Controversial opinion incoming: I don't like the end of this book.
Like, this post really sums it up:
Animorphs is not that bad. Cassie's not related to anyone important, at least, and Jake's tie to Tom is mostly just inconvenient. HOWEVER. It's still canon that the Ellimist "stacked the deck" by recruiting Animorphs who are relatives of people like Eva and Elfangor and Tom, and the implication about ~*~superior genes~*~ is still in there.
To me, the reveal about Tobias being related to Elfangor:
Cheapens the message about these being ordinary kids — dumb jocks, bully magnets, screw-ups — who are literally in the wrong place at the wrong time when superheroism gets thrust upon them. Jake is my favorite because he cuts against type for SF heroes: he's not an outsider nerd, he's not talented; he's just some dumb jock who is also kind and brave and optimistic. Giving Tobias the classic SF backstory makes him less relatable, in my book.
Undercuts Tobias's friendship with Ax. Along with the backlash to "they're such good friends they must be in love", I'd like to start a backlash against "they're such good friends they must be related." Because it's still implying that some types of love are more valid than others. The shorms are family before they find out they share genes; do we really need that added element?
Undercuts Tobias's own call to action in the first book. Tobias makes this instant connection with a stranger from another species, in a way that Jake notes only Tobias could ever do, and it ends up pulling all five human kids into the war. There's heartbreaking power to the idea that Tobias is this overflowing with empathy and also naïveté. But whoops, nope, turns out it was a genetic connection all along!
Straight up doesn't make sense? It's a rare case where Animorphs' otherwise pretty good continuity slips up big time — Loren's three husbands, Chapman's contagious amnesia, both Tobias's parents going from "dead" to "missing", Ax's childhood suddenly being illogical. There are so many ret-con gymnastics going on that this twist doesn't feel worth it.
Loses the realism. Animorphs has my love forever for details like Marco not being able to afford admission to the Gardens and Ax fighting tears at the thought of disappointing his dad and Rachel having to be the second parent to her sisters. Tobias having a dogshit home life, just because, and using morphing as a desperate escape hatch — that's realism. That feels perfectly in line with the themes of the series. It feels like things I saw as a kid that no adult, and no other kids' book series, would talk about. Tobias having a dogshit home life because his dad's an alien prince who got time-warped off to fight a cosmic war while his mom was attacked by his dad's ancient enemies and given fantasy!amnesia because of her former role as the first human ever to be mind-controlled... Fuck off. If I wanted fantasy escapism, I'd read a different book.
Animorphs books can be read here | Book Club schedule is here
mentioned to someone that my transformations on the full moon have started lasting through the day (longest has been 66 consecutive hours). she was like “oh I’m so sorry that has to be so frustrating” which, I understand as a response, but also it’s not like I was getting anything done those days anyway lol. I end up doing what I normally would (sleeping) just in dog mode
this is also like, Weak Shit lmao. I talked to a guy on a forum who’s a wolf full time except for like four days around the new moon. he lives outside till he’s bipedal again then crashes at his brothers house. I asked if that’s like, safe and shit and he just said “absolutely not, but I’m really really good at being a wolf”
but. yeah jokes aside it Is inconvenient. just not a New inconvenience; like I said the exhaustion has always been the real killer. because like. obviously you don’t Get Sleep on those nights even if you turn back. still need to get formal accommodations for it for school; thankfully my professors this semester are chill (painting instructor last semester probably would’ve tried to get me to fuckin. hold the brush in my fangs or smth)
however!!!! my new doctor is like Actually Competent and gives a shit so I have meds. that might actually be Functional for once? wonder of wonders he listened to me when I said I don’t care about stopping physical transformations, I just wanted to regulate the risky behaviors. and the stuff he got me does that really well; also helps keep me feeling like. more “domesticated”? like I’m more adapted to human stuff even on a full turn. very very good bc now I don’t get half as stir crazy indoors and, more importantly, I’m way more cooperative with humans (especially people I know). so I’m safe to be around and my friends can just like. take me for a walk. genuinely a really good time. we played fetch last week and I have to confess: It was The Shit. maybe the most fun I’ve had in my life. ten thousand years werewolf joy and whimsy ‼️
(however bc physical transformation isn’t regulated at all anymore my dietary needs are weird again. really really miss chocolate and coffee but it’s a small price to pay for having an appetite again and kicking that god-awful insomnia from the old stuff)
I'm so glad this person's found their way to living well with their tranformations! Stories like these really emphasise what a difference it makes when institutions embrace the creature community and put their needs first. Individual lifestyle choices can only take us so far - we need more healthcare providers and educators to step up for the liminal folk in their care!
