Katherine A. Applegate

The Visitor (Animorphs)

Animorphs #02

claire

Maga P

I decided that I don't care what it takes, or how many risks I have to run. I don't care what happens to me. I hate these Yeerks. I hate them. I hate them. And I will find a way to stop them. 
♢ 2/62 OF THE ANIMORPHS REREAD ⚠ tws for the entire series: war, death, child soldiers, child death, descriptions of gore, body horror, discussions of parental death, slugs, parasites, loss of free will, depictions of PTSD and trauma, ableism, imperialism. 
First Rachel book! We love her! Her motives are present here from the get-go but given a more solid form: from the previous book we know that she finds courage to protect others even when she herself is scared to death, and here we have that desire to protect (the others animorphs, Melissa, and then all the kids that have been left loveless and that will be left loveless because of the yeerks) being shaped into the foundation of what the animorphs are fighting for.

With this we're also seeing as one by one the kids start falling into the roles they deconstruct more than embody: Jake as Fearless Leader and Rachel as Blood Knight.

Nothing else to say besides the character-focused content, but once again that's where the draw of the series is.

renee badenoch

Jellicle Cat Lookin’ Ass 

Alright suckers, you asked for it. I’m here to give you AniMOREphs content. 

Before we get into book 2, let's review the happenings of book 1, which somehow managed to pack a whole fucking SAGA into a mere 184 pages. Five teens, Jake, Marco, Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie are taking a shortcut through an abandoned construction site when they see a UFO. They go towards an injured figure who turns out to be a prince from an alien race called the Andalites. The Andalities have sworn to chase their enemies, the Yeerks, throughout the galaxy to prevent them from enslaving other planets. The yeerks are some nasty slug boys who can crawl into host organisms, control the brain, and use the husk of the body to do their bidding. And bad news, kids, those nasty slug boys are here on earth, and they’ve already started infesting humans. Yeerk hosts are called Controllers, and they look and act totally normal! They could be anyone! :( 

Good news is, Andalites have the power to acquire DNA from any animal they touch and transform into that animal (and also to telepathically converse to other andalites when one is in an animal form? It’s not explained, just accept it). The andalite prince makes these five random teenagers touch a cube that gives them sweet sweet morphin’ powers, and then a Yeerk spaceship arrives carrying Visser Three, a yeerk commander whose host is the only Andalite ever to be taken over by a Yeerk. Visser Three comes with some super tough looking Tyrannosaurus Rex-esque aliens, the Hork Bajir (The italics here were K.A Applegate’s inexplicable choice, not mine), and some giant centipedes, the Taxxons (Side note, I wish I could put a Taxxon Marco’s bad jokes. You’re desperate and pathetic, Marco. Grow up). Then Visser Three KILLS THE ANDALITE PRINCE IN FRONT OF THE KIDS. 

To quote my friend Nikki: 


 “Most children's authors: how shall I teach the kiddies important life lessons like sharing?

KA Applegate: THEY MUST LEARN THAT LIFE IS PAIN

-- 
The kids manage to escape with their lives, and then get into a debate over what they should do with their new information and their new powers. Cassie suggests they go to the police, which leads to my favorite conversation in the whole book: 

“Why would the police be...I mean, why would they lie?” I wondered aloud. But the answer was pretty obvious. 

Marco laughed his sardonic laugh, “Let’s see, Captain Brilliant--Would it be because the cops are controllers?” 

Thanks for this, K.A. Applegate. Teaching kids to question the authoritarian state and mistrust the police is good praxis, and we salute you! 

OK, before I go on with this review I just want to mention: All this happened in the first 3 chapters or so. K.A Applegate don’t fuck around. 

ANYWAY. The rest of the book the kids practice morphing around, Marco makes a bunch of dumb jokes, comes up with the term “animorphs,” and is a poop-butt about wanting to save the world, which the rest of the team is on board with. Marco can eat a bag of dicks. Marco sucks. 

The animorphs learn that their vice principal is a controller, and that Yeerks need to go recharge in a mineral pool every three days. The animorphs sneak in with the controllers and see a hundreds of humans enslaved and by the yeerks. When the yeerks leave their bodies, the humans try to fight the yeerks, only to be enslaved again once the yeerks are done with their spa treatment. Jake learns his brother Tom is a controller. All the teens morph to try to save the people, but get fought off by the Hork Bajirs and the Taxxons. Visser Three has also been roaming the galaxy just collecting monsters to morph into, and he turns into a cthulhu-like Eldrich horror and tries to eat the teens. They escape with their lives, but are unable to save Tom or the other controllers. Tobias is trapped in hawk form in the underground cavern when the rest of the teens escape. The Animoprhs learn a horrible secret--if they stay morphed for more than two hours, they’re an animal forever. Tobias is forever stuck as a hawk. 

-----

Okay, so onto book 2! 

Before I get into the plot, I’mma just talk about my initial thoughts 

Still love bisexual icon Tobias, and love that he does not let his hawk form interfere at all with attempting to flirt with Rachel. 
At one point Rachel says, "Let me tell you--watching someone morph is not a pretty sight. It's the kind of thing that would give you screaming nightmares if you didn't know it was going to be alright.” We’ve seen the covers, Rachel, WE KNOW. It’s the stuff of horrors. I wish I could have lived 30 years without seeing you mid-morph, jellicle cat lookin’ ass. 
Rachel is quickly emerging as my favorite animorph, mostly because she calls Marco on his bullshit and reads him for the trash he is. Every time Marco attempts a pitiful, unfunny joke, Rachel responds with a savage roast that shuts him up. Bless me, Saint Rachel, with the wit to silence inferior men who talk too much.
I asked my friend Lauren, resident Animorphs expert, when the teens figure out that they can touch other humans to transform into them. She said probably around book 10 or so. Me, “When do they use that power to start making out with themselves?” She, “HA. Doesn’t happen in the books, but I’m sure the fandom has fic for that.” Me, “What a relief.” 

After the non-stop intensity of The Invasion, The Visitor feels like a zen meditation. Most of the book takes place in Principal Chapman’s house, where Rachel turns into a cat to spy on him talking to Visser Three. Plot-wise not a lot moves forward in the overall story, but the world building is very nice. It’s the first time that the readers begin to see the human side of Yeerk control. The reader gets to see the sorrow of Melissa, Chapman’s daughter, who lives in a house with two controllers who mimic human expression and behavior, but who can’t recreate love and affection. Chapman and his wife also try to fight off the Yeerks controlling them, at one point with Melissa’s mother trying to strangle herself to to prevent the Yeerk in her body from harming Melissa (If you read Animorphs as a kid, please @ me with how traumatizing scenes like this were for you. My adult self is giving this book some serious, “You did a-what now?!” side eye). The Visitor did a lot better job keeping me emotionally engaged than The Invasion; for the first time I want to see the Animorphs actually defeat the Yeerks. 

4 Stars for Rachel positively dragging Marco.

Animorphs #02 The Visitor (Animorphs)

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