up here:
See, I’ve always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say, “Oh, isn’t it all so tragic, so grim, so awful.” Or you can look at the world and decide that it’s mostly funny. If you step back far enough from the details, everything gets funny. You say war is tragic. I say, isn’t it crazy the way people will fight over nothing? People fight wars to control crappy little patches of empty desert, for crying out loud. It’s like fighting over an empty soda can. It’s not so much tragic as it is ridiculous. Asinine! Stupid! You say, isn’t it terrible about global warming? And I say, no, it’s funny. We’re going to bring on global warming because we ran too many leaky air conditioners? We used too much spray deodorant, so now we’ll be doomed to sweat forever? That’s not sad. That’s irony. Note to Alanis: That is ironic. Humor kind of breaks down when the tragedy gets up close and personal.
On a more light-hearted and brief note, Marco had this to say to Erek in the beginning when he and Jake agreed to do something about the Yeerks’ goals to capture the Leerans:
I shrugged. “We like to keep busy. It’s either rescue entire races or play Nintendo.”
Scorecard: Yeerks 3, Animorphs 7
A point for the Animorphs…I guess? I mean, they mostly destroyed the compound to simply undo the head implant situation that they foolishly got themselves into, but it was still a blow against the Yeerks.
Rating: Loved it! There was so much great character building stuff for Marco, and now the secret of his mother is out to the rest of the group, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out going forward.
Narrator: Marco
Plot: In what is now becoming the usual “save the animals” opening scene of many of these stories, we see Marco and crew in the mall on a mission to morph parrots at the Rain Forest Cafe in an attempt to discourage them using live birds going forward. Obviously, this was Cassie’s plan. After making enough of a nuisance of themselves to get the job done (think parrots spewing vulgarities at customers in line), Marco and Jake run into Erek, our friendly Chee insider, on the way out who informs them that the Yeerks are up to no good. It seems that the Yeerks are trying to take over a world populated by psychic water aliens called Leerans. Obviously, this would be disastrous for the Animorphs, since psychic Controllers could see through their morphs instantly. What’s more, the base of operations, located out in the ocean, deep underwater, is being run by none other than Visser One, Marco’s Controlled mom.
They decide to check it out in dolphin morph. Problem being, Tobias with his new morphing ability, doesn’t have a dolphin morph. This leads to a little scene of them all trekking off to The Gardens where Tobias has to dive bomb a dolphin in hawk morph to try and acquire its DNA. He ends up getting his talons stuck in the dolphin’s skin and is only saved from drowning by a well-timed controlled crash by seagull!Marco.
All morphed dolphins, and Ax as a shark, the crew zero in on the underwater compound. They are quickly surrounded by a crew of hammer head sharks. Bizarrely, the sharks seem to be operating as a pack. Marco, having been almost bit in half by a shark back in book 4, is understandably more panicked than the rest and quickly gets out of there, followed by the others.
Knowing they still need to get into the compound somehow, the Animorphs make their way to the new aquatic center in town which has hammer head sharks. They go at night, but through a few mishaps, Ax is spotted by a Controller guard on duty. They attempt to escape, eventually resorting to having Ax tail swipe away the glass holding in the massive aquarium. Marco barely escapes being eaten by a hammer head, subduing it by acquiring its DNA. The others follow suit.
Marco goes a bit nuts about the fact that he was the first to run back when they were dolphins. The appeal of the fearlessness of the shark overtakes him and he foolishly tries to morph shark in the school pool. He’s interrupted by a pair of bullies who start mocking him and taking jabs at his mom. He’s only saved (from attacking them or discovery) by Jake who shows up and calms things down.
Back in the ocean, this time morphed as sharks, the group make their way into the compound, following the other sharks. They find themselves trapped in a queue that is injecting things into the sharks’ heads that they guess is what the Yeerks are using to control the sharks. Unable to escape, they all are injected as well. It’s only later when they demorph and try to morph fly to more easily make their way around the compound that they realize what’s happened: Yeerk trackers/control devices have been implanted into their heads, preventing them from morphing small animals whose skull cavities can’t fit the tracker. Instantly, somehow getting rid of these trackers becomes the new priority.
The group splits up. Rachel, Cassie, and Jake go battle morph to provide a distraction. Ax, Tobias, and Marco make their way further into the compound to try and find a solution. They discover that there is a fail safe built into the compound that would dissolve the trackers if the compound itself was destroyed. Marco gets discovered by Visser One, but is able to trick her into believing that he is a Controller computer technician who was sent to work on the compound. Escaping from her, he re-joins Ax and Tobias. Ax sets the computer to auto-destruct, and the group re-joins the others to fight.
Visser Three conveniently shows up in a massive snake morph. A mad battle takes place between the Animorphs, the Controllers, and Visser Three and Visser One in the background. A Leeran shows up and tries to tell the Vissers that the morphed beings are humans. Visser One dismisses this, thinking the Leeran has confused Marco’s gorilla morph for a human, since the two are closely related.
