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Animorphs #16
The Warning
Jake's made a pretty amazing discovery. It seems like there may be other people who know about the invasion. Others who know about the Yeerks. Jake finds a Web site devoted to the Yeerks. And Jake, the other Animorphs, and Ax aren't sure it's too good to be true.
But if they try to investigate the site and it's a trap, there's no way the Yeerks won't find out who they are. If they don't check it out, they'll never know if they're the only ones fighting. Whatever Jake and the others decide to do, they've got to move quickly, because Visser Three isn't the only one dying to meet them. . . .
But if they try to investigate the site and it's a trap, there's no way the Yeerks won't find out who they are. If they don't check it out, they'll never know if they're the only ones fighting. Whatever Jake and the others decide to do, they've got to move quickly, because Visser Three isn't the only one dying to meet them. . . .
146 pages, Paperback
First published March 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 274 reviews
June 14, 2020
FIRST REVIEW / MAR 19, 2015
THIS BOOK THIS BOOK THIS BOOOOOOOOK
As other reviewers have pointed out, it is so 90s that it is glorious -- modems and kilobits per second, AOL, their single usernames, their explanations of what IMs and chatrooms are, and just how darned empty the internet was back then. The Warning is interesting because on the one hand, it's pretty funny -- their distraction in the AOL headquarters, holy cow -- but it also features some extremely dark shit, between Jake's near-death as a fly (THIS STUCK IN MY MEMORY FOREVER); his traumatised breakdown after; his explanation to Cassie about the role of a leader, how he has to literally be inhuman in order to lead the others; the situation of the poor nine-year-old kid with the Controller father, which is ; and the reveal deep in the mansion, about is one of the most horrifying, nightmarish things I've ever read. It's moments like these that I can't believe this was a kid's series. What they learn in that house, and the moral grey decisions they have to make there, are haunting, because there really is no good decision. They have to do atrocious things in order to win this war. The kids facing the decision of whether or not to morph human beings without their consent is also a really tricky morass of ethics.
Jake continues disintegrating under the pressure of being the leader, and it's heart-wrenching; I'm curious to see if this book represents a nadir and he manages to pull himself together for a while going forward. I suspect it's left deep cracks, though: as he himself describes, the fear corrodes you, hollows you out and leaves wounds that will never quite heal.
You guys, I love this series so much.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAY 2, 2020
God, I actually have so, so, so many highlights from this book that I struggle to choose a single favourite. But I'll leave it at this one:
The weight in this whole book is so palpable, the starkest most horrifying sense so far of how this responsibility is starting to snap Jake in half. And how moral dilemmas start to split the Animorphs as well, and how they're all becoming delicately papered-together semblances of themselves. Even the ostensibly happy ending of this book is a little chilling, with a sense that it's all just temporary, that these moments of peace won't last and the inter-teammate conflicts will likely become worse later.
I've thought about it a lot over the years and this book, even with its AOL silliness and all, is actually low-key one of my very favourites in the whole series.
Other favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
THIS BOOK THIS BOOK THIS BOOOOOOOOK
As other reviewers have pointed out, it is so 90s that it is glorious -- modems and kilobits per second, AOL, their single usernames, their explanations of what IMs and chatrooms are, and just how darned empty the internet was back then. The Warning is interesting because on the one hand, it's pretty funny -- their distraction in the AOL headquarters, holy cow -- but it also features some extremely dark shit, between Jake's near-death as a fly (THIS STUCK IN MY MEMORY FOREVER); his traumatised breakdown after; his explanation to Cassie about the role of a leader, how he has to literally be inhuman in order to lead the others; the situation of the poor nine-year-old kid with the Controller father, which is ; and the reveal deep in the mansion, about is one of the most horrifying, nightmarish things I've ever read. It's moments like these that I can't believe this was a kid's series. What they learn in that house, and the moral grey decisions they have to make there, are haunting, because there really is no good decision. They have to do atrocious things in order to win this war. The kids facing the decision of whether or not to morph human beings without their consent is also a really tricky morass of ethics.
Jake continues disintegrating under the pressure of being the leader, and it's heart-wrenching; I'm curious to see if this book represents a nadir and he manages to pull himself together for a while going forward. I suspect it's left deep cracks, though: as he himself describes, the fear corrodes you, hollows you out and leaves wounds that will never quite heal.
You guys, I love this series so much.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAY 2, 2020
God, I actually have so, so, so many highlights from this book that I struggle to choose a single favourite. But I'll leave it at this one:
"We don't morph ants anymore because they scared all of us, but mostly Marco," Cassie pointed out. "We don't ever talk about morphing termites because of my problems with them. What's the difference?"
"The difference is you all decided I was the leader," I said. "That's the difference. A leader may be just as weak or scared or doubtful as anyone else. But he isn't allowed to show it. People say they want leaders to be just like them, but I don't think so. People want leaders to act the way people wish they could act themselves. Marco and Rachel and Tobias and Ax don't want me to give them permission to be scared. They want me to help them to be brave."
Cassie looked at me a long time and I looked away, feeling uncomfortable.
"We didn't do you any favor when we made you leader, did we?" Cassie asked.
I forced a grim smile. "There's something else a leader doesn't do," I said. "Complain about being a leader."
"We did pick the right person, though," she said.
The weight in this whole book is so palpable, the starkest most horrifying sense so far of how this responsibility is starting to snap Jake in half. And how moral dilemmas start to split the Animorphs as well, and how they're all becoming delicately papered-together semblances of themselves. Even the ostensibly happy ending of this book is a little chilling, with a sense that it's all just temporary, that these moments of peace won't last and the inter-teammate conflicts will likely become worse later.
I've thought about it a lot over the years and this book, even with its AOL silliness and all, is actually low-key one of my very favourites in the whole series.
Other favourite quotes moved to Google Docs.
December 23, 2023
Jake finds a website devoted to uncovering the conspiracy of the Yeerks. It quickly turns out to be a trap. The internet references are very 90’s, so they can feel a bit dated but also nostalgic if you’re a 90’s kid. Apart from that, it’s a really solid plot and it subtly shows the evolution of Jake’s character as the leader of the Animorphs.
September 1, 2015
Yo dawg, I heard you like Internet sites.
The plot basically goes like this: Jake is online, back in the days when most of the people online were nine-year-olds and 40-year-olds on the prowl for nine-year-olds. He discovers a Yeerk website and lurks in the chatroom, wondering if these people are for real or if it’s a trap. The Animorphs decide to investigate by raiding the offices of the AOL analogue that holds all the subscriber information for the people using this chat service. But this leads them further down the rabbithole, culminating in Jake becoming a rhino and one of the best action sequences yet.
The amount of nostalgia trips Animorphs induces is dizzying sometimes. The Warning brings us a blast from the Internet past: dial-up modems, dot-com AOL-like subscriber services, and “chatrooms.” I just barely remember dial-up (although, sadly, I know people who are still on it because they can’t get anything else). And I still hang out daily in IRC. Nevertheless, watching the Animorphs talk about the Internet and the web like it’s this strange and boring but occasionally useful technology is so funny to a reader of 2015. If Applegate had only known … well, I guess she would have invested in Google or something. (Actually, this book predates the formation of Google as a company by a few months.)
I sometimes think that it would be harder to describe the web as it is now to someone from the 1980s or 1990s than someone from, say, the nineteenth century. (I’m talking “average Joe” people here, not computer nerds.) Because the latter group has no idea what computers are like, so once you figure out the right metaphors, they’d be cool with it. But computers in the 1980s were, compared to what we have now, terrible and clunky. So your average mullet-loving consumer would stare at you, and then laugh in your face, because no way would those dumb PCs ever be able to do what you describe.
So, anyway, the Animorphs trash the home of a dot-com billionaire, and it’s pretty awesome. As I mentioned above, Jake decides to acquire a rhino morph to bust through the security, gates, etc. Rhinos, however, have such poor vision that Jake needs the other Animorphs—in bird form—to “aim” him. This leads to hilarious exchanges such as:
And then:
And it’s basically just a series of that, for about two or three pages, while Jake acts like a bulldozer through a rich dude’s home.
Man, this book is a terrible influence. I love it.
Turns out the dot-com billionaire is a Controller, but not your typical Controller. He’s a traitor and Visser Three’s twin brother! Yes, it turns out that Visser Three has twins, and Visser Three is the more evil of the two evil twins. His brother was too good with computers, though, and was going to make Visser Three look bad, so he had to go on the run before Visser Three killed him. Oh, and he has a way of surviving without access to Kandrona rays, but it’s icky.
I forget that, even this “early” in the series, Applegate is all about extending the mythology in different ways. Visser One and Visser Three’s enmity was our first glimpse at the internal politics of the Yeerk Empire; now we see that some Yeerks can reach compromises with their hosts, and not all Yeerks are hell-bent on this world domination scheme. (That doesn’t make those Yeerks good, mind you.)
The question of what makes the Animorphs, who take animals’ forms without their permission, and the Yeerks, who take animals’ bodies without their permission, appears again. The Animorphs yet again reject the idea to acquire other humans, morph them, and use it to sneak into a facility. That’s crossing a line, because the humans are thinking beings who haven’t consented to such an invasion of privacy. I love that Applegate brings up these thorny issues and inspires young readers to consider things like consent. Consent is hot.
My final bit of nostalgia-driven reflection: this book is so clearly pre–September 11. No way the Animorphs would be able to get close enough to an airport departures gate to plant a smelly diaper in a trash can. These days they’d have to fly so far in fly morph to get back past security.
The whole flying-on-planes-as-flies part, which comprises the first third of the book, is very innovative, though. When Jake is brutally cut down in the prime of his fly life, his terror at possibly dying as a fly is palpable, thanks to his role as the narrator of the book. It provides Applegate an opportunity for him and Cassie to have a “very special conversation” about his role as the Animorphs’ leader. So much more going on here than meets the eye in a “young adult” series.
Next time, the Animorphs discover the Yeerks’ one weakness … is oatmeal?
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #15: The Escape | #17: The Underground →
The plot basically goes like this: Jake is online, back in the days when most of the people online were nine-year-olds and 40-year-olds on the prowl for nine-year-olds. He discovers a Yeerk website and lurks in the chatroom, wondering if these people are for real or if it’s a trap. The Animorphs decide to investigate by raiding the offices of the AOL analogue that holds all the subscriber information for the people using this chat service. But this leads them further down the rabbithole, culminating in Jake becoming a rhino and one of the best action sequences yet.
The amount of nostalgia trips Animorphs induces is dizzying sometimes. The Warning brings us a blast from the Internet past: dial-up modems, dot-com AOL-like subscriber services, and “chatrooms.” I just barely remember dial-up (although, sadly, I know people who are still on it because they can’t get anything else). And I still hang out daily in IRC. Nevertheless, watching the Animorphs talk about the Internet and the web like it’s this strange and boring but occasionally useful technology is so funny to a reader of 2015. If Applegate had only known … well, I guess she would have invested in Google or something. (Actually, this book predates the formation of Google as a company by a few months.)
I sometimes think that it would be harder to describe the web as it is now to someone from the 1980s or 1990s than someone from, say, the nineteenth century. (I’m talking “average Joe” people here, not computer nerds.) Because the latter group has no idea what computers are like, so once you figure out the right metaphors, they’d be cool with it. But computers in the 1980s were, compared to what we have now, terrible and clunky. So your average mullet-loving consumer would stare at you, and then laugh in your face, because no way would those dumb PCs ever be able to do what you describe.