Book reviews from a Suicidal person: "The Midnight Library"
I finished reading the book: The Midnight Library
It was a good read. It’s the kind of story adjacent to what I would write.
But it just… I definitely would not write it.
The protagonist commits suicide. (Always a plus, haha)
And for extremely valid reasons. I mean—her cat literally died at the beginning of the book, and she lost her job and absolutely every earthly contact she had.
Yeah. Suicide is recommended at that point. Can't fault her.
And then the book is about the many lives she could have experienced up to that point. She’s in her mid-thirties, and so through the library she can jump in and experience life from many, many different perspectives. I got "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once vibes" and just the tiniest dash of "A Short Stay in Hell".
The book I would have preferred, instead of seeing how her past would have been different if she made different decisions—is if she had many different futures and she got to pick from them and choose the best future after her suicide attempt.
I’m imagining a book where it’s an ANY% speedrun completion to get to the first million dollars, or married, or to be happy. Being happy any% speedrun?
What if there’s a system where after suicide, someone better and more experienced at liking being alive gets a chance to pilot your body and coordinate making it better for a while?
It would be like one of those stories where a homeless person wins the lottery and is homeless again 5 years later. Because a non-suicidal person optimizes the life of the suicidal person and it's amazing for them. But the suicidal person does not vibe with the newly optimized "amazing" life, and when they take back over themselves, they just wanna die again. Because the suicidal person can make hell out of a heaven.
Probably a terrible book idea.
Back to The Midnight Library—It's not for me. It became so… pro-life at the end. Pro-existence.
I didn’t buy Nora’s change of heart into wanting to be alive.
I guess because I don’t really get it. I don’t understand people that like existing. Existence is suffering.
ALL of her lifetimes were filled with suffering, and often joy too. But the suffering is consistent and reliable. And I suppose that was because it’s a book. Books do things like that. They have conflict. Books end the very moment the conflict ceases. Which makes me wonder if I even like books at all.
I—I don’t understand why people like being alive.
I just don’t get it.
Maybe it’s because Nora had a choice?
I’ve never felt like I had—have—a choice in whether I live or die. It’s just not something I get to decide. Too many people would be upset. As a people pleaser, I’d much rather be alive and miserable, than upset anyone else. But I will be bitter and angry towards them for all existence for their insistence in requiring me to be alive.
One of the most powerful parts of the book was when she stopped jumping into lifetimes that were the dreams of other people, and tried jumping into lifetimes she never would have anticipated, ones that were actually her own hopes and dreams.
It's funny. For me, existence is someone else's dream. I don't get to have a choice of whether I exist or not. I don't get to experience the joy of choice Nora has... because I don't have a choice. I have to follow others dreams. My own dream is non-existence. And no one is happy for me for it.
5 stars. Good book. Not for me. But close to being for me. And adjacent to something I would write.
🚨 A new episode of Adventuring Academy is out now on Dropout!
Join Brennan Lee Mulligan and the honorary co-president of Dropout Aabria Iyengar @quiddie as they talk adversarial PCs, multi-classing, and Oreo cookies! ⚔️
Random ask because I've been on an MLP fic binge recently: What if the series was set in Equestria? Yeerks invading a planet full of magical talking ponies. Andalites would fit in, at least, but what else? What races are the kids? Do they have their marks yet?
I haven't seen My Little Pony. Does anyone who knows that and Animorphs have ideas?