Visser One manages to suspend the countdown for the self-destruct, prompting Rachel and Ax to go after her. Rachel is about to kill her when Marco yells for her to stop, admitting that Visser One is his mother. Ax knocks Visser One out instead. Still desperate to destroy the compound, Marco throws a chair through the glass wall, cracking it and sending the Yeerks running for cover. The Animorphs escape, with Marco thinking he sentenced his mother to death, and now knowing that the entire group will know his mother was/is Visser One. As they swim away, Rachel claims to hear a sub whirring away from the area, possibly containing Visser One. Marco accepts the hope this offers, renewing his drive to fight to free his mother in the future.
The Comic Relief: Have I mentioned that I love Marco books? He just has so much depth as a character. Not only is he just as witty as a narrator as he is as a supporting character in the other books, but there are many real issues that he deals with and brings to his stories, the biggest of which is obviously the struggle with his mother.
But here we also had a few other things that he goes through. One has to do with the fact that he ran first from the sharks. It’s a nice call back to the fact that they all never fully recover from the trauma inflicted on them in all of these fights. He was almost bit in half by a shark; that’s bound to stick with you. And the fact that he is then drawn to the fearlessness of the shark as a way to deal with his insecurities about his own bravery is just excellent.
He’s also very self-aware as a character, and the fact that he’s the most analytical of the group is on full display. Both he and Jake have Controllers in their family, but Marco is the only one who has fully thought out what saving this person would really cost (at least as far as we know, Jake hasn’t mentioned most of this). He goes over the fact that if he saved her the Yeerks wouldn’t just let it go:, they’d be tracked, likely discovered, and the all of the other Animorphs would be discovered and the war lost. Knowing this, even though he fights to save her, he doesn’t know how it will ever be possible.
He also is very practical even through all the pain of confronting his mother, constantly fighting the urge to alert her and reassure her that he’s fighting to save her.
And I’m not someone who does emotional, stupid things. Sometimes I wish I were.
Lastly, when it counts, Marco does the right thing, no matter the personal cost. This practical weighing of odds, of personal issues and the good of everyone else, leads him to destroying the compound, not knowing if his mother will make it out alive. I’m not sure any other character could have done this (maybe Rachel, but she would have done it from a very different emotional place).
As I’ve said before and will probably keep repeating, Marco is the character I would aspire to be in this series.
Our Fearless Leader: There are a few notable moments between Jake and Marco. First, when they all go to The Gardens for Tobias to get a dolphin morph, March impetuously decides to snag a ride on a roller coaster while in seagull morph, pulling Jake along with him. It’s a small moment of pure fun between two best friends. And, in a moment of rare vulnerability afterwards, Marco asks Jake whether they’re still the same, even after it all, deep down. (Clearly he’s also thinking about whether his mom is still his mom even after being a Controller for so many years).
The second moment is the reinforcement of the fact that Jake must be known at their high school as the bully repeller. We know that he saved Tobias from bullying, and when Marco is being made fun of by the bullies at the pool, Jake steps in once again. Jake has to be a fairly popular guy at this school, what with all of these good deeds and his ability to control bullies.
Jake also provides most of the support for Marco throughout this book as the only one who knows the truth about Visser One until the end where it becomes more broadly known.
Xena, Warriar Princess: Rachel doesn’t do a lot in this book, other than be gung ho in her usual semi-crazy way. She’s all for it when Marco suggests splitting into groups with one group morphing battle morphs and providing a distraction.
Naturally, Rachel agreeing with me convinced me I was obviously wrong.
Yeah, right Marco! We’ve seen him base too many decisions on what Rachel decides to do to believe this! In the end, it’s also Rachel who “hears” the sub leaving the collapsing compound (obviously Visser One escapes, but it’s never clear whether Rachel really did hear this or is just providing comfort for Marco), providing hope for Marco that his mother escaped. My secret (not secret) alt-universe shipping of these two continues.
A Hawk’s Life: Poor Tobias and the dolphin incident! Not only is the dude already scared of water, but here he has to somehow acquire a dolphin while in hawk morph! And then gets stuck and ends up going on the worst dolphin roller coaster ride of his life. It’s no wonder that after it all, he’s a bit grumpy. And when Cassie starts fretting about how the dolphin is doing, we get this little exchange:
Tobias said. I asked him.
Sarcastic Tobias is a great Tobias.
Peace, Love, and Animals: Jake seems much more willing to go along on these little side missions when Cassie is the one coming up with them… When they’re all morphed as parrots saying ridiculous things to scare off customers, Cassie comes up with:
“Squuaaakkk! We should be flying free in our native habitat!”
Because of course she does. She, along with Marco, proves yet again that she’s one of the two more perceptive members of the group, quickly picking up on Tobias’s lack of enthusiasm to morph dolphin and his fear of water.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Marco’s introductions of characters are always the best of all the narrators. With Ax, we first meet him when he’s in human morph during the parrot mission, and Marco describes him and his food obsession thusly:
Ax would trade a Cinnabon for the Mona Lisa, straight across.
Ax also has a lot of knowledge about the Leeran race. He hacks the computer in the underwater compound to set it to auto-destruct, all while, of course, making many arrogant Andalite comments about superiority and such.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: The bit when Marco starts morphing fly and experiencing head pain, only to see Rachel shrinking and the device pushing through her head. Ick.