So, anyway, the Animorphs trash the home of a dot-com billionaire, and it’s pretty awesome. As I mentioned above, Jake decides to acquire a rhino morph to bust through the security, gates, etc. Rhinos, however, have such poor vision that Jake needs the other Animorphs—in bird form—to “aim” him. This leads to hilarious exchanges such as:
It felt like getting hit in the face with a sledgehammer! But it was like getting hit and not caring. I felt the impact. But my rhinoceros body was used to impact. It was built for impact.
I asked, too blind to be sure.
Marco said.
And then:
I kept running. This time it was just chain link. I felt something sort of tug at my horn.
I asked.
Cassie said.
And it’s basically just a series of that, for about two or three pages, while Jake acts like a bulldozer through a rich dude’s home.
Man, this book is a terrible influence. I love it.
Turns out the dot-com billionaire is a Controller, but not your typical Controller. He’s a traitor and Visser Three’s twin brother! Yes, it turns out that Visser Three has twins, and Visser Three is the more evil of the two evil twins. His brother was too good with computers, though, and was going to make Visser Three look bad, so he had to go on the run before Visser Three killed him. Oh, and he has a way of surviving without access to Kandrona rays, but it’s icky.
I forget that, even this “early” in the series, Applegate is all about extending the mythology in different ways. Visser One and Visser Three’s enmity was our first glimpse at the internal politics of the Yeerk Empire; now we see that some Yeerks can reach compromises with their hosts, and not all Yeerks are hell-bent on this world domination scheme. (That doesn’t make those Yeerks good, mind you.)
The question of what makes the Animorphs, who take animals’ forms without their permission, and the Yeerks, who take animals’ bodies without their permission, appears again. The Animorphs yet again reject the idea to acquire other humans, morph them, and use it to sneak into a facility. That’s crossing a line, because the humans are thinking beings who haven’t consented to such an invasion of privacy. I love that Applegate brings up these thorny issues and inspires young readers to consider things like consent. Consent is hot.
My final bit of nostalgia-driven reflection: this book is so clearly pre–September 11. No way the Animorphs would be able to get close enough to an airport departures gate to plant a smelly diaper in a trash can. These days they’d have to fly so far in fly morph to get back past security.
The whole flying-on-planes-as-flies part, which comprises the first third of the book, is very innovative, though. When Jake is brutally cut down in the prime of his fly life, his terror at possibly dying as a fly is palpable, thanks to his role as the narrator of the book. It provides Applegate an opportunity for him and Cassie to have a “very special conversation” about his role as the Animorphs’ leader. So much more going on here than meets the eye in a “young adult” series.
Next time, the Animorphs discover the Yeerks’ one weakness … is oatmeal?
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #15: The Escape | #17: The Underground →
August 8, 2017
I actually didn't remember this one going into it, so my hopes weren't high, but it turned out to be one of the best installments of these first sixteen books, even if it's a little dated (okay, I'll be honest, part of the reason I liked it so much is BECAUSE it was dated--all the adorable little references to 14k bps internet speed and modems and THE INTERNET and chat rooms and their idea of "security" and such, not to mention the thinly veiled AOL stand-in, Web Access America . . . oh, the late 90s, such a time of nostalgia for me).
Actually, I don't think this book would make sense transposed into today's era, so I guess it's a good thing the planned updating of the series didn't make it past book eight, because it would have required extensive reworking to make sense with our level of technology.
Anyway, as for the book itself, this is a Jake story, and I've always had a soft spot for those. But I don't think it quite hit me as a kid how much responsibility was put on his shoulders, and what that meant for his emotional development as a character. I got it on a theoretical level, I suppose, but reading about it as an adult . . . man, this book was actually kind of bleak?
So the plot kicks off when, on a lark, Jake types the word "Yeerk" into his generic, totally non-AOL search engine, and surprisingly, there is exactly one hit. It's a website seemingly devoted to uncovering the Yeerk conspiracy, and its members are (supposedly) average people who have stumbled upon knowledge of aliens among us. The Animorphs immediately suspect a Yeerk trap when Jake tells them what he's found, so they devise a plan to break into the headquarters of Web Access America in order to find out the real life identities of the chat members. (The chat transcript in this book was painfully accurate. There's a reason they have gone the way of the dinosaurs.)
What they find is illuminating, but the real meat of this book comes when the mission forces Jake to make some choices that illustrate just how much he's taken on by accepting the others' decision to make him the leader of their little group.
This is a children's book.
Of course, it's not without its light moments. Two stand out in particular: Ax not understanding what's going on when Tobias finds himself trapped in a toilet, and why the other Animorphs find it so amusing (the thing that makes this really funny is that he keeps asking for someone to explain it to him, and the others keep ignoring him); and then, of course, the distraction that Rachel, Tobias, Jake and Cassie provide at HQ, wherein they morph into animals and pretend to mop a carpeted floor, scaring the shit out of (and baffling completely) the Web Access America employees, so that Marco and Ax can steal the data they came for. The image of Rachel as a grizzly bear holding a mop tickles the hell out of me.
Next up: Something with Rachel and Yeerks eating oatmeal? I don't remember this one, either, so hopefully it's another happy surprise.
Actually, I don't think this book would make sense transposed into today's era, so I guess it's a good thing the planned updating of the series didn't make it past book eight, because it would have required extensive reworking to make sense with our level of technology.
Anyway, as for the book itself, this is a Jake story, and I've always had a soft spot for those. But I don't think it quite hit me as a kid how much responsibility was put on his shoulders, and what that meant for his emotional development as a character. I got it on a theoretical level, I suppose, but reading about it as an adult . . . man, this book was actually kind of bleak?
So the plot kicks off when, on a lark, Jake types the word "Yeerk" into his generic, totally non-AOL search engine, and surprisingly, there is exactly one hit. It's a website seemingly devoted to uncovering the Yeerk conspiracy, and its members are (supposedly) average people who have stumbled upon knowledge of aliens among us. The Animorphs immediately suspect a Yeerk trap when Jake tells them what he's found, so they devise a plan to break into the headquarters of Web Access America in order to find out the real life identities of the chat members. (The chat transcript in this book was painfully accurate. There's a reason they have gone the way of the dinosaurs.)
What they find is illuminating, but the real meat of this book comes when the mission forces Jake to make some choices that illustrate just how much he's taken on by accepting the others' decision to make him the leader of their little group.
This is a children's book.
Of course, it's not without its light moments. Two stand out in particular: Ax not understanding what's going on when Tobias finds himself trapped in a toilet, and why the other Animorphs find it so amusing (the thing that makes this really funny is that he keeps asking for someone to explain it to him, and the others keep ignoring him); and then, of course, the distraction that Rachel, Tobias, Jake and Cassie provide at HQ, wherein they morph into animals and pretend to mop a carpeted floor, scaring the shit out of (and baffling completely) the Web Access America employees, so that Marco and Ax can steal the data they came for. The image of Rachel as a grizzly bear holding a mop tickles the hell out of me.
Next up: Something with Rachel and Yeerks eating oatmeal? I don't remember this one, either, so hopefully it's another happy surprise.
October 20, 2021
October 18, 2021 audiobook review here.
October 29, 2020 re-read:
In the days of dial-up internet, Jake chances searching “Yeerk.” And he finds a whole website about the Yeerks, complete with a chat room full of people talking about the Yeerk invasion, possible Yeerk-controlled people, and how to rally to fight back. Naturally, the Animorphs are leery – is it real? Or is it some trap for them? They decide to scope it out, which means a close call on an airplane, then a discovery that is worse than they had ever considered of the Yeerks. But when the Animorphs consider where they stand, and compare that to what lengths they would go to to save Earth, where in the grey area of morality do they make their stance? When do they start to lose sight of who they are in this fight?
What a great step back to the 90s, from the AOL stand-in Web Access America to how easy it is to get to an airplane gate to how just being home by dinnertime was often enough. In between the nostalgia, though, there are some incredibly funny moments (Tobias in a toilet, a grizzly mopping a carpet while a tiger holds the bucket…) and some incredibly serious ones about who is worth the effort of saving (the Very Important Person, or the scared little boy), the burden of leadership, and realizing that between what you think is black and white is really just a vast expanse of grey. Cassie tells Jake they didn’t do him any favors, deciding he was the leader. He has to be brave for everyone, even when he almost dies. He has to make the tough decisions in a moment, and his decision will determine if they succeed or fail, if his friends live or die. This book is harrowing, for what happens to the Animorphs, and what they discover. It brings out all those morally grey questions, things no kid should ever have to make a snap decision on. But they do, and they must. Yet each decision chips away at them, little by little. I had forgotten that Jake-as-a-fly in an airplane and Visser Three’s twin brother’s reveal happened in the same book. Talk about a double whammy of seriousness.
Instead of re-typing favorite quotes already represented, I’ll italicize them in the original review and add any new ones here.
Favorite quotes:
A human being began to form, dictated by the patterns of my DNA. Submicroscopic codes, making a human being the way words made a book. – page 50
“When you count your money in billions you can buy anything,” Marco said. “Including happiness. Assuming that your idea of happiness involves a private jet, supermodels, and your own Papa John’s pizza restaurant down in the basement.” – page 70 – Comment under spoiler because of end-of-series reference:
[Cassie said, “[You think the others won’t respect you if you admit you’re terrified of something?”
[I answered,] “It’s not about respect. It’s not even about being scared. It’s about letting fear tell you what to do.”
“If it’s unreasonable fear you have to get past it,” Cassie said. “But there’s a reason for this fear. You were nearly killed.”
I shook my head. “No. You’re usually right, Cassie, but this time you’re wrong. See, if I give in to fear, then that gives everyone permission to give in to fear. And we all have good reasons to be afraid. Pretty soon we’d be totally paralyzed. We wouldn’t be able to do anything because one of us might have some good reason to be scared.” – page 72-73 – this section actually directly precedes the pages 73-74 quote I pulled in the 2015 read.
I nodded. I hoped [Marco] was right. I felt a twinge of worry, but Marco was right: Fenestre was at the center. “Cassie, first thing after school tomorrow we’ll check out Gump.”
She nodded. But she looked bitter. “I hope that’s soon enough.”
“Yep. Me, too. Okay.” – page 84 – The big decision. End of series spoiler under the cut:
“It was the best you could do,” I [told Cassie]. “It was all you could do. I guess it’s hard to fight evil without doing some along the way.” Maybe there was a little “I told you so” in my voice. – page 144
Original Review: July 6, 2015
This is another book that deals head-on with some of the murkier and dark aspects of fighting a guerrilla war, and the difficult decisions that leaders have to make. Jake has been through a lot, and will continue to go through even more. This book in particular serves to remind us that he is only human; he can make mistakes in judgment; and that in war, morality of one's actions is often questioned. It is how we deal with those moral decisions which can separate us from our enemies, or make us no better than our enemies. And goodness knows there were a lot of moral conundrums that the Animorphs had to deal with in just this book alone. As the leader, the others look to Jake for the answers. It is a heavy burden he bears for his age.
