Book #40 of 2022: The Hidden by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #39) I don’t always love the weirder Animorphs plots, but this one lands just right for me. In a sudden flare-up of simmering continuity, the Yeerks have repaired a piece of Helmacron technology from #24 The Suspicion, allowing them to track down incidents of …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Hidden by K. A. Applegate”
Book #34 of 2022: The Arrival by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #38) The Andalites are here! Well, sort of. It’s not the reinforcement fleet that the Animorphs have been expecting while waging their desperate resistance war against the Yeerk occupiers. Instead, Ax’s people have sent a vanguard of just four warriors, with a stated objective …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Arrival by K. A. Applegate”
Book #28 of 2022: The Weakness by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #37) I’ve used the word “goofy” in the past to describe the handful of Animorphs volumes that I haven’t really cared for in this reread, reflecting those one-off premises that are simply too outlandish to take seriously even in the context of a YA …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Weakness by K. A. Applegate”
Book #22 of 2022: The Mutation by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #36) Another somewhat-middling Animorphs adventure, this time by one-off ghostwriter Erica Bobone. The initial premise is fine: the Yeerks are apparently still searching for the sunken Pemalite craft from #27 The Exposed, and have built an advanced heavy-duty submarine that the heroes decide they …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Mutation by K. A. Applegate”
Book #16 of 2022: Visser by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Chronicles #3) The Chronicles have been a consistently strong corner of the Animorphs franchise — perhaps surprisingly so, given how little they feature of our familiar teenage animal-morphing freedom fighters. In this third volume, for example, the spotlight lands on Visser One, the Yeerk commander …
Book #10 of 2022: The Proposal by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #35) This is ghostwriter Jeffrey Zeuhlke’s second and final contribution to the Animorphs series, and I must say, I like it a lot less than his previous outing, #25 The Extreme. The best part is the focus on a crisis in narrator Marco’s mental …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Proposal by K. A. Applegate”
Book #4 of 2022: The Prophecy by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #34) Another strong Animorphs adventure ghostwritten by Melinda Metz, who likewise penned the previous Cassie volume, #29 The Sickness. (Alas, it appears to be her final contribution to the series.) Surprisingly enough, this one is also a direct sequel to The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, revisiting …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Prophecy by K. A. Applegate”
Book #373 of 2021: The Illusion by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #33) Remember that Scholastic Book Fair series from the 90s with all the wacky covers of kids turning into animals? Haha, anyway, this is the volume where one of those middle-schoolers gets captured and violently tortured in excruciating detail for a good portion of …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Illusion by K. A. Applegate”
Book #367 of 2021: The Separation by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #32) I realize suspension of disbelief is an odd criterion for a series about middle-schoolers changing into animals to fight aliens, but I find this book with the two Rachels particularly hard to swallow. I actually dig the initial premise: the protagonist is injured …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Separation by K. A. Applegate”
Book #361 of 2021: The Conspiracy by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #31) Kudos to Laura Battyanyi-Wiess, our first repeat ghostwriter: this Animorphs novel is possibly Jake’s strongest outing as narrator yet, and I love that it springs from such a simple premise. The hero’s great-grandfather has died, and his dad is insisting the family take …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Conspiracy by K. A. Applegate”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more