Monday, October 10, 2011

The Suspicion (K. A. Applegate)

The Suspicion
(The Animorphs series, Book 24)
K. A. Applegate
Scholastic
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)



NOTE: In honor of the re-release of the series, I'm finally posting individual reviews of the Animorphs books.

DESCRIPTION: When Cassie saw the tiny spaceship stuck to the old water pump, she didn't know what to think of it. The pump was where she'd hidden the Andalite blue box, but surely nobody could know it was there - and a ship the size of a child's toy could hardly be a threat, anyway. But the Helmacrons, petty-minded beings bent on galactic conquest, have a few tricks up their little sleeves. For one thing, their ships can detect the "transformational energy" of a person in morph. For another, their shrink rays pack quite a whallop. Cassie, Marco, and Tobias learn that the hard way. But being reduced to the size of an insect doesn't excuse one from stopping alien invaders, be they parasitic Yeerks or pint-sized Helmacrons.

REVIEW: Here, the series hits what can properly be termed a "lull." This book reads like a filler episode, full of superficial silliness and Mexican standoffs and half-funny jokes. Cassie's usually the introspective one, searching for the moral options, but here she's just another Animorph, caught up in a goofy misadventure that doesn't advance the mytharc or the characters in any significant fashion. While nothing outright embarrassing happens here, nothing particularly great does, either.

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