While not all of today's children have quite the same weight on them to make the right and moral decisions, they too have to make moral decisions at times. All they can do is their best, to remember what they stand for, and to remember what is right and good; for that is what will guide them in the hard decisions which they will have to make one day.
This is really the first book which deals heavily with the stresses Jake deals with as leader. Cassie is really right when she says they didn't do him any favors when they elected him leader, and Jake responds that a leader doesn't complain either. He has accepted the role as much as they have given it to him, because someone does have to be leader, and someone does have to make the difficult decisions at the end of the day.
[A]ll that really counts is that people who love each other be able to be together, live in peace, learn, work, tell boring stories and dumb jokes.
"A 'mix of truth and lies' is like the definition of the Internet," Rachel said. "Equal parts reality and delusion." -- page 11 -- and this observation is still true today.
"There is only so much I can do with this very primitive system," Ax said. "Two-dimensional screen, an actual keyboard instead of a decent psychic link, rigid codes ... I'm not an archaeologist. I don't know much about ancient types of computers." -- page 14 -- Oh, Ax. XD
Marco smiled. An actual, nonmocking smile, which is rare for him. "I remember back when you didn't want to have to make all the big decisions."
"I still don't want to make them," I said. "But someone has to, right?"
"Yep." He nodded.
"I just want to get back to a life someday where I don't have to make decisions that might get people killed." -- page 25 -- Reinforcing that Jake is the (somewhat reluctant) leader. The Animorphs unanimously chose him, so he will take on the burden.
I don't remember which page it is on, but I like how when they are planning this flight, Tobias mentions that he doesn't want to be gone too long -- there's another hawk trying to get in on his territory. It's a good reminder that even though Tobias may not have the same school/family issues to handle as the rest of the human Animorphs, he does have issues of his own that he has to take care of outside of being the Bird-boy Animorph. (And hopefully next time Ax narrates, we'll learn where/how he's been living in the woods all this time.)
Rachel had gone to the Western Union office. We needed clothing and it turns out you can send money by wire and pick it up by supplying a code word. Rachel went to pick up the money and get us something approaching shoes at an airport shop. Now you know where our allowances go." -- page 52
"We acquire DNA from some of the people who work here. We morph them and walk right in." As soon as the words were out of my mouth I thought, Wow, there's something really not right about this.
[...]
I shook my head. "The whole reason we're fighting is to keep people free," I said. "If we start violating that and using people's DNA without permission, we may not be as bad as the Yeerks. But we're heading down that same path. We have to find another way." -- page 59-60 - And so begins the moral conundrums Jake will have to face in this book, and from here on out. He sort of had to face them before (with Marco's mom - but that decision he was able to confer rightly on Marco anyways).
Fifty or sixty sets of eyes had swiveled at once to stare up at us. And what they saw kept them watching. Rachel, huge, terrifying, powerful [grizzly bear] Rachel, was calmly mopping the floor, swinging the mop back and forth like a professional.
I was helping. I had the mop bucket in my [tiger] teeth.
Tobias fluttered around us in a circle, shrieking madly. -- page 64 -- I would say that is a once-in-a-lifetime sight!
"Be sure and leave your brain to science when you die, Marco," Rachel said. "After all, they're the ones with the microscopes it'd take to find it." -- page 70 -- Ding ding ding, the round goes to Rachel! She is on a roll in this book.
October 29, 2020 re-read:
In the days of dial-up internet, Jake chances searching “Yeerk.” And he finds a whole website about the Yeerks, complete with a chat room full of people talking about the Yeerk invasion, possible Yeerk-controlled people, and how to rally to fight back. Naturally, the Animorphs are leery – is it real? Or is it some trap for them? They decide to scope it out, which means a close call on an airplane, then a discovery that is worse than they had ever considered of the Yeerks. But when the Animorphs consider where they stand, and compare that to what lengths they would go to to save Earth, where in the grey area of morality do they make their stance? When do they start to lose sight of who they are in this fight?
What a great step back to the 90s, from the AOL stand-in Web Access America to how easy it is to get to an airplane gate to how just being home by dinnertime was often enough. In between the nostalgia, though, there are some incredibly funny moments (Tobias in a toilet, a grizzly mopping a carpet while a tiger holds the bucket…) and some incredibly serious ones about who is worth the effort of saving (the Very Important Person, or the scared little boy), the burden of leadership, and realizing that between what you think is black and white is really just a vast expanse of grey. Cassie tells Jake they didn’t do him any favors, deciding he was the leader. He has to be brave for everyone, even when he almost dies. He has to make the tough decisions in a moment, and his decision will determine if they succeed or fail, if his friends live or die. This book is harrowing, for what happens to the Animorphs, and what they discover. It brings out all those morally grey questions, things no kid should ever have to make a snap decision on. But they do, and they must. Yet each decision chips away at them, little by little. I had forgotten that Jake-as-a-fly in an airplane and Visser Three’s twin brother’s reveal happened in the same book. Talk about a double whammy of seriousness.
Instead of re-typing favorite quotes already represented, I’ll italicize them in the original review and add any new ones here.
Favorite quotes:
A human being began to form, dictated by the patterns of my DNA. Submicroscopic codes, making a human being the way words made a book. – page 50
“When you count your money in billions you can buy anything,” Marco said. “Including happiness. Assuming that your idea of happiness involves a private jet, supermodels, and your own Papa John’s pizza restaurant down in the basement.” – page 70 – Comment under spoiler because of end-of-series reference:
[Cassie said, “[You think the others won’t respect you if you admit you’re terrified of something?”
[I answered,] “It’s not about respect. It’s not even about being scared. It’s about letting fear tell you what to do.”
“If it’s unreasonable fear you have to get past it,” Cassie said. “But there’s a reason for this fear. You were nearly killed.”
I shook my head. “No. You’re usually right, Cassie, but this time you’re wrong. See, if I give in to fear, then that gives everyone permission to give in to fear. And we all have good reasons to be afraid. Pretty soon we’d be totally paralyzed. We wouldn’t be able to do anything because one of us might have some good reason to be scared.” – page 72-73 – this section actually directly precedes the pages 73-74 quote I pulled in the 2015 read.
I nodded. I hoped [Marco] was right. I felt a twinge of worry, but Marco was right: Fenestre was at the center. “Cassie, first thing after school tomorrow we’ll check out Gump.”
She nodded. But she looked bitter. “I hope that’s soon enough.”
“Yep. Me, too. Okay.” – page 84 – The big decision. End of series spoiler under the cut:
“It was the best you could do,” I [told Cassie]. “It was all you could do. I guess it’s hard to fight evil without doing some along the way.” Maybe there was a little “I told you so” in my voice. – page 144
Original Review: July 6, 2015
This is another book that deals head-on with some of the murkier and dark aspects of fighting a guerrilla war, and the difficult decisions that leaders have to make. Jake has been through a lot, and will continue to go through even more. This book in particular serves to remind us that he is only human; he can make mistakes in judgment; and that in war, morality of one's actions is often questioned. It is how we deal with those moral decisions which can separate us from our enemies, or make us no better than our enemies. And goodness knows there were a lot of moral conundrums that the Animorphs had to deal with in just this book alone. As the leader, the others look to Jake for the answers. It is a heavy burden he bears for his age.
While not all of today's children have quite the same weight on them to make the right and moral decisions, they too have to make moral decisions at times. All they can do is their best, to remember what they stand for, and to remember what is right and good; for that is what will guide them in the hard decisions which they will have to make one day.
This is really the first book which deals heavily with the stresses Jake deals with as leader. Cassie is really right when she says they didn't do him any favors when they elected him leader, and Jake responds that a leader doesn't complain either. He has accepted the role as much as they have given it to him, because someone does have to be leader, and someone does have to make the difficult decisions at the end of the day.
[A]ll that really counts is that people who love each other be able to be together, live in peace, learn, work, tell boring stories and dumb jokes.
"A 'mix of truth and lies' is like the definition of the Internet," Rachel said. "Equal parts reality and delusion." -- page 11 -- and this observation is still true today.
"There is only so much I can do with this very primitive system," Ax said. "Two-dimensional screen, an actual keyboard instead of a decent psychic link, rigid codes ... I'm not an archaeologist. I don't know much about ancient types of computers." -- page 14 -- Oh, Ax. XD
Marco smiled. An actual, nonmocking smile, which is rare for him. "I remember back when you didn't want to have to make all the big decisions."
"I still don't want to make them," I said. "But someone has to, right?"
"Yep." He nodded.
"I just want to get back to a life someday where I don't have to make decisions that might get people killed." -- page 25 -- Reinforcing that Jake is the (somewhat reluctant) leader. The Animorphs unanimously chose him, so he will take on the burden.
I don't remember which page it is on, but I like how when they are planning this flight, Tobias mentions that he doesn't want to be gone too long -- there's another hawk trying to get in on his territory. It's a good reminder that even though Tobias may not have the same school/family issues to handle as the rest of the human Animorphs, he does have issues of his own that he has to take care of outside of being the Bird-boy Animorph. (And hopefully next time Ax narrates, we'll learn where/how he's been living in the woods all this time.)
Rachel had gone to the Western Union office. We needed clothing and it turns out you can send money by wire and pick it up by supplying a code word. Rachel went to pick up the money and get us something approaching shoes at an airport shop. Now you know where our allowances go." -- page 52
"We acquire DNA from some of the people who work here. We morph them and walk right in." As soon as the words were out of my mouth I thought, Wow, there's something really not right about this.
[...]
I shook my head. "The whole reason we're fighting is to keep people free," I said. "If we start violating that and using people's DNA without permission, we may not be as bad as the Yeerks. But we're heading down that same path. We have to find another way." -- page 59-60 - And so begins the moral conundrums Jake will have to face in this book, and from here on out. He sort of had to face them before (with Marco's mom - but that decision he was able to confer rightly on Marco anyways).
Fifty or sixty sets of eyes had swiveled at once to stare up at us. And what they saw kept them watching. Rachel, huge, terrifying, powerful [grizzly bear] Rachel, was calmly mopping the floor, swinging the mop back and forth like a professional.
I was helping. I had the mop bucket in my [tiger] teeth.
Tobias fluttered around us in a circle, shrieking madly. -- page 64 -- I would say that is a once-in-a-lifetime sight!
"Be sure and leave your brain to science when you die, Marco," Rachel said. "After all, they're the ones with the microscopes it'd take to find it." -- page 70 -- Ding ding ding, the round goes to Rachel! She is on a roll in this book.
November 1, 2009
I was conflicted. I didn't know whether to give this four stars or five, but in the end, I had to go with five -- though it's probably more like four-and-a-half.
"The Warning" is classic Animorphs. It's got a lot of action, and a bit of everything else: humor, sadness, mystery, self-doubt, and good plot. This has to be one of the best Jake books I've read. You really get a sense of his character; he's conflicted in so many ways, from his family to his leadership of the Animorphs.
Pacing is very good.
Marco and Rachel are in their bickering prime. I smiled and laughed out loud at a few points.
There are three incredible scenes here that stand out: Jake eating dinner with his family, Jake with his mom by the swingset, and Jake's conversation with Cassie near the end. These are pages that prove what a superb series Animorphs was. You aren't going to get this kind of emotional impact or these kinds of moral quandaries from Harry Potter.
I did notice quite a few typos and missing words, however, so I hope an editor got chewed out. Regardless, they didn't detract substantially from my enjoyment of the book.
