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The Hidden

(Animorphs #39)

K.A. Applegate,

Katherine Applegate

3.66 · Rating details · 1,888 ratings · 69 reviews

The Yeerks plan to use the Helmacron ship they have repaired to capture the Andalites and track down Elfangor's blue cube--the cube that gives Cassie, and the other animorphs the ability to morph. ...more

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Paperback, 121 pages

Published March 2000 by Scholastic Paperbacks

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The Andalite Chronicles by K.A. Applegate

The Best of Animorphs

64 books — 51 voters

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32 books — 1 voter

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· 1,888 ratings · 69 reviews

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Apr 15, 2017 Kara Babcock rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-read, ebook, science-fiction, young-adult

Cassie is the Animorph who will kill you kindly, with her apologies.

Rachel, of course, would just flat-out murderize you with her polar bear or grizzly bear or elephant morph, and you would be Dead. Jake would kill you because it was necessary, not because he particularly enjoys it. Marco would make lame jokes about death, then find a way to engineer your death.

Slowly but surely, all the Animorphs are getting far too acquainted with murder and death for their own liking. But I feel like it takes ...more

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Oct 13, 2015 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: reader-i-wept, rereads, young-adult, nightmare-fuel, applegrant

Ghostwriter: Laura Battyanyi-Weiss. And thank goodness for her, because somehow she's been able to write Rachel, Jake, and now Cassie pitch-perfectly -- she's fantastic, I'm bummed to see that she doesn't write any more after this point!

A nice little summary of Animorphs in general and #38 in specific: I almost started crying on the subway while reading about a buffalo, then cackled over Ax's jokes and the group's wonderful banter, and then despite the entire series fitting this category, I've n ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Jen rated it really liked it

There are not enough drugs for the reading of this book.

This is something that could only have come this late in the series when they've built a loyal fan base who could follow what was going on and handle being SO DAMN CREEPED OUT by it. Because man, there is nothing quite so creepy as ant-Cassie, for realz.

I like that this takes a break from the Yeerks (sort of; that plotline gets relegated to a sub-track) to look at the morphing technology itself and how it can go so, so wrong. I do agree wit ...more

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Jun 18, 2014 CJ rated it liked it

Cape buffalo are awesome. That's what I got out of this book. Cassie got to let out a little rage as the buffalo, and I think she needed the outlet. ...more

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Sep 09, 2013 Nemo (The Moonlight Library) rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2013-read, genre-sci-fi-aliens, books-i-own, format-physical, project-animorphs, publisher-scholastic, series, shed-your-skin-yo-take-another-form, genre-sci-fi-space, audience-young-adult

Brought to you by The Moonlight Library!

When the Yeerks find the Helmacron ship and learn how to pinpoint the morphing technology to go after the Escafil device/blue box, Cassie and the Animorphs have to play a dangerous game of keep-away.

To put it politely, this is one of the worst Animorphs books, if not the worst book, in the series. And that’s saying a lot because the Helmacrons don’t even show up in this novel, although they are an important plot point. I hate the Helmacrons, but who wouldn’t? All their novels suck.

The reason this novel sucks so much is two points. Point the first is that apparently animals can brush against the blue box, receive the morphing technology (without the tingly good feeling the Animorphs experienced when Elfangor gave it to them, also without an Andalite to somehow magically pass it on like in the very first novel) then randomly touch or brush against other animals and acquire them with absolutely no willpower, concentration, thought or intent.

The second reason why this book sucks is that once again the Animorphs rely on Cassie’s anvil trick, where she flies up super high, demorphs to human and morphs to whale while falling. This is the third freaking time she’s done it, and the second time she’s done it to attempt to destroy something Yeerkish. I mean come on, a little originality please? And in the end she fails and the helicopter she’s trying to smash out of existence by dropping a freaking humpback whale on it is blown up because a seagull got too close to its rotors and caused it to explode.

It hurts my brain to think how stupid it all is.

I also get the feeling that this book, despite being a Cassie book, isn’t actually all that into preserving nature and all that shit. First there’s a buffalo that morphs humans, which Cassie somehow means to think that the buffalo is part human because he can access a human brain (does that make Cassie part buffalo when she morphs a buffalo? I DIDN’T THINK SO!). The buffalo has no choice but to die because he’s seen Cassie in human form, morphing. If the Yeerks infest him either as a buffalo or as a human, he’s gone, and so are all the Animorphs. Then there’s the ant-Cassie she has absolutely no qualms about murdering the fuck out of. Then the day is saved by a rogue kamikaze seagull.