Couples Watch!: Not a whole lot. Towards the end, when the group is split up in the underwater compound, Tobias is pretty stressed about the delay in accessing the computer, snapping at Ax to hurry up so that they can join Rachel and the others who they can hear fighting in their battle morphs. He’s clearly worrying about her.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: The Visser drama continues! Visser One and Visser Three’s ongoing bitch fight is always a joy. Here, Marco essentially describes the complete and utter bizarreness of the scenario in the underwater compound when these two run into each other. There’s a massive battle going on all around them between “Andalite warriors” and their Controller underlings, but all they care about is sniping at each other in the middle of the room.
Also, when Marco is in is one-on-one with Visser One posing as a Controller computer technician, he claims that Visser Three killed the other three technicians who were supposedly meant to be accompanying him. Visser One is not at all surprised that this could be the case. Clearly, Visser Three has a bit of a reputation in this area.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: Marco books always deliver a big dose of the sads. For some reason, his mother being a Controller always strikes me as more tragic than Jake’s brother. Probably because Marco already grieved her death, and then got her back in the worst way, knowing she’s a Controller for Visser One. Here, when Marco is alone with Visser One, he has to fake being a Controller himself. At one point, the Visser comments that Marco needs to get better Control of his host body; her host is currently screaming and crying in her head, but she still has complete Control. This is so tragic because not only does poor Marco’s mom have to deal with being Controlled by Visser One, but she now thinks her son has been taken as well. This just has to sap away whatever small bits of hope remain to her.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: It’s not so much a terrible plan, as an “obviously flawed, but necessary course of action.” This is the first time we’re really seeing the challenges posed by Tobias’s new morphing ability and the fact that he needs to acquire DNA as a hawk. So, the dolphin was always going to be a problem. What I don’t get is why the hell they decided to go about this in broad daylight with a park full of people?? In the past, they’ve often snuck into The Gardens at night to get their morphs. So why they would choose to do this, the most obtrusive DNA acquisition they have ever attempted, in the middle of the day is beyond me. Actual quote from the book right as Tobias is dive-bombing the poor dolphin:
Cassie asked, way too late.
Favorite Quote:
This is a really long quote, but it’s probably the one and only quote that I’ve always remembered from this series and even referenced a few time over the years. I knew it was in a Marco book somewhere, so I was thrilled to see it pop up here:
See, I’ve always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say, “Oh, isn’t it all so tragic, so grim, so awful.” Or you can look at the world and decide that it’s mostly funny. If you step back far enough from the details, everything gets funny. You say war is tragic. I say, isn’t it crazy the way people will fight over nothing? People fight wars to control crappy little patches of empty desert, for crying out loud. It’s like fighting over an empty soda can. It’s not so much tragic as it is ridiculous. Asinine! Stupid! You say, isn’t it terrible about global warming? And I say, no, it’s funny. We’re going to bring on global warming because we ran too many leaky air conditioners? We used too much spray deodorant, so now we’ll be doomed to sweat forever? That’s not sad. That’s irony. Note to Alanis: That is ironic. Humor kind of breaks down when the tragedy gets up close and personal.
On a more light-hearted and brief note, Marco had this to say to Erek in the beginning when he and Jake agreed to do something about the Yeerks’ goals to capture the Leerans:
I shrugged. “We like to keep busy. It’s either rescue entire races or play Nintendo.”
Scorecard: Yeerks 3, Animorphs 7
A point for the Animorphs…I guess? I mean, they mostly destroyed the compound to simply undo the head implant situation that they foolishly got themselves into, but it was still a blow against the Yeerks.
Rating: Loved it! There was so much great character building stuff for Marco, and now the secret of his mother is out to the rest of the group, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out going forward.
March 1, 2024
Marco straight up is depressed and has the terrifying trauma of being bitten in half by a shark
September 2, 2023
the thing with animorphs is you think you're ok and then the last 5 pages come for your kneecaps every time
January 21, 2026
2026 review, original 2018 review below the ----- line.
Quick synopsis : Another "under the sea" book. In addition to Earth, the Yeerks are also trying to take over another planet. Because that planet is made of water, they need some aquatic shock troops to take over. They decide to use hammerhead sharks from Earth.
Brief opinion : After a few not so great (or simply awful) books, this one was significantly better. Marco, who had only a short time ago nearly been bitten in half by a shark, has to go back into the ocean again. The Animorphs also have to fight Visser One... who has taken over Marco's mother's body.
How does this opinion compare to my original review in 2018: Back then I had said "Even though this was a better book than the last few, I'm still this close to abandoning the series and checking out fanfics instead." and I still feel the same. I remember how good some of the fanfics are, and I'm not really loving the official series so much.
Plot : Erek the Chee (dog robot alien race) tips off the Animorphs that Visser One is on Earth in some undersea base. Also that a new alien race (Leerans) are on Earth, working for the Yeerks. That is an issue as the Leerans are psychic, so they'd be able to identify who the Animorphs really are.
As with all these books, there's lots of morphing, a big battle, Marco gets a ton of angst over his mother, and at the end of the story the kids are right back where they began: Homework to do, parents to lie to, school to attend.
Writing/editing : There were a few mostly minor editing issues.
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like : The typed out sound effects are killing me.
Also Every Single Book has a recap of the series so far. Basic stuff, like introduction of who the characters are.
Also the morphing scenes are now taking many pages each instead of a couple paragraphs.
All this together feels like it's an effort to have even less plot in these already tiny books.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Liked
----- 2018 review below this line.