Exceptional.
"The Warning" is classic Animorphs. It's got a lot of action, and a bit of everything else: humor, sadness, mystery, self-doubt, and good plot. This has to be one of the best Jake books I've read. You really get a sense of his character; he's conflicted in so many ways, from his family to his leadership of the Animorphs.
Pacing is very good.
Marco and Rachel are in their bickering prime. I smiled and laughed out loud at a few points.
There are three incredible scenes here that stand out: Jake eating dinner with his family, Jake with his mom by the swingset, and Jake's conversation with Cassie near the end. These are pages that prove what a superb series Animorphs was. You aren't going to get this kind of emotional impact or these kinds of moral quandaries from Harry Potter.
I did notice quite a few typos and missing words, however, so I hope an editor got chewed out. Regardless, they didn't detract substantially from my enjoyment of the book.
Exceptional.
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
March 26, 2022
“It was the best you could do," I said. "It was all you could do. I guess it's hard to fight evil without doing some along the way.”
Fuck.
Animorphs + major ethical dilemmas always disturb me to my core.
Especially with the calls Jake had to make in this one. Wtf
They’re just kids 😭
CW: war, violence, slavery, manipulation, death, cannibalism, mentions of arson
Fuck.
Animorphs + major ethical dilemmas always disturb me to my core.
Especially with the calls Jake had to make in this one. Wtf
They’re just kids 😭
CW: war, violence, slavery, manipulation, death, cannibalism, mentions of arson
November 26, 2022
The "eat the rich" vibes were impeccable in this one.
March 16, 2017
"A leader may be just as week or scared or doubtful as anyone else. But he isn't allowed to show it."
Jake is very deeply understanding of what it means to be a leader. He may not like or want it, but as Cassie says they picked the right person.
"What is the matter with people that they don't know all that really counts is that people who love each other be able to be together?"
Jake's anger at the Yeerks hits hard, because it is so understandable. His thought about what he will do to the Yeerk in Tom, well it seams like Rachel and he are not so different.
Him telling Rachel he does not know if they are bad or good anymore... wow.
"I make mistakes. I fail sometimes. Sometimes I'm just plain stupid. Sometimes there is no right answer to the problems we face, but what can you do but keep trying to figure the answer out, anyway?"
This war is slowly changing everyone.
Jake is very deeply understanding of what it means to be a leader. He may not like or want it, but as Cassie says they picked the right person.
"What is the matter with people that they don't know all that really counts is that people who love each other be able to be together?"
Jake's anger at the Yeerks hits hard, because it is so understandable. His thought about what he will do to the Yeerk in Tom, well it seams like Rachel and he are not so different.
Him telling Rachel he does not know if they are bad or good anymore... wow.
"I make mistakes. I fail sometimes. Sometimes I'm just plain stupid. Sometimes there is no right answer to the problems we face, but what can you do but keep trying to figure the answer out, anyway?"
This war is slowly changing everyone.
March 2, 2024
Literally everyone needs to quit their fucking bellyaching. Waaah I’m the leader and have to break tie breakers all the time (there is literally six of them how does it keep coming to a tie?). Waaaah I don’t want to acquire a different human’s DNA without consent (um you’re literally fighting for the human race get over it they’re fine). Waaaah I had to tell a kid to not trust his dad (um yeah he has a fucking alien in his head and can’t be trusted). Grow the fuck up animorphs
July 31, 2025
Plane ride was great, but that pre 9/11 travel was crazy. Also, this was a weird one. Interesting, but personally I didn’t love it. 3.7 stars
February 6, 2019
This may be the most dated of the books so far; I can't recall if this is what the early internet felt like, but it sure feels strange now. The plot revelations are also too contained and too easily delivered; this is one of the first times they've communicated directly with an enemy, and it's glaringly unrealistic. But Jake's character study is great, particularly post-The Andalite Chronicles: applying these ethical dilemmas to the leader of a band of kids is punishing and unsolvable, and I appreciate that the book is willing to leave things unresolved.
October 20, 2017
(Originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com.)
Narrator: Jake
Plot: We’re into a section of the series that I only have vague memories of. Yes, I recognized this cover. No, I didn’t remember the craziness within. And now it’s dated craziness as well, so even better! Right away, I had an inkling of what I was getting into when the story started with Jake methodically explaining his online screen name: Bball25. “Bball,” in case you were confused, means basketball! Glad he clarified. The story quickly falls into place after Jake runs an Internet search for the word “Yeerk” and discovers an entire website devoted to discussing the topic.
I’m going to just make a happy little list right here in the beginning of the many, many dated references made in this book.
bizarre online screen names
Yahoo (as a relevant thing)
chain letters
chat rooms
limits of 10 words typed in chat rooms
Internet speeds
And all of that is referenced quite a bit, because the whole story revolves around this website and the Animorphs’ mission to discover how much of it is legit and whether or not it is an elaborate Yeerk trap.
The group decides that while most of the users in the chatroom on this site are the usual Internet crazies, there are a few that seem to actually know what they are talking about. More worringly, one user is concerned that his father may be a Controller and is contemplating confronting him about it. But with nothing but screen names to go on, the Animorphs are stuck. They decide they will need to break into the headquarters of the billionaire techie who owns much of the Internet, essentially, to discover who these users are and whether or not this is a trap or these are real, potential allies. Unfortunately, this headquarters is located far, far away.
To get there, they come up with the rather ingenious plan to morph flies, hop a plane, and simply fly there, free of charge! Perks of being an Animorph, I guess! But this plan quickly falls apart as some of the flight passengers are rather put off by the presence of a swarm of flies on their plane, and Jake gets swatted. The rest of the group has to….gather up pieces of him off the wall, and he barely makes it off the plane to demorph. Breaking into the headquarters, however, does go much more smoothly. For a distraction to allow Marco and Ax (the two most tech-capable of the group) to hack into a database and pull the user info for the chat room screen names, the others morph into their battle morphs and put on a little show for everyone in the building: a grizzly bear with a mop, a tiger with a bucket in its mouth, a hawk flying around above it all. This seems to work, though I do question why they never worried that there might be Controllers working there who would immediately see through this bizarre little scene.
The trip back home goes as well as can be expected, though Jake is still very rattled by his near-death experience. Once home, the team must decide what to do with the list of names they now have: go after the kid who might confront his Dad about being a Controller any day now (Cassie’s primary objective) or break into the mansion of the owner of the website and figure out whether he is a potential ally. Jake decides for the latter, reasoning that the stakes are much higher than the fate of one boy.
Breaking into the mansion, however, proves to be a disaster. The mansion is completely locked down: multiple levels of gates, guard dogs, the works. While in bird morph, they even over hear the guards discussing their boss’s orders to shoot any animals that look “strange.” This just makes their need to know what’s truly going on all the more urgent, so spotting an open window, they decide to fly in, demorph, and check it out. At least, that’s what they want to happen. Turns out that the owner is even more paranoid than they thought and that there are some type of security wards on the windows as well. They only discover this, however, after Rachel has flown threw and lies knocked out (or dead?) in the room within. Ax, too, who was flying close behind her veers away only to get knocked to the ground and dragged off by a guard dog.
The Animorphs are in a state of panic. They weren’t prepared at all for this mission, and it’s showing. Now, down two people, the only goal is to get them back before they’re hurt, killed, or, in Rachel’s case, forced to make the decision to trap herself in morph rather than reveal her human form once two hours have passed.
Desperate, Jake decides the only way in is through. With that in mind, he veers off to The Gardens, quickly acquires a convenient rhino morph, and makes his way back to the group. What follows is a fun little scene of Jake simply smashing his way through everything in front of him. I don’t remember this morph being used too often after this, but the sheer destruction that the rhino leaves in its wake seems to make a good case for its more regular use. The eyesight is pretty bad, though, so I guess that’s why it doesn’t make its way into their regular rotation.
After bashing through everything in his way, Jake and the others finally come face to face with Mr. Fenestre, the billionaire tech wizard himself. They then learn the full truth, and I swear, it’s straight out of a soap opera. Turns out that yes, Fenestre is a Controller (though he implies a sort of partnership between himself and his host body, claiming that with his own superior technical skills, he was able to raise their lives from one of obscurity to the wealth they now both enjoy). But he’s not just any Controller, he’s the “lesser twin” of Visser Three himself. Guys. It’s an evil twin plot line! Though I guess the case could be made for either of them being the “evil” one. Yeerks, however, don’t look kindly on twins, immediately granting one the more privileged life over the other. Not able to make anything of himself and his life in the shadow of his brother, Fenestre turned to making a life for himself in his host body, hence the tech wealth. Visser Three, however, didn’t like this, or any, success by his brother and has been hunting him ever since. Hence why the place is locked down and the guards are to shoot any animal, in case it’s Visser Three in morph.
The Animorphs rightly wonder how he has survived being hunted by Visser Three if he needs to feed in a Yeerk pool once every three days. Fenestre, however, has yet another secret: he’s discovered a way to gain Kandrona rays through another source. Instead of soaking in a Yeerk pool, he simply eats one of his fellow Yeerks, somehow absorbing the Kandrona rays directly from their flesh. So, yes, we now have evil twins AND cannibalism. To do this, he set up the website to attract Yeerk Controllers that he can then track down, extract (you can guess how well this goes for the hosts), and eat at his leisure, thus never needing to leave the fortress that is his house and make himself vulnerable to Visser Three.
The Animorphs are horrified, Cassie most of all at the fate of the human hosts. Jake and the others, however, also see the benefit of a Yeerk who is single-handedly taking out more Controllers than they ever have. Their main priority, however, is still to rescue Rachel and Ax. Fenestre agrees to hand them over and to remain in his mansion forever. Jake warns that if they ever catch him outside of it, they will kill him.
The story ends with the mansion mysteriously burning down days later, though Fenestre does escape alive. Jake doesn’t admit whether this was him, Cassie, or just a happy coincidence that Fenestre is now out in the world again, free to be hunted by them and Visser Three.
Our Fearless Leader: Poor Jake. In all of the other books, we see him as a strong, competent leader who for the most part always makes the right decisions when he needs to. Then we get to his books. And, importantly, we see that these decisions are painful and difficult for him. And, worse, his stories are always the ones where those plans just don’t work so well.
In this book, we got another good look into Jake’s mindset of what it means to be leader and have to make big decisions. We also saw his thought process for what it means in the smaller moments. On the way back from breaking into the tech center, Cassie tells him that it is alright to be afraid and to change the plan from morphing flies due to his near death experience. He ends up getting fairly mad at her saying that the others don’t want him to be the leader who lets them know that it’s ok to be afraid and make different decisions based on that fear. He needs to be the leader that shows that you can push through fear and move forward. He rightly points out that if he began changing missions based on fears, as a group, they would rack up such a list of things that they all had legitimate reasons to fear doing, that they would essentially paralize themselves.
It’s a good moment showing both the thought that Jake has put into his own view of leadership, and showing the weaknesses of Cassie’s view of life. Her empathy is a major strength for the team, but here, we see that her approach is not always right, and Jake fairly harshly calls her out on it.
The last scene where Jake must make a decision about what to do with Fenestre is probably one of the more ethically heavy decision points we’ve seen in the series (the other big one probably being in “The Andalite Chronicles” when they debated flushing the pool of Yeerks into space). As we see with Jake’s ultimate decision, he is beginning to walk down the harsh, but pragmatic, path that many war-time leaders find themselves on. This is good foreshadowing for the Jake we see in the end of the series.