And sure, Cassie’ moralizing and protectiveness of the buffalo is heroic, but come on! There’s way too many innocent animal deaths in this. It’s worse than the time an innocent orca was sliced in half a few books ago.

Gah. Just don’t read this book. The best part is when the Animorphs are running for their lives, and Cassie drops the blue box to save Tobias, then Jake yells at her for dropping the box even though she saved Tobias’ life, then Rachel takes up a defensive position on Cassie’s flank and says something like “Jake trusts you to do the right thing, and he trusts me to do the necessary thing.” So the best part isn’t even a Cassie moment.

OK well there is another good part when Cassie is trapped by the Yeerks and she and the buffa-human jump over this cliff and almost kill themselves. That was pretty cool.

OK read it if you want. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. ...more

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Mar 23, 2018 Nikki rated it it was ok

Shelves: owned-and-read

Why even was this? New level of weird.

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Apr 03, 2015 Stephanie rated it liked it

Shelves: animorphs, childhood-memories, own, child-soldiers

Let’s ignore one little tiny fact in order to talk about this book:
In this book, an animal has only to touch the blue box in order to gain the morphing ability.Any other time the blue box was used to give someone the morphing ability, an Andalite had his hand on one side of it and the human had his/her hand on another side. Plus when David handled the blue box, he was not suddenly able to morph. It was only once Ax held it and David touched it that he obtained the power to morph (so far as ...more

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Nov 13, 2018 The Library Ladies rated it liked it

Shelves: animorphs, science-fiction, middle-grade

(originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com )

Narrator: Cassie

Plot: I had zero memory of this book when I picked it up again. I think if you had asked me whether there was an Animorphs cover with Cassie morphing a buffalo, I wouldn’t have been entirely sure you were even serious. That’s how fully I’d forgotten this book.

Erek shows up at Cassie’s barn with bad news: the Yeerks have discovered how to use the Helmacrons’ morphing tracker and are even now on their way towards the blue box that em ...more

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Sep 05, 2020 Jonathan Pongratz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, science-fiction

Original Review at Jaunts & Haunts

4.5/5

Yes, another great Animorphs book!

I gave this one four and a half stars.

I'm really happy this one turned out well. When the blurb referenced the Helmacrons I couldn't stop my eyes from rolling. They are literally the worst alien species in this universe. However, I was delightfully surprised with this read.

This time around we are in Cassie's POV, and once again we are given a thought-provoking journey.

This is one of the shortest Animorphs books and things k ...more

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Nov 30, 2020 Kate Crabtree rated it it was ok

This is one weird book that feels like a filler to me. The Animorphs must stop a helicopter that is tracking the blue cube and morphing energy. A Buffalo accidentally touches the cube and then touches Chapman and Visser Three and somehow squires them (how? The Animorphs have to think about the animal they’re touching to acquire it- does the Buffalo have this ability?) and then later on an ant somehow develops the ability to morph and acquires Cassie and there’s nothing more creepy than seeing a ...more

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Mar 25, 2019 Juushika rated it liked it

Shelves: genre-mg-and-ya, genre-science-fiction, status-owned

I'm of mixed minds. The morph-capable animals morph too easily and the buffalo learns too quick, but hardly the least feasible thing the series has come up with and it's more than worth it. The concepts here are bizarre, thorny, and extra horrifying--again, even for the Animorphs series! It's a natural fit to a Cassie PoV, and she's appropriately ambivalent. But the pacing, length, and ending are a little weak (the strain of making dozens of rapid morphs is particularly poorly handled), so this ...more

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Jul 21, 2018 Jon rated it really liked it

3.5 rounded to 4/5

Not sure why so many people hated this! I loved the WEIRD aspect!

SPOILERS

I've often wondered

ONE ISSUE I had was that morphing REQUIRES concentration on the act. Without sentience, I can't really see this happening. The rest of this book was pretty interesting, so I'm going to let this big flaw SLIDE.

What I LIKED about this, in spite of the aforementioned massive flaw, was the fucked up mutant chapman African cape bull. The fact that the bull seems to almost talk was pretty fu ...more

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Jan 05, 2021 David Cox added it

Every now and then the ghost writers have really good bits of prose in otherwise pretty standard text. It's easy to read with a dash of "oh that's a good moment. That stands out." This had some really moving moments in it. It's also one of the more tragic and traumatic of the series because of the very complex moral dilemma that faces Cassie. No spoilers but damn! This one is another of those "and now the main character has trauma that'll stay with them forever" books in this series. Definitely ...more

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Dec 24, 2018 Deviki rated it liked it

Shelves: average-ok-rating-books, alien_spacetravel_planets, black_women_girl, diversity_mixed, ebooks-online-reading, science_fiction, young-adult-books

Alright, I know I should have read the previous book (book 38) because that book tells us the Andalites have finally arrived on planet earth. I already have that ebook ready and I will make sure to come back to that soon.