Disclaimer: I'm reading this series for the first time as an adult. (Unfortunately) I have no fond memories coloring my reading.
Positives: Better than the last couple books.
Negatives: Plotholes big enough for a hammerhead shark to swim through. Typed out sound effects. So very dated.
In thischapter book, Marco (POV character) has to confront his mother. His mother, who has one of the evil brain slug aliens in her head, thus she's under their control.
I don't usually like funny characters, but in the case of this series, I think the funny character works best, since it's such a contrast to how dark the situation is.
I really wish the author would stop with the sound effects. I wonder if they were in the earlier books and I just hadn't noticed them? "TSEEEEWWW! The Dracon beam missed." "CRRR-UMPH! The window exploded inward!" Most of the time, the sounds don't even make sense. "CRRR-UMPH" for glass breaking?
Even though this was a better book than the last few, I'm still this close to abandoning the series and checking out fanfics instead. There are just so many issues in the books. I mean, the brainslug aliens are trying to take over the world, but there's never an attack or any other activity anywhere other than an hour or two around the town the Animorphs live in?
Quick synopsis : Another "under the sea" book. In addition to Earth, the Yeerks are also trying to take over another planet. Because that planet is made of water, they need some aquatic shock troops to take over. They decide to use hammerhead sharks from Earth.
Brief opinion : After a few not so great (or simply awful) books, this one was significantly better. Marco, who had only a short time ago nearly been bitten in half by a shark, has to go back into the ocean again. The Animorphs also have to fight Visser One... who has taken over Marco's mother's body.
How does this opinion compare to my original review in 2018: Back then I had said "Even though this was a better book than the last few, I'm still this close to abandoning the series and checking out fanfics instead." and I still feel the same. I remember how good some of the fanfics are, and I'm not really loving the official series so much.
Plot : Erek the Chee (dog robot alien race) tips off the Animorphs that Visser One is on Earth in some undersea base. Also that a new alien race (Leerans) are on Earth, working for the Yeerks. That is an issue as the Leerans are psychic, so they'd be able to identify who the Animorphs really are.
As with all these books, there's lots of morphing, a big battle, Marco gets a ton of angst over his mother, and at the end of the story the kids are right back where they began: Homework to do, parents to lie to, school to attend.
Writing/editing : There were a few mostly minor editing issues.
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like : The typed out sound effects are killing me.
Also Every Single Book has a recap of the series so far. Basic stuff, like introduction of who the characters are.
Also the morphing scenes are now taking many pages each instead of a couple paragraphs.
All this together feels like it's an effort to have even less plot in these already tiny books.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Liked
----- 2018 review below this line.
Disclaimer: I'm reading this series for the first time as an adult. (Unfortunately) I have no fond memories coloring my reading.
Positives: Better than the last couple books.
Negatives: Plotholes big enough for a hammerhead shark to swim through. Typed out sound effects. So very dated.
In this
I don't usually like funny characters, but in the case of this series, I think the funny character works best, since it's such a contrast to how dark the situation is.
I really wish the author would stop with the sound effects. I wonder if they were in the earlier books and I just hadn't noticed them? "TSEEEEWWW! The Dracon beam missed." "CRRR-UMPH! The window exploded inward!" Most of the time, the sounds don't even make sense. "CRRR-UMPH" for glass breaking?
Even though this was a better book than the last few, I'm still this close to abandoning the series and checking out fanfics instead. There are just so many issues in the books. I mean, the brainslug aliens are trying to take over the world, but there's never an attack or any other activity anywhere other than an hour or two around the town the Animorphs live in?
June 5, 2026
my god, SIX big highlights in this one. let's see if i can pick a favorite that isn't too spoilery.
“Nice world you live in, Marco," I said softly. I could trust my father and maybe end up dead. I could try to help my mother and maybe end up dead. And as a bonus I could get all my friends killed and doom the entire human race.
I looked at the book I was supposed to read. "That ain't happening. Not tonight."
And I thought about my father, sitting down in the living room and turning on the game. Who knew if he was my father any more than my mother was really my mother?
I couldn't really trust him. I couldn't go downstairs and spill all my problems out for him.
But you know what? I could sure go sit with the man and watch the game. I could do that.
September 13, 2018
Marco and Tobias are the most complex of the bunch. Love their books This one is even better, not only because we get into the clowns mind, but because it has such high stakes ( specially after the dullest book yet)
June 5, 2016
I love Marco's intelligence and his humour, and I love his narration because we get to find out what goes on behind the one-liners. His books are some of my faves to read.
October 14, 2025
A book that I had zero memory of despite knowing I read it back in the day. Finally Marco is a likable character! Definitely a book I didn't give enough credit to in my childhood.
June 12, 2022
If I were a shark I would simply not be distracted by the smell of blood
April 13, 2023
"I am too young to have to deal with this kind of stuff."
This hurted so bad.
This hurted so bad.
June 10, 2021
"Politics. I guess it's the same everywhere"
We re-join Marco as we finish off cycle 3. Man, that far already and it's still only 15 out 54 for the main series alone. Anyway, in a way this plays catch up with the previous Marco books, as the big things we found out about in those return in full force. Kind of. Eerk from The Androids shows up to give them exposition and then leaves. But hey, at least we see him again soon rather than later.