Xena, Warriar Princess: Rachel and Tobias as a pair are the most skeptical of the Yeerk website, both believing it to be a trap and not likely real allies in their fight. Not sure what this says about them both. Other than that, Rachel spends almost the entire last third of the story knocked out as a bald eagle.
A Hawk’s Life: Tobias, as well, is skeptical of the website. This seems pretty in-line with his general less trusting outlook on humanity. He’s the most dedicated to the fight, but he’s the least likely to expect help along the way. I think this makes a lot of sense considering the way he grew up with an aunt and uncle who didn’t care for him at all. Tobias is also probably the most upset when Ax and Rachel are trapped. It’s his best friend and his quasi girlfriend, so this reads true.
Peace, Love, and Animals: In this book, we really see the different perspectives that Jake and Cassie bring to the group. Their conversation about what it means to be a leader was very enlightening both for her own perspective, and, more importantly, to hear Jake’s thoughts on the matter. Further, we see the role of support that Cassie provides Jake. Jake clearly trusts Cassie’s read of people and situations.
However. Towards the end where they learn what Fenestre has been up to, and the fact that the human hosts don’t survive the “extraction” process of the Yeerks from their heads, Cassie goes a bit crazy and tries to attack him. And then the real problems start. She doesn’t agree with the idea of letting him continue, and would obviously rather he die, even if this goes against her general philosophy. This exchange between Jake and her follows:
I asked her. man because he’s evil? Do you want to do it yourself, Cassie?>
she said.
I asked.
And again! Again I lose all respect for Cassie! Whether I agree with her convictions or not (in this case, she definitely not wrong, though there’s also no right answer here), the fact that she uses the excuse of Jake’s tiger morph “doing it better” to kill this guy rather than bloodying her own hands for her convictions just pisses me off. She’s essentially wanting to dictate the tough choice but make someone else do the dirty work for what that would really mean. It just reads as cowardly and selfish to me. I’d like to think that she burned down the mansion in the end, as a way for making up for this truly horrible moment.
In the end of the book, I did like the fact that she’s the only one who still thought of the boy in the chatroom with the Controller father. She goes to his house in wolf morph and tells him that he can’t trust his father anymore. And this is terrible and soul crushing for her to do, basically taking this child’s faith in his parent away from him to protect him. Another good redeeming moment for her.
But still.
The Comic Relief: At one point, Marco and Jake have a conversation about whether or not they would be able to transition back into “real life” if the war suddenly ended tomorrow. Jake is adamant that this is possible. But Marco, ever the pragmatist, is doubtful that anyone of them could live a normal life after experiencing all they have. And they’re not even halfway through their whole ordeal! It’s even more sad that Jake insists that he could be a “normal boy” again in a book where we’re really beginning to see the toll that leadership is taking on him. The Jake from book 1 would have never imagined leaving a Yeerk Controller alive who is killing human hosts just because he’s also killing off hundreds of Yeerks as well.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax plays a crucial role early in the book with his alien tech skillz. Right when the book started and Jake was searching the Internet for the word “Yeerk,” modern-day me was like “No!!!! They can track that!!” But in the very next scene they discuss taking precautions to mask their presence when searching around the chat room and website, and Ax is able to quickly do this. There are a lot of jabs doled out between him and Marco about the backwards earthlings and their rudimentary technology. And then in the last part of the book, he, too, is trapped and missing for most of it.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: Jake swatted as a fly! We’ve had a few near-death experiences so far, but the description of just how bad Jake’s situation is…it’s bad. The other Animorphs are literally discussing how to best “scoop” up the remains of his body. As they’re flying away, legs that they are carrying are falling off. They’re concerned that they left behind to much of his body for him to demorph. It’s just terrible.
Couples Watch!: Not a whole lot for either couple. Jake has some good conversations with Cassie, though they are more representative of the different perspectives they each represent in the group than having to do with their relationship. Marco sends a fake message to Jake from “Cassie” in the opening scene which Jake responds to with a funny put-down that he can’t date until his friend Marco gets a girlfriend, which they both know will never happen, so “Cassie” will just have to live with disappointment
However! Jake is with me on the interesting relationship between Marco and Rachel!
Marco and Rachel have a strange sort of relationship. I haven’t figured out whether they pretend they can’t stand each other but secretly like and admire each other, or if they really just can’t stand each other.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: Of course Visser Three is the evil twin! And of course he’s been a total ass to his lesser Yeerk brother this entire time. And then of course once the guy gets even a little taste of success Visser Three decides that it’s best to just kill the guy off all told. Not that this brother is really a joy either, but it does seem that he is largely a product of his circumstances. He also claims that he is in some type of partnership with his host body, which is something Visser Three would never even contemplate.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: There weren’t any overtly tragic moments in this book. But this does feel like the beginning of the end for Jake’s ability to exist outside of his leadership role. He has to make so many very tough decisions in this book. His view of leadership, the fact that he can’t really allow himself to even have human emotions, is so sad. And then to see him slowly start down some highly ethically questionable paths…Marco is more right than he knows: none of them can go back, least of all Jake.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: This whole section exists because of the group’s predisposition for not really planning at all. And here we see the results that, statistically, should probably be more common than we see. They did virtually no scouting of the mansion, and then when they tried to infiltrate it through one of the most obvious routes (the window) things go downhill pretty much immediately. They only escape through sheer luck based on Fenestre having very different goals than almost any other Yeerk Controller who could have been holed up there.
Favorite Quote:
“A ‘mix of truth and lies’ is like the definition of the Internet,” Rachel said. “Equal parts reality and delusion.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
Scorecard: Yeerks 3, Animorphs 7
No score. Not a huge impact either way with this one.
Narrator: Jake
Plot: We’re into a section of the series that I only have vague memories of. Yes, I recognized this cover. No, I didn’t remember the craziness within. And now it’s dated craziness as well, so even better! Right away, I had an inkling of what I was getting into when the story started with Jake methodically explaining his online screen name: Bball25. “Bball,” in case you were confused, means basketball! Glad he clarified. The story quickly falls into place after Jake runs an Internet search for the word “Yeerk” and discovers an entire website devoted to discussing the topic.
I’m going to just make a happy little list right here in the beginning of the many, many dated references made in this book.
bizarre online screen names
Yahoo (as a relevant thing)
chain letters
chat rooms
limits of 10 words typed in chat rooms
Internet speeds
And all of that is referenced quite a bit, because the whole story revolves around this website and the Animorphs’ mission to discover how much of it is legit and whether or not it is an elaborate Yeerk trap.
The group decides that while most of the users in the chatroom on this site are the usual Internet crazies, there are a few that seem to actually know what they are talking about. More worringly, one user is concerned that his father may be a Controller and is contemplating confronting him about it. But with nothing but screen names to go on, the Animorphs are stuck. They decide they will need to break into the headquarters of the billionaire techie who owns much of the Internet, essentially, to discover who these users are and whether or not this is a trap or these are real, potential allies. Unfortunately, this headquarters is located far, far away.
To get there, they come up with the rather ingenious plan to morph flies, hop a plane, and simply fly there, free of charge! Perks of being an Animorph, I guess! But this plan quickly falls apart as some of the flight passengers are rather put off by the presence of a swarm of flies on their plane, and Jake gets swatted. The rest of the group has to….gather up pieces of him off the wall, and he barely makes it off the plane to demorph. Breaking into the headquarters, however, does go much more smoothly. For a distraction to allow Marco and Ax (the two most tech-capable of the group) to hack into a database and pull the user info for the chat room screen names, the others morph into their battle morphs and put on a little show for everyone in the building: a grizzly bear with a mop, a tiger with a bucket in its mouth, a hawk flying around above it all. This seems to work, though I do question why they never worried that there might be Controllers working there who would immediately see through this bizarre little scene.
The trip back home goes as well as can be expected, though Jake is still very rattled by his near-death experience. Once home, the team must decide what to do with the list of names they now have: go after the kid who might confront his Dad about being a Controller any day now (Cassie’s primary objective) or break into the mansion of the owner of the website and figure out whether he is a potential ally. Jake decides for the latter, reasoning that the stakes are much higher than the fate of one boy.
Breaking into the mansion, however, proves to be a disaster. The mansion is completely locked down: multiple levels of gates, guard dogs, the works. While in bird morph, they even over hear the guards discussing their boss’s orders to shoot any animals that look “strange.” This just makes their need to know what’s truly going on all the more urgent, so spotting an open window, they decide to fly in, demorph, and check it out. At least, that’s what they want to happen. Turns out that the owner is even more paranoid than they thought and that there are some type of security wards on the windows as well. They only discover this, however, after Rachel has flown threw and lies knocked out (or dead?) in the room within. Ax, too, who was flying close behind her veers away only to get knocked to the ground and dragged off by a guard dog.
The Animorphs are in a state of panic. They weren’t prepared at all for this mission, and it’s showing. Now, down two people, the only goal is to get them back before they’re hurt, killed, or, in Rachel’s case, forced to make the decision to trap herself in morph rather than reveal her human form once two hours have passed.
Desperate, Jake decides the only way in is through. With that in mind, he veers off to The Gardens, quickly acquires a convenient rhino morph, and makes his way back to the group. What follows is a fun little scene of Jake simply smashing his way through everything in front of him. I don’t remember this morph being used too often after this, but the sheer destruction that the rhino leaves in its wake seems to make a good case for its more regular use. The eyesight is pretty bad, though, so I guess that’s why it doesn’t make its way into their regular rotation.
After bashing through everything in his way, Jake and the others finally come face to face with Mr. Fenestre, the billionaire tech wizard himself. They then learn the full truth, and I swear, it’s straight out of a soap opera. Turns out that yes, Fenestre is a Controller (though he implies a sort of partnership between himself and his host body, claiming that with his own superior technical skills, he was able to raise their lives from one of obscurity to the wealth they now both enjoy). But he’s not just any Controller, he’s the “lesser twin” of Visser Three himself. Guys. It’s an evil twin plot line! Though I guess the case could be made for either of them being the “evil” one. Yeerks, however, don’t look kindly on twins, immediately granting one the more privileged life over the other. Not able to make anything of himself and his life in the shadow of his brother, Fenestre turned to making a life for himself in his host body, hence the tech wealth. Visser Three, however, didn’t like this, or any, success by his brother and has been hunting him ever since. Hence why the place is locked down and the guards are to shoot any animal, in case it’s Visser Three in morph.
The Animorphs rightly wonder how he has survived being hunted by Visser Three if he needs to feed in a Yeerk pool once every three days. Fenestre, however, has yet another secret: he’s discovered a way to gain Kandrona rays through another source. Instead of soaking in a Yeerk pool, he simply eats one of his fellow Yeerks, somehow absorbing the Kandrona rays directly from their flesh. So, yes, we now have evil twins AND cannibalism. To do this, he set up the website to attract Yeerk Controllers that he can then track down, extract (you can guess how well this goes for the hosts), and eat at his leisure, thus never needing to leave the fortress that is his house and make himself vulnerable to Visser Three.