Alright, so the book begin with Erek urgently informing Cassie that the Yeerks have managed to fix the Helmacron ship, (yep the very annoying lil cocky alien's ship). If you remember those alien have morph-seeking capabilities and now the Yeerks are using it to track down the A ...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Priscilla rated it it was ok

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 17, 2017 Jenny Clark rated it really liked it

Shelves: animorphs, childrens

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 07, 2012 Weathervane rated it it was ok

Shelves: animorphs

Really, this book should probably be struck out of the canon. The absurdity of animals gaining the ability to morph from merely touching the morphing cube is too much, even for me. Plus, there is no insight into any of the characters, no growth, no interesting conflicts -- nothing. Cassie almost jumps the shark by being hesitant to kill an animal that merely has human DNA in its bloodstream. Yeah. Insane.

Not worth reading.

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Aug 29, 2008 Swankivy rated it really liked it

Tiny virus-sized aliens ATTACK! Their megalomaniacal nature is amusing, but it kinda gets tiresome after a while.

Notable moments and inconsistencies:

This book is ghostwritten by Laura Battyanyi-Weiss. Her name's misspelled in the credits page.

It makes no sense that an animal like a buffalo could "accidentally" morph since it's been said many times that both acquiring and morphing take concentration and intent. How could a buffalo do it randomly? ...more

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Dec 01, 2018 Katie added it

What. the. ever. loving. hell.

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Jul 02, 2016 Jerry rated it really liked it

As usual, this series delivers.

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Mar 29, 2020 Amber rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have a special empathy for Cassie books, I think. I never find her as annoying or boring as the fandom apparently does, and this book reaffirmed that for me, because I thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually found most of the buffa-human plotline quite emotionally affecting and certainly thought provoking.

Also, this book was a call back to the Helmacron ship and the morphing cube! I love reoccurring plot points.

So, the buffa-human. In the madness of the Animorphs' latest mission to keep the morphi I have a special empathy for Cassie books, I think. I never find her as annoying or boring as the fandom apparently does, and this book reaffirmed that for me, because I thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually found most of the buffa-human plotline quite emotionally affecting and certainly thought provoking.

Also, this book was a call back to the Helmacron ship and the morphing cube! I love reoccurring plot points.

So, the buffa-human. In the madness of the Animorphs' latest mission to keep the morphing cube on the run so the Yeerks can't track it, a buffalo inadvertently gains the ability to morph and aquires Chapman. Cassie also morphs the buffalo and finds the relentless anger with that morph, the drive to protect the herd through, basically, ultra violence, pretty hard to control. Because African buffaloes are badass.

How do the kids keep the cube safe? What the heck do they do with a buffalo that can morph into a human?!

I'll get a couple of nitpicks out of the way that prevented me from giving this book five stars. The ghostwriter was darn good on the whole with how she captured Cassie, Rachel, Jake, all the Animorphs really, but she also liked to repeat what was, at first, a shudderingly gross moment of body horror- skulls splitting, grinding or cracking when Cassie morphed. Used sparingly, that had me wincing. Too much and I was like meh, so your jaw disintegrated, big deal. (Not quite like that, obvs, but you get the idea.) I'm pretty sensitive to repetition, though, so your mileage may vary.

Also I was scratching my head a bit at the buffalo and ant gaining morphing abilities and acquiring Chapman and Cassie respectively. I thought using the morphing cube, etc. required stronge forethought and concentration to get the abilities, though I may be wrong. Anyway, a mindless ant getting morphing powers was a little confusing, but holy hell, ant-Cassie was *horrifying* and I loved that scene. It made me feel sick but DAMN that was brilliantly done.

The ending was a bit silly after what felt like an emotional roller coaster of a story. Like, everyone sort of laughs after some bad jokes and an unsuccessful whale drop onto a helicopter. Yet it also kind of worked within the touches of humour through the book, and it lightened the tone just enough after such a visceral read. Actually, I take it back, the ending was okay, it's just that I was crying over the death of a buffalo by then and nothing could console me in that moment.