The plot this time is they they find out the Yeerks have a underwater base now they are using for some big plan, and Visser One is leading it. Yeah, back in the Predator we meet Visser 3's superior and here they finally return. They gotta find out what they are up to. That's basically the plot but there are of course the details, like how it's basically all to get a certain alien specifics that is hard for the Yeerks to get into and exactly what this plan is.
This returns to a more basic kind of plot that just happens to introduce more neat lore. It's a vesicle for Visser One to return as there's interesting stuf that comes with it. I appreciate that Visser One is used sparingly, in contrast to 3 who as we've established, appears often, diminishing him as a threat. We really see more of 1 and 3's interactions this time and it's pretty good, they do not like each other and it gives us that quote up there.
The main draw here is Marco's turmoil. I still won't spoil it but something was found out in The Predator that is pretty big and we see him deal with it more here. He has some pretty good introspection moments and it leads to some really good stuff later on. That stuff is the highlight. Marco seems to get some of the more interesting character stuff I feel, as it's just interesting to have the jokester being a bit more deep.
He has a whole thing about how he views the world as a comedy and it's good. The ending puts a cap on all this fairly well. It's an abrupt kind of ending that works, I like it. So that's really good. The rest is...there.
Basic but still enjoyable as always. Not much to object too but as you can tell by now, I do like the more "involved" plots I guess. It's a more interesting Yeerk plot than some of the others, what they are doing is a bit overly complicated but makes sense than logging at least. Still a fair share of fun/exciting stuff there.
Not a whole to really say though. So I suppose it is slightly weaker the other Marco books but mostly due to the plot of The Android being more interesting. This has better emotional stuff but as a whole those others worked a bit better. Still, that's the best track record for the narrators so far, Tobias is right behind but only having the two puts him as a disadvantage.
So yeah, not a whole more to say, another one that deals with more spoiler-y stuff as far as the deeper bits go. So ends Cycle 3, aka the Cycle of filler aside from The Change and this lol. A bit weaker then the other cycles as a result but these 2 pulled their weight at least, not to mention Andalite Chronicles in the middle of it.
Next time, Cycle four begins. We're back to Jake and from what I understand, we get my favorite subject: 90's depictions of the internet! See ya then.
We re-join Marco as we finish off cycle 3. Man, that far already and it's still only 15 out 54 for the main series alone. Anyway, in a way this plays catch up with the previous Marco books, as the big things we found out about in those return in full force. Kind of. Eerk from The Androids shows up to give them exposition and then leaves. But hey, at least we see him again soon rather than later.
The plot this time is they they find out the Yeerks have a underwater base now they are using for some big plan, and Visser One is leading it. Yeah, back in the Predator we meet Visser 3's superior and here they finally return. They gotta find out what they are up to. That's basically the plot but there are of course the details, like how it's basically all to get a certain alien specifics that is hard for the Yeerks to get into and exactly what this plan is.
This returns to a more basic kind of plot that just happens to introduce more neat lore. It's a vesicle for Visser One to return as there's interesting stuf that comes with it. I appreciate that Visser One is used sparingly, in contrast to 3 who as we've established, appears often, diminishing him as a threat. We really see more of 1 and 3's interactions this time and it's pretty good, they do not like each other and it gives us that quote up there.
The main draw here is Marco's turmoil. I still won't spoil it but something was found out in The Predator that is pretty big and we see him deal with it more here. He has some pretty good introspection moments and it leads to some really good stuff later on. That stuff is the highlight. Marco seems to get some of the more interesting character stuff I feel, as it's just interesting to have the jokester being a bit more deep.
He has a whole thing about how he views the world as a comedy and it's good. The ending puts a cap on all this fairly well. It's an abrupt kind of ending that works, I like it. So that's really good. The rest is...there.
Basic but still enjoyable as always. Not much to object too but as you can tell by now, I do like the more "involved" plots I guess. It's a more interesting Yeerk plot than some of the others, what they are doing is a bit overly complicated but makes sense than logging at least. Still a fair share of fun/exciting stuff there.
Not a whole to really say though. So I suppose it is slightly weaker the other Marco books but mostly due to the plot of The Android being more interesting. This has better emotional stuff but as a whole those others worked a bit better. Still, that's the best track record for the narrators so far, Tobias is right behind but only having the two puts him as a disadvantage.
So yeah, not a whole more to say, another one that deals with more spoiler-y stuff as far as the deeper bits go. So ends Cycle 3, aka the Cycle of filler aside from The Change and this lol. A bit weaker then the other cycles as a result but these 2 pulled their weight at least, not to mention Andalite Chronicles in the middle of it.
Next time, Cycle four begins. We're back to Jake and from what I understand, we get my favorite subject: 90's depictions of the internet! See ya then.
December 7, 2019
Original review on Jaunts & Haunts.
I gave this book five underwater morphing stars!
In this continuation of the Animorphs series, we read in Marco’s POV.
The Animorphs are exposing a rainforest-themed restaurant in the mall for exploiting parrots to sell their merchandise when Jake and Marco see Erik the Chee, their android ally.
What Erik has to say shocks them. Visser One is on a nearby island, and something is afoot, something involving another race of aliens called Leerans. Visser One being mentioned is enough to make Marco’s heart stop.