The Animorphs are horrified, Cassie most of all at the fate of the human hosts. Jake and the others, however, also see the benefit of a Yeerk who is single-handedly taking out more Controllers than they ever have. Their main priority, however, is still to rescue Rachel and Ax. Fenestre agrees to hand them over and to remain in his mansion forever. Jake warns that if they ever catch him outside of it, they will kill him.
The story ends with the mansion mysteriously burning down days later, though Fenestre does escape alive. Jake doesn’t admit whether this was him, Cassie, or just a happy coincidence that Fenestre is now out in the world again, free to be hunted by them and Visser Three.
Our Fearless Leader: Poor Jake. In all of the other books, we see him as a strong, competent leader who for the most part always makes the right decisions when he needs to. Then we get to his books. And, importantly, we see that these decisions are painful and difficult for him. And, worse, his stories are always the ones where those plans just don’t work so well.
In this book, we got another good look into Jake’s mindset of what it means to be leader and have to make big decisions. We also saw his thought process for what it means in the smaller moments. On the way back from breaking into the tech center, Cassie tells him that it is alright to be afraid and to change the plan from morphing flies due to his near death experience. He ends up getting fairly mad at her saying that the others don’t want him to be the leader who lets them know that it’s ok to be afraid and make different decisions based on that fear. He needs to be the leader that shows that you can push through fear and move forward. He rightly points out that if he began changing missions based on fears, as a group, they would rack up such a list of things that they all had legitimate reasons to fear doing, that they would essentially paralize themselves.
It’s a good moment showing both the thought that Jake has put into his own view of leadership, and showing the weaknesses of Cassie’s view of life. Her empathy is a major strength for the team, but here, we see that her approach is not always right, and Jake fairly harshly calls her out on it.
The last scene where Jake must make a decision about what to do with Fenestre is probably one of the more ethically heavy decision points we’ve seen in the series (the other big one probably being in “The Andalite Chronicles” when they debated flushing the pool of Yeerks into space). As we see with Jake’s ultimate decision, he is beginning to walk down the harsh, but pragmatic, path that many war-time leaders find themselves on. This is good foreshadowing for the Jake we see in the end of the series.
Xena, Warriar Princess: Rachel and Tobias as a pair are the most skeptical of the Yeerk website, both believing it to be a trap and not likely real allies in their fight. Not sure what this says about them both. Other than that, Rachel spends almost the entire last third of the story knocked out as a bald eagle.
A Hawk’s Life: Tobias, as well, is skeptical of the website. This seems pretty in-line with his general less trusting outlook on humanity. He’s the most dedicated to the fight, but he’s the least likely to expect help along the way. I think this makes a lot of sense considering the way he grew up with an aunt and uncle who didn’t care for him at all. Tobias is also probably the most upset when Ax and Rachel are trapped. It’s his best friend and his quasi girlfriend, so this reads true.
Peace, Love, and Animals: In this book, we really see the different perspectives that Jake and Cassie bring to the group. Their conversation about what it means to be a leader was very enlightening both for her own perspective, and, more importantly, to hear Jake’s thoughts on the matter. Further, we see the role of support that Cassie provides Jake. Jake clearly trusts Cassie’s read of people and situations.
However. Towards the end where they learn what Fenestre has been up to, and the fact that the human hosts don’t survive the “extraction” process of the Yeerks from their heads, Cassie goes a bit crazy and tries to attack him. And then the real problems start. She doesn’t agree with the idea of letting him continue, and would obviously rather he die, even if this goes against her general philosophy. This exchange between Jake and her follows:
I asked her. man because he’s evil? Do you want to do it yourself, Cassie?>
she said.
I asked.
And again! Again I lose all respect for Cassie! Whether I agree with her convictions or not (in this case, she definitely not wrong, though there’s also no right answer here), the fact that she uses the excuse of Jake’s tiger morph “doing it better” to kill this guy rather than bloodying her own hands for her convictions just pisses me off. She’s essentially wanting to dictate the tough choice but make someone else do the dirty work for what that would really mean. It just reads as cowardly and selfish to me. I’d like to think that she burned down the mansion in the end, as a way for making up for this truly horrible moment.
In the end of the book, I did like the fact that she’s the only one who still thought of the boy in the chatroom with the Controller father. She goes to his house in wolf morph and tells him that he can’t trust his father anymore. And this is terrible and soul crushing for her to do, basically taking this child’s faith in his parent away from him to protect him. Another good redeeming moment for her.
But still.
The Comic Relief: At one point, Marco and Jake have a conversation about whether or not they would be able to transition back into “real life” if the war suddenly ended tomorrow. Jake is adamant that this is possible. But Marco, ever the pragmatist, is doubtful that anyone of them could live a normal life after experiencing all they have. And they’re not even halfway through their whole ordeal! It’s even more sad that Jake insists that he could be a “normal boy” again in a book where we’re really beginning to see the toll that leadership is taking on him. The Jake from book 1 would have never imagined leaving a Yeerk Controller alive who is killing human hosts just because he’s also killing off hundreds of Yeerks as well.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax plays a crucial role early in the book with his alien tech skillz. Right when the book started and Jake was searching the Internet for the word “Yeerk,” modern-day me was like “No!!!! They can track that!!” But in the very next scene they discuss taking precautions to mask their presence when searching around the chat room and website, and Ax is able to quickly do this. There are a lot of jabs doled out between him and Marco about the backwards earthlings and their rudimentary technology. And then in the last part of the book, he, too, is trapped and missing for most of it.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: Jake swatted as a fly! We’ve had a few near-death experiences so far, but the description of just how bad Jake’s situation is…it’s bad. The other Animorphs are literally discussing how to best “scoop” up the remains of his body. As they’re flying away, legs that they are carrying are falling off. They’re concerned that they left behind to much of his body for him to demorph. It’s just terrible.
Couples Watch!: Not a whole lot for either couple. Jake has some good conversations with Cassie, though they are more representative of the different perspectives they each represent in the group than having to do with their relationship. Marco sends a fake message to Jake from “Cassie” in the opening scene which Jake responds to with a funny put-down that he can’t date until his friend Marco gets a girlfriend, which they both know will never happen, so “Cassie” will just have to live with disappointment
However! Jake is with me on the interesting relationship between Marco and Rachel!
Marco and Rachel have a strange sort of relationship. I haven’t figured out whether they pretend they can’t stand each other but secretly like and admire each other, or if they really just can’t stand each other.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: Of course Visser Three is the evil twin! And of course he’s been a total ass to his lesser Yeerk brother this entire time. And then of course once the guy gets even a little taste of success Visser Three decides that it’s best to just kill the guy off all told. Not that this brother is really a joy either, but it does seem that he is largely a product of his circumstances. He also claims that he is in some type of partnership with his host body, which is something Visser Three would never even contemplate.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: There weren’t any overtly tragic moments in this book. But this does feel like the beginning of the end for Jake’s ability to exist outside of his leadership role. He has to make so many very tough decisions in this book. His view of leadership, the fact that he can’t really allow himself to even have human emotions, is so sad. And then to see him slowly start down some highly ethically questionable paths…Marco is more right than he knows: none of them can go back, least of all Jake.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: This whole section exists because of the group’s predisposition for not really planning at all. And here we see the results that, statistically, should probably be more common than we see. They did virtually no scouting of the mansion, and then when they tried to infiltrate it through one of the most obvious routes (the window) things go downhill pretty much immediately. They only escape through sheer luck based on Fenestre having very different goals than almost any other Yeerk Controller who could have been holed up there.
Favorite Quote:
“A ‘mix of truth and lies’ is like the definition of the Internet,” Rachel said. “Equal parts reality and delusion.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
Scorecard: Yeerks 3, Animorphs 7
No score. Not a huge impact either way with this one.
October 19, 2025
Unlike in The Forgotten, Jake actually learns a lesson here! This one is a bit darker than any previous and it feels like the tone for the rest of the series is finally really being set.
January 4, 2017
Jake opens this book talking about his modem's 28.8kbps speed (while he's waiting for said modem to dial), and how he wishes he had a 56k, but it was better than his old 13.8. And I'll tell you what, my friends, I lived in a 13.8 household for many moons, and those were truly dark days. In other words, the nostalgia factor in the opening of this book, with the again very thin veneer over what is obviously a nod to aol, was extremely high. But. This is the second Jake book I've felt kind of luke-warm about. I know that being the leader results in a lot of pressure being put on him, but it seems like he keeps having the same leader-crisis on repeat, which is not as interesting as say, Ax experiencing human-morph or Tobias's predator-life insights into the war or or or.
June 7, 2026
literally, jake's mom
“In a lot of ways being a kid is worse than being an adult. You have the same things to deal with: friends, temptations, love and hate, and all that. Only you don't have the two great weapons that adults have to help them."
I cocked an eye at her. "What two great weapons?"
"Well, the first is experience. Experience maybe doesn't make you smarter, but it means you can think, 'Hey, I had something like this happen once before, and I survived.'"
"Okay, I'll ask: What's the second great weapon?"
She looked right at me. "You are, Jake. Because as your mom, I can look at you and think, 'Oh, man, as bad as I feel right now, as bad as things may be, at least it isn't as bad as being a teenager.'”
November 8, 2021
This is the start of things becoming dark and gritty and if there's anything I know from Applegate's Norse series, she does dark and gritty very well.
In this book, Jake nearly dies in fly morph and Ax and Rachel are nearly stuck in bird morphs.
They meet a Yeerk controller who survives away from the pools by tracking down humans with Yeerks and killing them, then cannibalizing the Yeerks.
I'm honestly surprised and impressed the publisher let her write these aspects for what is a young teen, Scholastic series.
In this book, Jake nearly dies in fly morph and Ax and Rachel are nearly stuck in bird morphs.
They meet a Yeerk controller who survives away from the pools by tracking down humans with Yeerks and killing them, then cannibalizing the Yeerks.
I'm honestly surprised and impressed the publisher let her write these aspects for what is a young teen, Scholastic series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 6, 2020
Rating: 4.5
Read
March 28, 2021So good! i loved this one. perfect blend of dated 90s technology nostalgia and crushing moral dilemmas. i couldn’t put it down!!!
January 17, 2023
Ok this one was... dark. It's from Jake's point of view.
This one, whoa. First, the body horror was of the charts. The emotional and physical exhaustion of the kids is almost palpable. Then there are a lot of hard decisions to make and some very difficult moral questions (kill someone unarmed, because he could later hurt someone else). You can also feel Jake slowly breaking down under all the stress of being leader and making the hard decisions and watching while it gets his friends in mortal danger. He and Cassie have some very tense disagreements and Cassie has a little crisis of morality. Sooo, you see, this one is chock full of a lot of emotional damage for the reader and the protagonists.
Favorite sentence: "I think it's brilliant," Marco said. "Possibly immoral, but brilliant."
Addendum: I did not like how they spoke/handled suicide and mental illness.
This one, whoa. First, the body horror was of the charts. The emotional and physical exhaustion of the kids is almost palpable. Then there are a lot of hard decisions to make and some very difficult moral questions (kill someone unarmed, because he could later hurt someone else). You can also feel Jake slowly breaking down under all the stress of being leader and making the hard decisions and watching while it gets his friends in mortal danger. He and Cassie have some very tense disagreements and Cassie has a little crisis of morality. Sooo, you see, this one is chock full of a lot of emotional damage for the reader and the protagonists.
