Book #145 of 2022: A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith This 1984 bestseller about a fictional family’s frontier history is required reading in many Florida schools, which is where I first encountered and absolutely loathed the title. But it has plenty of accolades and its fair share of adherents, and so I’ve always wanted …
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Book #142 of 2022: The Answer by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #53) (A quick note from your reviewer here. If you’ve read my past few Animorphs reviews, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been giving away more and more of the plot each time. These final volumes are just so jam-packed with major developments that it’s …
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Book #136 of 2022: The Sacrifice by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #52) The last story with Ax as its sole narrator is also the strongest one yet. The plot is deceptively simple: together with the rest of their small resistance force, the Animorphs propose, debate, and ultimately carry out a bombing assault on the local …
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Book #130 of 2022: The Absolute by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #51) Another thrillingly propulsive installment of the ongoing Animorphs endgame. Since the Yeerks gained the alien cube that bestows morphing powers at the end of the previous story, this one immediately feels like no other volume before it in the saga. Though the team’s …
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Book #124 of 2022: The Ultimate by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #50) The Animorphs franchise has a complicated relationship with disability, which I think can charitably be described as author K. A. Applegate occasionally straying into insensitivity while generally having her heart in the right place. Thus, “crazy” is used as a go-to insult, but …
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Book #121 of 2022: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien (Rats of NIMH #1) I’m happy to revisit this beloved childhood classic today and discover that yes, it’s still an outstanding (though quick) story. The characters make an indelible impression, and the structure is fun, with a relatively lengthy nested …
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Book #118 of 2022: The Diversion by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #49) I’m surprised that series author K. A. Applegate didn’t claim this volume to write herself, and particularly that it was assigned to ghostwriter Lisa Harkrader, who had previously only penned Cassie’s eminently skippable Australian visit in #44 The Unexpected. Here, the plot is …
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Book #115 of 2022: The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles #2) 1976’s Interview with the Vampire is a modern classic of the gothic horror genre, popularizing a new variety of sympathetic bloodsucker with its brooding and homoerotic immortals. Following in 1985, this first sequel isn’t nearly so good, but it still has …
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Book #112 of 2022: The Return by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #48) At this point in the Animorphs series, the overarching plot of the Yeerk invasion and teenage guerilla resistance war is entering its endgame. The companion books are all finished, and each of the six core protagonists has one more adventure to relate to …
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Book #106 of 2022: The Ellimist Chronicles by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Chronicles #4) This final Animorphs companion novel is a risky departure even by the standards of the Chronicles sub-series, which has previously left the teenage morphers behind solely to flesh out backstory periods of galactic history whose species and major events are already …
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