What is his controller mother doing on this island? What are Leerans? And most of all, could this be the chance he’s been waiting for to finally save her?
I absolutely loved this book! Sometimes I feel like I don’t give Marco enough credit. He’s the jokester in the group, so I usually tolerate his cheesy jokes at best. But when we’re put in his perspective, there really is a lot more to him, especially this time around.
The reader really gets a good feel for why Marco is the way he is and the emotional turmoil he’s in when Visser One is involved. I mean, this is his mom we’re talking about.
The stakes were high this time around, and the plot twists were really great and original. I definitely don’t remember this story from back when I read it as a kid, so this adventure was fresh to me and extremely interesting.
Everything was very well balanced, and I feel like each character got a decent amount of limelight to share alongside Marco.
No cons this time around. This book was kickass, full of great thrills and adventure, and I can’t wait to continue my Animorphs journey!
I gave this book five underwater morphing stars!
In this continuation of the Animorphs series, we read in Marco’s POV.
The Animorphs are exposing a rainforest-themed restaurant in the mall for exploiting parrots to sell their merchandise when Jake and Marco see Erik the Chee, their android ally.
What Erik has to say shocks them. Visser One is on a nearby island, and something is afoot, something involving another race of aliens called Leerans. Visser One being mentioned is enough to make Marco’s heart stop.
What is his controller mother doing on this island? What are Leerans? And most of all, could this be the chance he’s been waiting for to finally save her?
I absolutely loved this book! Sometimes I feel like I don’t give Marco enough credit. He’s the jokester in the group, so I usually tolerate his cheesy jokes at best. But when we’re put in his perspective, there really is a lot more to him, especially this time around.
The reader really gets a good feel for why Marco is the way he is and the emotional turmoil he’s in when Visser One is involved. I mean, this is his mom we’re talking about.
The stakes were high this time around, and the plot twists were really great and original. I definitely don’t remember this story from back when I read it as a kid, so this adventure was fresh to me and extremely interesting.
Everything was very well balanced, and I feel like each character got a decent amount of limelight to share alongside Marco.
No cons this time around. This book was kickass, full of great thrills and adventure, and I can’t wait to continue my Animorphs journey!
October 20, 2022
Very, very inaccurate and mean to sharks. Asides from that, pretty good. The shark thing was really bad though. Especially considering I am a long-term fan of sharks in general, this book wasn't exactly a fun read for me.
June 8, 2015
I've really enjoyed this series; it may be long, but it hasn't gotten old yet.
January 18, 2025
Un très bon tome comparé au précédent, et c'est tant mieux. En se focalisant sur l'histoire personnelle de Marco, Katherine A. Applegate remet en avant l'âge de nos héros et l'horreur de ce qu'ils vivent, ainsi que plusieurs points très intéressants qui sont d'ailleurs très bien contrebalancés avec l'animal mis en avant pour cette aventure.
Marco est "catégorisé" comme étant le boutentrain de la bande. Celui qui plaisante tout le temps, qui ne prend pas grand-chose au sérieux et qui a toujours le mot pour détendre l'atmosphère. Une image qui lui colle à la peau alors que si l'on gratte un petit peu, on se rend compte que l'adolescent est loin de n'être que cela. C'est un peu son moyen de défense contre la vie qu'il a. Une mère morte alors qu'il était très jeune, un père qui n'a pas supporté cette perte et qui a laissé son fils tout gérer seul. Il a d'ailleurs été au début de l'aventure celui qui était le plus réticent à entrer en guerre contre les Yirks, parce qu'il savait ce qu'il avait à perdre. Récemment, nous avons découvert que la mère de Marco n'est pas décédée mais qu'elle a été infestée par l'un des plus puissants Yirks: Vysserk Un. Un autre coup dur pour notre héros mais surtout un changement de perception de son combat.
Bien qu'il sache que sa mère n'est pas morte, Marco est toujours hanté par son deuil. Et la savoir en vie dans de telles conditions, n'a rien de réjouissant. Dans ce quinzième tome, on voit combien il doit lutter face à cette situation. Sa mère est techniquement devenue l'ennemi public numéro 1 pour la planète entière, ou du moins l'hôte de ce dernier. Sera-t-il capable de faire le nécessaire quand la confrontation arrivera ? Sera-t-il capable de faire ce sacrifice pour sauver l'humanité ? La souffrance de Marco est toujours à vif et on sent combien il est en colère, impuissant et apeuré. Une façon de nous rappeler douloureusement que nos héros sont encore des enfants et que tout ce qu'ils font est certes louables et courageux, mais qu'ils sont constamment sur la sellette. Et que pire que tout, ils ne peuvent faire confiance qu'à leur petit groupe. De quoi devenir claustrophobe face à tout cela. Katherine A. Applegate nous le renvoie en pleine figure et c'est une bonne piqure de rappel. On a toujours du mal à voir les héros comme des êtres humains normaux en fin de compte.