What 'The Hidden' nails is what it means to be human, or Andalite, with so many other species' DNA floating around one's veins. Questions of sentience are raised- though sentience to me means having a centraliseed nervous system and a capacity to respond to external stimuli, which I feel probably the buffalo had already- as Cassie faces an animal that appears to be learning in as much as its natural intellect allows. The rest of the kids dismiss it as mimicry, a scared animal trying to follow something. The fact that this poor buffalo is also a threat as a witness to Cassie's humanity because it saw her morph is great. It can't be allowed to live, but is it moral to kill it?

Cassie is, once again, separate from the rest of the group both in the way she thinks about the buffa-human and for some time where she's got the cube and has to act as bait or everyone loses. But her guilt over and the connection she forms with the buffa-human, the way the buffa-human saves Animorph butt on a number of occasions due to the odd allegiance it forms on Cassie, is amazingly conveyed.

I was on the edge of my seat to see how they'd resolve the buffalo, the cube, after such a relentless, exhausting chase. I'm glad Cassie was there with the buffa-human just before it died, and that she didn't have to kill it, and that it got a quick end.

Cassie would be hard to work with, as her moral compass is a factor in everything she does and it can impede the quick, hard decisions the Animorphs have to make. At the same time, her moral centre makes the serious tone of this story, which could have been played for laughs, so compelling to read. ...more

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Aug 05, 2019 Thistle rated it it was ok

Disclaimer: I'm reading this series for the first time as an adult. (Unfortunately) I have no fond memories coloring my reading.

The most I can say about this one is that it wasn't the worst book of the series. I guess it wasn't even bad? While it explored a new idea, it didn't really work for me well. The idea really should have surprised me, but it didn't at all. (Maybe how it was handled by the author?)

If you read enough werewolf stories, eventually you'll get to ones in reverse: What if a wer ...more

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May 23, 2020 Books That Burn added it

The Animorphs are on the run from the Yeerks' morphing sensor. This book turns a slightly silly premise into a visceral horror and complex ethical dilemma when a bison accidentally gains the morphing technology. The usually body horror cws apply.

They're all dark, but now we have a new, more complex flavor. This also offers up the very worrisome implication that if any creature touches the cube they might become able to morph. They'll have to keep it very well sealed, for even more reasons now.

Ca ...more

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Aug 17, 2020 Andrew rated it it was amazing

Five stars for how BIZARRE this one is. A water buffalo (and later, an ant) get the morphing power and an ethical dilemma ensues for Cassie. I like when they play so much with the morphing technology, but you have to make a certain allowances in this one and later in the series with how easy it is to get the morphing ability just by touching the blue cube. Also, can't Ax find any better way to dismantle it or hide it so that the Yeerks can't track it? Cassie!Ant was also appropriately horrifying ...more

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Nov 14, 2019 Chelsea Gouin rated it liked it

Shelves: animorphs

Meh. I've never been a big fan of Cassie's books. This one is along the same lines of a morality crisis. This time she accidentally grants a buffalo morphing powers and doesn't want to put it down even though it's suffering and a total risk to them for exposure. And the Yerks were using the Helmacron technology to track morphing power. I hate the Helmacrons. :/ On to the next, but this was another bummer one. ...more

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Oct 20, 2017 T Berry rated it it was ok

This was....a very messed up book. Which is saying a lot considering it's an Animorphs book.
Having said that I seem to recall having a stronger reaction to it when I first read it than I did on this reread. But I guess that's pretty normal. It definitely gets weird. And disturbing. ...more

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Nov 27, 2016 Su Vida rated it it was amazing

Amazing as usual! Though I do not get the speciesism displayed here (e.g. Casual discussion about the murder of a buffalo and then concern expressed only because it may have human DNA in his blood-stream).

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Jan 07, 2021 Lingui5t rated it it was ok

The premise of this could have made for a much better book. It's too bad. The writing style of this book was far too simplistic while also having very descriptive, brutal violence... It's like a 13 year old boy wrote it. ...more

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Aug 09, 2020 Friendimorphs rated it it was amazing

Mmmmm. This one’s wrong too: Don’t talk tough when you can’t see the hole in one big steak that I cooked for your dad. Cassie has the kahunas of a cape buffalo when she jumps to the other side of life.

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Mar 25, 2020 Joshua Glasgow rated it really liked it

I’m sort of a sucker for Cassie books. Everything with the buffalo is weird and wonderful. There are a lot of Animorphs books that run together. I’ll look at the cover and not be able to recall what a specific one was about. I can’t imagine having that problem with this one. It will stick with me.

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