Favorite sentence: "I think it's brilliant," Marco said. "Possibly immoral, but brilliant."
Addendum: I did not like how they spoke/handled suicide and mental illness.
Read
September 8, 2025This was the right read for the right time because the giant zit on my forehead makes me feel like a rhinoceros, so I really empathized with Jake's morph here.
Jake books are becoming some of my favorite, somewhat surprisingly, because I thought he was a somewhat bland character but he's not. There is a serious weightiness to this book I love, that I love that Jake as leader is grappling with a lot of moral and ethical questions.
The Animorphs debate the consent of acquiring human morph -- something I wouldn't even have given a second thought, but I love Applegate's inclusion of consent. And their decision to NOT do it.
I also love seeing Jake struggle with doubt and regret and uncertainty as he makes leadership decisions, which is what a good leader is. To the group, he is decisive and puts on a brave face but inwardly he's struggling so much, giving an internality to the aspect of leadership we don't always see represented. Selecting the billionaire over poor Gump was... hard, and sad.
It also makes sense that he is drawn to Cassie, whose moral compass helps provide a framework for him to process his emotions and decisions. I love Jake and Cassie together, in fact, they are intellectually and emotionally well-matched partners in a way that feels honest and ideal.
And of course, Jake almost dying and the ensuing PTSD is actually kind of difficult to read. This kid is traumatized by his guts being smeared all over, he's having panic attacks and flashbacks.
I can already see him grappling with the meaning of the war, struggling to stick to a code of ethics in an unethical world, but he remains firmly rooted in WHAT he is fighting for.
"There is always someone out there who thinks life, just plain old boring, sweet, everyday life, isn't enough. And that's when the killing starts... there had been an awful lot of wars when it was just human against human.
What is the matter with people that they don't know all that really counts is that people who love each other be able to be together, live in peace, learn, work, tell boring stories and dumb jokes? What do they think they're going to get that is better than that?" (p. 76)
Jake books are becoming some of my favorite, somewhat surprisingly, because I thought he was a somewhat bland character but he's not. There is a serious weightiness to this book I love, that I love that Jake as leader is grappling with a lot of moral and ethical questions.
The Animorphs debate the consent of acquiring human morph -- something I wouldn't even have given a second thought, but I love Applegate's inclusion of consent. And their decision to NOT do it.
I also love seeing Jake struggle with doubt and regret and uncertainty as he makes leadership decisions, which is what a good leader is. To the group, he is decisive and puts on a brave face but inwardly he's struggling so much, giving an internality to the aspect of leadership we don't always see represented. Selecting the billionaire over poor Gump was... hard, and sad.
It also makes sense that he is drawn to Cassie, whose moral compass helps provide a framework for him to process his emotions and decisions. I love Jake and Cassie together, in fact, they are intellectually and emotionally well-matched partners in a way that feels honest and ideal.
And of course, Jake almost dying and the ensuing PTSD is actually kind of difficult to read. This kid is traumatized by his guts being smeared all over, he's having panic attacks and flashbacks.
I can already see him grappling with the meaning of the war, struggling to stick to a code of ethics in an unethical world, but he remains firmly rooted in WHAT he is fighting for.
"There is always someone out there who thinks life, just plain old boring, sweet, everyday life, isn't enough. And that's when the killing starts... there had been an awful lot of wars when it was just human against human.
What is the matter with people that they don't know all that really counts is that people who love each other be able to be together, live in peace, learn, work, tell boring stories and dumb jokes? What do they think they're going to get that is better than that?" (p. 76)
December 28, 2019
Original review on Jaunts & Haunts
5/5
I gave this book five web-surfing stars!
This installment of the Animorphs series was amazing!
The blurb pretty much sums it up, but this time around Jake makes a stunning discovery. There's a website about the Yeerks. Baffled, he calls the other Animorphs and they try to determine what to do.
Based on the chat room on the site, some of these users are obviously Controllers, but some appear to be human too. What should they do? Approach the ones they think are humans? Try to lure the Controllers? Or should they go straight to the top, to the WAA (Web Access America) and find who these users are? Is this just another trap, or could they seriously make some allies here?
The premise of this book instantly had me hooked. There's a lot at stake here, and it appears that some humans actually know about the Yeerks, not that they can do much about it at the moment.
This time we are in Jake's POV, and I always love reading his perspective. It's tough being a leader, especially when you have to make tough decisions. More like impossible decisions this time around.
This book delved into the darker side of the concept of this series, and Jake has to make an impossible decision, neither of which is good. Sometimes you just have to pick the lesser evil.
No one's perfect, and I really felt for Jake this time around. He can only do so much, but the others always look up to him and he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The usage of all the Animorphs was well-balanced, and the plot was amazing. This one had me guessing until the very end, which usually doesn't happen. It was a pleasant surprise, and it really had me turning those pages!
Action, adventure, mystery, and a little bit about the darker aspects of their situation made this book an instant favorite of mine. Definitely worth a binge read!
5/5
I gave this book five web-surfing stars!
This installment of the Animorphs series was amazing!
The blurb pretty much sums it up, but this time around Jake makes a stunning discovery. There's a website about the Yeerks. Baffled, he calls the other Animorphs and they try to determine what to do.
Based on the chat room on the site, some of these users are obviously Controllers, but some appear to be human too. What should they do? Approach the ones they think are humans? Try to lure the Controllers? Or should they go straight to the top, to the WAA (Web Access America) and find who these users are? Is this just another trap, or could they seriously make some allies here?
The premise of this book instantly had me hooked. There's a lot at stake here, and it appears that some humans actually know about the Yeerks, not that they can do much about it at the moment.
This time we are in Jake's POV, and I always love reading his perspective. It's tough being a leader, especially when you have to make tough decisions. More like impossible decisions this time around.
This book delved into the darker side of the concept of this series, and Jake has to make an impossible decision, neither of which is good. Sometimes you just have to pick the lesser evil.
No one's perfect, and I really felt for Jake this time around. He can only do so much, but the others always look up to him and he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The usage of all the Animorphs was well-balanced, and the plot was amazing. This one had me guessing until the very end, which usually doesn't happen. It was a pleasant surprise, and it really had me turning those pages!
Action, adventure, mystery, and a little bit about the darker aspects of their situation made this book an instant favorite of mine. Definitely worth a binge read!
January 26, 2025
Depuis le tome quatorze d'Animorphs, je me méfie toujours un peu... C'est dommage qu'un seul faux pas jusqu'à maintenant me fasse douter, mais quand on pense que la saga fait plus de cinquante tomes... et que j'ai bien l'intention de la relire jusqu'au bout, j'aimerais autant apprécier mes lectures. Fort heureusement avec L'Alerte, ce fut une réussite sur toute la ligne. Jake est plutôt une valeur sûre concernant la trame narrative et ici de nombreux points intéressants sont mis en avant.
Le jeune chef des Animorphs a découvert un site parlant des Yirks qui semblent à première vue légitime mais il pourrait tout aussi bien être un piège venant de l'ennemi. Nos héros ne peuvent pas passer à côté et ils décident donc de mener l'enquête. L'idée de base que les Animorphs aient potentiellement des alliés avait déjà de quoi rendre ce tome plutôt palpitant, même si le tout sentait tout de même le piège à plein nez. Un peu d'espoir ne fait pas de mal. Et puis cela entraîne surtout une mise en avant de la dynamique du groupe et de la prise de décisions en ce qui concerne les missions. Rien que pour cela, l'intrigue était déjà très intéressante. On rappelle que ce sont des adolescents face à la pire invasion extraterrestre possible et que l'envers du décor a aussi son importance.
Mais Katherine A. Applegate pousse encore plus loin sa réflexion. Comme Jake est notre narrateur sa place de chef est aussi mise en avant. Le sujet avait déjà été abordé dans un tome précédent, mais j'ai trouvé ici qu'il y avait un ton plus grave et surtout plus dans le vif du sujet. Déjà, Jake n'a jamais choisi d'être le leader, même s'il en a l'étoffe et que mine de rien, il assure surtout vu les circonstances. Il a constamment la vie de ses amis entre les mains, la moindre de ses décisions peut être mortelle et décimer la Terre entière (oui question pression, ce n'est pas mal), et surtout il est l'exemple à suivre. Dans l'Alerte, Jake est victime d'une expérience plutôt traumatisante. En tant que lecteur, on se dit qu'il a le droit de craquer, c'est encore un enfant, il reste humain, mais il nous expose clairement qu'il est un chef, qu'il n'a pas le droit de se laisser aller et que par la même occasion, il a cessé, d'une certaine façon d'être humain. C'est un constant très douloureux à lire et j'ai trouvé que l'auteure le montrait de façon poignante et juste. Elle poursuit en lui faisant prendre des décisions impossibles marquant encore plus le coup. Et ce côté humanité qui est mis en veille prend tout son sens.
Ce n'est évidemment pas facile à digérer surtout quand on apprécie l'adolescent mais c'est d’une part très intéressant, car réaliste face à cette situation de guerre, mais aussi par rapport à la dynamique du groupe. Ils ont tous plus ou moins conscience du poids que Jake a sur les épaules mais aucune erreur ne lui est permise. Il n'a pas choisi ce rôle de leader, mais tout le monde se tourne vers lui. Il y a même un certain manque de compassion parfois de ses amis envers lui, car sa position est un fait acquis. En tant que groupe, l'égalité des fautes est totalement déséquilibrée, et pourtant au moindre de soucis, c'est vers Jake que l'on se tourne. Non vraiment tout le travail derrière ce point est extrêmement bien fait, et on ne peut que saluer la résilience et l'abnégation du jeune homme.
Un tome pas évident, assez dur, mais qui exploite vraiment bien la psychologie de groupe. L'intrigue liée à la découverte du site web est qui plus est aussi très bien menée et elle nous révèle certains faits surprenants ainsi qu'un autre aspect de la guerre qui n'avait pas encore été exploité jusqu'ici. Après un aussi bon tome, autant vous dire que mes attentes sont assez hautes pour la suite.
Le jeune chef des Animorphs a découvert un site parlant des Yirks qui semblent à première vue légitime mais il pourrait tout aussi bien être un piège venant de l'ennemi. Nos héros ne peuvent pas passer à côté et ils décident donc de mener l'enquête. L'idée de base que les Animorphs aient potentiellement des alliés avait déjà de quoi rendre ce tome plutôt palpitant, même si le tout sentait tout de même le piège à plein nez. Un peu d'espoir ne fait pas de mal. Et puis cela entraîne surtout une mise en avant de la dynamique du groupe et de la prise de décisions en ce qui concerne les missions. Rien que pour cela, l'intrigue était déjà très intéressante. On rappelle que ce sont des adolescents face à la pire invasion extraterrestre possible et que l'envers du décor a aussi son importance.