Le contraste avec le requin-marteau est très intéressant. Un prédateur qui ne pense qu'à la faim et à rien d'autre. Pas de douleur, pas de peur, pas de questions. A croire que c'est une vie de rêve vu la situation. Même s'il y a inévitablement la question : est-ce une vie ? En tout cas le choix était judicieux. Et l'intrigue liée à la mission nous permet de voir un peu plus de choses vis-à-vis des Yirks en sortant un peu du contexte terrestre. Pour le coup, même si on n’avance pas forcément concernant l'invasion de la Terre, on en apprend tout de même pas mal et je me dis que ce qu'il s'est passé aura certainement des répercutions par la suite. Du moins je l'espère.
Pas mal de réflexion autour de ce tome d'Animorphs. Sur l'image que l'on renvoie de soi, ce masque derrière lequel on se cache ou bien derrière celui que les autres veulent que l'on se cache, au choix. Marco qui nous apparaît sous un jour nouveau, plus sombre, plus complexe, et c'est tant mieux. Il gagne doucement en substance et s'éloigne également un peu de son rôle de clown. Une bonne évolution pour le jeune homme.
Marco est "catégorisé" comme étant le boutentrain de la bande. Celui qui plaisante tout le temps, qui ne prend pas grand-chose au sérieux et qui a toujours le mot pour détendre l'atmosphère. Une image qui lui colle à la peau alors que si l'on gratte un petit peu, on se rend compte que l'adolescent est loin de n'être que cela. C'est un peu son moyen de défense contre la vie qu'il a. Une mère morte alors qu'il était très jeune, un père qui n'a pas supporté cette perte et qui a laissé son fils tout gérer seul. Il a d'ailleurs été au début de l'aventure celui qui était le plus réticent à entrer en guerre contre les Yirks, parce qu'il savait ce qu'il avait à perdre. Récemment, nous avons découvert que la mère de Marco n'est pas décédée mais qu'elle a été infestée par l'un des plus puissants Yirks: Vysserk Un. Un autre coup dur pour notre héros mais surtout un changement de perception de son combat.
Bien qu'il sache que sa mère n'est pas morte, Marco est toujours hanté par son deuil. Et la savoir en vie dans de telles conditions, n'a rien de réjouissant. Dans ce quinzième tome, on voit combien il doit lutter face à cette situation. Sa mère est techniquement devenue l'ennemi public numéro 1 pour la planète entière, ou du moins l'hôte de ce dernier. Sera-t-il capable de faire le nécessaire quand la confrontation arrivera ? Sera-t-il capable de faire ce sacrifice pour sauver l'humanité ? La souffrance de Marco est toujours à vif et on sent combien il est en colère, impuissant et apeuré. Une façon de nous rappeler douloureusement que nos héros sont encore des enfants et que tout ce qu'ils font est certes louables et courageux, mais qu'ils sont constamment sur la sellette. Et que pire que tout, ils ne peuvent faire confiance qu'à leur petit groupe. De quoi devenir claustrophobe face à tout cela. Katherine A. Applegate nous le renvoie en pleine figure et c'est une bonne piqure de rappel. On a toujours du mal à voir les héros comme des êtres humains normaux en fin de compte.
Le contraste avec le requin-marteau est très intéressant. Un prédateur qui ne pense qu'à la faim et à rien d'autre. Pas de douleur, pas de peur, pas de questions. A croire que c'est une vie de rêve vu la situation. Même s'il y a inévitablement la question : est-ce une vie ? En tout cas le choix était judicieux. Et l'intrigue liée à la mission nous permet de voir un peu plus de choses vis-à-vis des Yirks en sortant un peu du contexte terrestre. Pour le coup, même si on n’avance pas forcément concernant l'invasion de la Terre, on en apprend tout de même pas mal et je me dis que ce qu'il s'est passé aura certainement des répercutions par la suite. Du moins je l'espère.
Pas mal de réflexion autour de ce tome d'Animorphs. Sur l'image que l'on renvoie de soi, ce masque derrière lequel on se cache ou bien derrière celui que les autres veulent que l'on se cache, au choix. Marco qui nous apparaît sous un jour nouveau, plus sombre, plus complexe, et c'est tant mieux. Il gagne doucement en substance et s'éloigne également un peu de son rôle de clown. Une bonne évolution pour le jeune homme.
March 15, 2024
I'm starting to find that I really like the story told from this perspective. I think this character is one of the more underestimated ones because when we see him from other characters' POVs, we see someone who is one way, but from his perspective, we see his true depths. Which is something he touches on here: he's the funny friend; the one who never seems to take anything too seriously, but this kid wears the humour mask as a survival thing.
This was a great addition to the series because of the emotional aspect. And THE ESCAPE also makes me want to read more of the series just so I can see this character get his greatest wish granted.
Also, loved how great they all worked together!
Will hopefully read the next one soon!
Happy reading!
This was a great addition to the series because of the emotional aspect. And THE ESCAPE also makes me want to read more of the series just so I can see this character get his greatest wish granted.
Also, loved how great they all worked together!
Will hopefully read the next one soon!
Happy reading!
March 26, 2022
Depicted here is (I think) the first open conversation amongst the Animorphs considering the strong possibility of being fundamentally changed as people as a result of their morphing and all the trauma attached to it.
During this time, Marco’s grip on his humanity slips slightly and it highlights just how dangerous these children are. They are untrained and under ridiculously demanding circumstances constantly. They never rest and are still expected to blend in with their regular human peers perfectly.
All of the Animorphs are tragic characters, but Marco’s specific brand of tragic just makes me wanna curl up and cry.
CW: war, violence, slavery, grief, death
During this time, Marco’s grip on his humanity slips slightly and it highlights just how dangerous these children are. They are untrained and under ridiculously demanding circumstances constantly. They never rest and are still expected to blend in with their regular human peers perfectly.
All of the Animorphs are tragic characters, but Marco’s specific brand of tragic just makes me wanna curl up and cry.
CW: war, violence, slavery, grief, death
February 5, 2024
This was a whirlwind book. The Animorphs check out a possible site where the Yeerks are scheming. Including Visser One, Marco's mom. When the group uses their dolphin morphs to try to get to the underwater building, they find out it is somehow protected by hammerhead sharks. So now the group need to acquire a hammerhead morph in order to check out the site.
A lot happened that wasn't at the site, Tobias acquires a dolphin at The Gardens and then the whole group has to go to Ocean World to find a hammerhead and that almost goes sideways. It was a fun, exciting book and the ending was very action packed!
A lot happened that wasn't at the site, Tobias acquires a dolphin at The Gardens and then the whole group has to go to Ocean World to find a hammerhead and that almost goes sideways. It was a fun, exciting book and the ending was very action packed!
September 15, 2025
< Don't you Andalites believe in luck? >
< No. >
< Me neither. How about hope? >
< We believe in hope. >
Hope that things will change. Hope that you’ll have another chance. Hope that you’ll make it through the day.
It’s difficult to pick a favourite Animorph because my favourite is often the one I just read about. But Marco’s books do tend to drift to the top of the favourites pile because of how well Applegate plays with the tragedy of a comic character.
"Sure. Why wouldn't I be all right?"
"Because if you were all right, you'd be busy telling everyone how insane this is and how we're all gonna die. You're weirding everyone out, being so tense."
< No. >
< Me neither. How about hope? >
< We believe in hope. >
Hope that things will change. Hope that you’ll have another chance. Hope that you’ll make it through the day.
It’s difficult to pick a favourite Animorph because my favourite is often the one I just read about. But Marco’s books do tend to drift to the top of the favourites pile because of how well Applegate plays with the tragedy of a comic character.
"Sure. Why wouldn't I be all right?"
"Because if you were all right, you'd be busy telling everyone how insane this is and how we're all gonna die. You're weirding everyone out, being so tense."
May 31, 2025
“Heroes always know what’s right. Me? I’m a comedian. All I know is what’s funny. And what isn’t.”
In this edition! We explore the unbearable burden of being the funny friend. Marco and his mom make me absolutely SICK they’re so sad. And after a pretty blase story with #14, this one is absolutely off its rocker. There’s a lot of close calls. Like TOO MANY close calls, between the aquarium, Marco facing Visser One out of morph, and the Leeran clocking Marco as human. Truly a wild ride, it’s a miracle no one drowned.
In this edition! We explore the unbearable burden of being the funny friend. Marco and his mom make me absolutely SICK they’re so sad. And after a pretty blase story with #14, this one is absolutely off its rocker. There’s a lot of close calls. Like TOO MANY close calls, between the aquarium, Marco facing Visser One out of morph, and the Leeran clocking Marco as human. Truly a wild ride, it’s a miracle no one drowned.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2026
Ok yeah. This was solid.
Decent animal peril, plenty of Marcos mom angst and a tentative reveal that they’re humans and not andalites, as well as the rest of the team now knowing visser one is Marcos mom. The plot CAN move, after all!! I’m so proud of applegate!
Enjoyed the psychic aliens twist but I wish there was more risk with that, and I also am disappointed they didn’t have to do backwater brain surgery on themselves to remove the control chips. How terrifying is that!!! And we didn’t even use that dread??
Regardless, good instalment.
Decent animal peril, plenty of Marcos mom angst and a tentative reveal that they’re humans and not andalites, as well as the rest of the team now knowing visser one is Marcos mom. The plot CAN move, after all!! I’m so proud of applegate!
Enjoyed the psychic aliens twist but I wish there was more risk with that, and I also am disappointed they didn’t have to do backwater brain surgery on themselves to remove the control chips. How terrifying is that!!! And we didn’t even use that dread??
Regardless, good instalment.
January 30, 2019
Marco has my least favorite personality, so I'm always ready to dislike his books--and then I don't. His personality is counterbalanced, and drawn into question, by his angst; and the poor communication that this identity crisis fosters still annoys me, but I appreciate the intent. The shark plot here feels like a natural progression from the horses in the previous book, and it--and the underwater setting--is a great image; but it comes too soon after, and so is dulled by redundancy.
December 4, 2021
The CHARACTER WORK. Marco is a PHENOMENAL character wow I was really not expecting that from him.
"That’s my friend Jake. That’s his answer to anything, I guess: Do what’s right. And somehow, he always seems to know just what that is. Or at least he thinks he does. Jake’s a natural hero. Heroes always know what’s right. Me? I’m a comedian. All I know is what’s funny. And what isn’t."
"That’s my friend Jake. That’s his answer to anything, I guess: Do what’s right. And somehow, he always seems to know just what that is. Or at least he thinks he does. Jake’s a natural hero. Heroes always know what’s right. Me? I’m a comedian. All I know is what’s funny. And what isn’t."
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