Mais Katherine A. Applegate pousse encore plus loin sa réflexion. Comme Jake est notre narrateur sa place de chef est aussi mise en avant. Le sujet avait déjà été abordé dans un tome précédent, mais j'ai trouvé ici qu'il y avait un ton plus grave et surtout plus dans le vif du sujet. Déjà, Jake n'a jamais choisi d'être le leader, même s'il en a l'étoffe et que mine de rien, il assure surtout vu les circonstances. Il a constamment la vie de ses amis entre les mains, la moindre de ses décisions peut être mortelle et décimer la Terre entière (oui question pression, ce n'est pas mal), et surtout il est l'exemple à suivre. Dans l'Alerte, Jake est victime d'une expérience plutôt traumatisante. En tant que lecteur, on se dit qu'il a le droit de craquer, c'est encore un enfant, il reste humain, mais il nous expose clairement qu'il est un chef, qu'il n'a pas le droit de se laisser aller et que par la même occasion, il a cessé, d'une certaine façon d'être humain. C'est un constant très douloureux à lire et j'ai trouvé que l'auteure le montrait de façon poignante et juste. Elle poursuit en lui faisant prendre des décisions impossibles marquant encore plus le coup. Et ce côté humanité qui est mis en veille prend tout son sens.
Ce n'est évidemment pas facile à digérer surtout quand on apprécie l'adolescent mais c'est d’une part très intéressant, car réaliste face à cette situation de guerre, mais aussi par rapport à la dynamique du groupe. Ils ont tous plus ou moins conscience du poids que Jake a sur les épaules mais aucune erreur ne lui est permise. Il n'a pas choisi ce rôle de leader, mais tout le monde se tourne vers lui. Il y a même un certain manque de compassion parfois de ses amis envers lui, car sa position est un fait acquis. En tant que groupe, l'égalité des fautes est totalement déséquilibrée, et pourtant au moindre de soucis, c'est vers Jake que l'on se tourne. Non vraiment tout le travail derrière ce point est extrêmement bien fait, et on ne peut que saluer la résilience et l'abnégation du jeune homme.
Un tome pas évident, assez dur, mais qui exploite vraiment bien la psychologie de groupe. L'intrigue liée à la découverte du site web est qui plus est aussi très bien menée et elle nous révèle certains faits surprenants ainsi qu'un autre aspect de la guerre qui n'avait pas encore été exploité jusqu'ici. Après un aussi bon tome, autant vous dire que mes attentes sont assez hautes pour la suite.
October 25, 2023
It's been a while since I read a really good story with Jake's POV but holy crap the moral ethical dilemmas that as leader Jake needs to make life and death decisions as everyone is turning to him to make the call that can not only affect the Animorphs but humanity as a whole in the long term and these are young teens.
"A leader may be just as weak or scared or doubtful as anyone else. But he isn't allowed to show it.": for them to become more prominent amongst the Animorphs including Jake on how much this war is already having an effect on them individually and as a group and it's heartbreaking as well as these are kids and yet they got the fate of their planet on their shoulders.
Interesting to see Jake juggle with the morality of this current situation; here's a Yeerk, whose Visser Three's twin FYI, who created a chatroom as a way to hunt for Controllers' as a method of sustaining himself without Kadronna rays in the forms of cannibalism.
Marco's all for it since it eliminates Yeerks (which I can understand he's line of thinking, it counts down the enemies' numbers, and you have a Yeerk hunting its own - Dexter vibes anyone?) but Cassie being neutral sees it as murder as the hosts are dying as well to the point of even asking Jake to kill him for her.
In the end, Jake offers to leave Fenestre and his Yeerk untouched so long as he stays inside the mansion, despite Cassie's objection. You'll think that's it? Nope, days later, there's a fire and a death, and Fenestre and his Yeerk's fate are left ambiguous, with Jake omitting to specify who was responsible for the arson.
Oh hell yeah, it's heavily implied that the Animorphs, or at least Jake, Cassie and most likely Rachel, committed the crime. Like wtf??!!? It's been ages since an Animorphs book has kept me hooked beginning to end!!
"A leader may be just as weak or scared or doubtful as anyone else. But he isn't allowed to show it.": for them to become more prominent amongst the Animorphs including Jake on how much this war is already having an effect on them individually and as a group and it's heartbreaking as well as these are kids and yet they got the fate of their planet on their shoulders.
Interesting to see Jake juggle with the morality of this current situation; here's a Yeerk, whose Visser Three's twin FYI, who created a chatroom as a way to hunt for Controllers' as a method of sustaining himself without Kadronna rays in the forms of cannibalism.
Marco's all for it since it eliminates Yeerks (which I can understand he's line of thinking, it counts down the enemies' numbers, and you have a Yeerk hunting its own - Dexter vibes anyone?) but Cassie being neutral sees it as murder as the hosts are dying as well to the point of even asking Jake to kill him for her.
In the end, Jake offers to leave Fenestre and his Yeerk untouched so long as he stays inside the mansion, despite Cassie's objection. You'll think that's it? Nope, days later, there's a fire and a death, and Fenestre and his Yeerk's fate are left ambiguous, with Jake omitting to specify who was responsible for the arson.
Oh hell yeah, it's heavily implied that the Animorphs, or at least Jake, Cassie and most likely Rachel, committed the crime. Like wtf??!!? It's been ages since an Animorphs book has kept me hooked beginning to end!!
October 29, 2020
Goodness, this book is so obviously pre 9/11 it hurts:
1. The Animorphs walk around an airport with bare feet and nobody seems to care.
2. Jake jumps on an airplane as a fly and leaves in human form. Nobody notices.
3. They leave a backpack stuffed behind a toilet and believe that nobody will look twice at an abandoned bag.
Hahahaaaaaa oh man.
Also, there's so many things the Animorphs do that makes me wonder how their cover hasn't been blown, but then I realize they lived in a simpler world with no camera phones and less surveillance equipment, so I guess they could get away with more. But still!
There's so much AOL goodness here. They use Marco's computer, since he has the latest and best computer equipment. His modem? As Marco puts it, "this is the fastest modem around, okay?... Fifty-six thousand bits per second." Bahahahaha, remember when the internet was crazy slow? They also access a chat room which is full of inane chatter and exactly like the AOL chatrooms I used to access. It was also not unlike the weird chatter that goes on in Among Us chatrooms, but I digress.
As we get deeper into the series, we start to see various friendships start to develop fractures, which is all sorts of fascinating. Jake makes a decision in this book that deeply upsets Cassie. However, they both need each other, Cassie does what she can to make herself feel slightly better, and they ignore the major issues at hand. After all, there's a war to be fought.
Good god, how are these young teens dealing with this sort of stuff? I love these books.
1. The Animorphs walk around an airport with bare feet and nobody seems to care.
2. Jake jumps on an airplane as a fly and leaves in human form. Nobody notices.
3. They leave a backpack stuffed behind a toilet and believe that nobody will look twice at an abandoned bag.
Hahahaaaaaa oh man.
Also, there's so many things the Animorphs do that makes me wonder how their cover hasn't been blown, but then I realize they lived in a simpler world with no camera phones and less surveillance equipment, so I guess they could get away with more. But still!
There's so much AOL goodness here. They use Marco's computer, since he has the latest and best computer equipment. His modem? As Marco puts it, "this is the fastest modem around, okay?... Fifty-six thousand bits per second." Bahahahaha, remember when the internet was crazy slow? They also access a chat room which is full of inane chatter and exactly like the AOL chatrooms I used to access. It was also not unlike the weird chatter that goes on in Among Us chatrooms, but I digress.
As we get deeper into the series, we start to see various friendships start to develop fractures, which is all sorts of fascinating. Jake makes a decision in this book that deeply upsets Cassie. However, they both need each other, Cassie does what she can to make herself feel slightly better, and they ignore the major issues at hand. After all, there's a war to be fought.
Good god, how are these young teens dealing with this sort of stuff? I love these books.
August 10, 2023
i was randomly compelled to reread this one, and holy shit i'm glad i did. it didn't leave much of an impression on me the first time; i think all nuance and weight got overshadowed by the crazy "visser three has a twin brother who's also evil and lives as the richest human alive and is a cannibal" reveals. but with that being all i remembered of this book, i was surprised that this one actually has complex exploration of jake's psychological issues and an intense conflict that leads the kids to discuss their ethics and moral lapses very directly. the ethical conundrum of making jake their leader so he has to carry all responsibility/guilt & the ethical conundrum of whether they're morally obligated to murder an active serial killer = both important thematic concepts for the whole series! it also ends with the implication that any one of the animorphs burned a mansion down in order to possibly justify a future murder. even though i don't like the major plot twists that never get addressed again, this goes hard.
August 19, 2023
GENIUS. THIS BOOK IS GENIUS. The whole series, really, but this book really highlights the moral dilemmas and traumas these kids have to face. It's heavy and handled so carefully.
The previous books have already dealt with a variety of moral dilemmas, but this one really lets them pile up and overwhelm. There's no clear moral answers and there's not going to be. PTSD is affecting decision-making and clarity, the alienation (no pun intended) is ramping up, and tensions are rising even between the members, which may be one of the scarier consequences because all they really have is each other in this.
What a masterful way to dial up the stakes that have been foreshadowed along the way!
The previous books have already dealt with a variety of moral dilemmas, but this one really lets them pile up and overwhelm. There's no clear moral answers and there's not going to be. PTSD is affecting decision-making and clarity, the alienation (no pun intended) is ramping up, and tensions are rising even between the members, which may be one of the scarier consequences because all they really have is each other in this.
What a masterful way to dial up the stakes that have been foreshadowed along the way!
May 20, 2024
This was a pretty interesting addition to the series because it introduced even more possibilities and new concepts into the universe. I'm always amazed by this series when Applegate introduces new stuff because it's such a long series.
THE WARNING was also from the perspective of the leader of the group. His books always remind me just how young these kids are and how much pressure is on the leader. Even one of the characters at one point comments on how hard it must be to be the leader and make the choices he has to make. He also makes a pretty interesting statement about how a leader doesn't have the option of falling into their fear because they have to guide the people who follow them. It was quite a mature and somewhat depressing concept to hear from such a young person.
This series continues to surprise.
Happy reading!
THE WARNING was also from the perspective of the leader of the group. His books always remind me just how young these kids are and how much pressure is on the leader. Even one of the characters at one point comments on how hard it must be to be the leader and make the choices he has to make. He also makes a pretty interesting statement about how a leader doesn't have the option of falling into their fear because they have to guide the people who follow them. It was quite a mature and somewhat depressing concept to hear from such a young person.
This series continues to surprise.
Happy reading!
June 13, 2025
This one was A LOT of fun - move over car chases, this book has Jake in Rhino morph causing maximum property damage to the second richest man in America's house. And we loved to see it. We were also treated to a bear, a hawk and a skunk mopping carpeted floors as a (successful) distraction...
Of course being an Animorphs book it also hits you with Jake's continuing fears about leadership and the likelihood that his decisions are going to end in harm to his friends or loved ones. It hits you with a 13 year old grappling with a near death experience (squished fly on a plane) AND the big one - is it ok to have left Esplin 9466 Lesser (Visser Three's twin brother) to his own Yeerk eating devices knowing that the human controllers don't survive it?
Also just so many great 90s reference - dial up internet, chat rooms, the internet being kind of boring, pre 9/11 airport security...
Of course being an Animorphs book it also hits you with Jake's continuing fears about leadership and the likelihood that his decisions are going to end in harm to his friends or loved ones. It hits you with a 13 year old grappling with a near death experience (squished fly on a plane) AND the big one - is it ok to have left Esplin 9466 Lesser (Visser Three's twin brother) to his own Yeerk eating devices knowing that the human controllers don't survive it?
Also just so many great 90s reference - dial up internet, chat rooms, the internet being kind of boring, pre 9/11 airport security...
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