yeah dude! that's why you don't give up your body for the one slim hope that it'll go well! gosh we know that Cassie's family history has roots in human slavery, i want more exploration on that. i mean i know applegate is white but this little black girl essentially just enslaved herself! aaaaaaaa
Also Aftran he/him pronouns i guess. cassie, go diving around his mind for yeerk gender studies
yeah cuz 3 sentences later Aftran is a she! We know it takes a throuple joining into one sacrificial body to make more yeerks so i guess Aftran was lying about her parents being worried about him? ugh im so confuuuused
oh wow this image will stay in my head. this poor little bloody redhead with her hand holding onto little yellow wildflowers. god i hope she makes it out of this book okay.
damn. this book really went there. okay im back on board this is my favorite one so far. And Jake's POV in the next chapter how suspenseful and new!! i was genuinely surprised even though Cassie said at the beginning that Jake would help her tell this tale. I thought she meant he was going to be narrating the next book but no! here we are! unprecedented! im having a great time, Aftran makes their case extremely well. It's kind of a dumb solution, but still cool.
this is a really good breakdown of everyone, Jake, but I dont think you're totally accurate about everyone's reasons. There's more to it for all of them of course, but idk. i feel like someone else could look into this better than me. It's not that Jake's wrong but...idk idk i couldnt write up a good enough analysis of everyone and their reasons well enough to refute it. fuck i love this book.
yeah no there are real actual tears in my eyes. fuck dude.
I'd thought earlier that Cassie and Aftran would talk more because Cassie could thought-speak to Aftran, but I guess she didnt?? and she's about to go butterfly which i hope will somehow undo her nothlit status idk but this whole page. Jake's words, Rachel deciding above all else that keeping Cassie (and her name!) safe is more important than her rage!! Ax's anger and twitching tail! Tobias' quiet statement and Marco making sure the leopard didn't kill her!! god these kids love each other so much and knew how much Cassie loved loved loved the world i cant do this guys fuck im so glad i joined this book club
and she's experiencing vision and colors for the first time again being reborn as a butterfly just like Aftran aaaa it's so poetic!!!!!
i'm laughing my fucking ass off this is so stupid but i dont care!!
And Karen lives!! and saves the clinic! i genuinely thought that leopard was gonna kill her ngl im so glad she made it and that Aftran will come back later at some point. I hope she's not super pissed that by some crazy ass loophole, Cassie made it back to her life. Especially after killing Aftran's 'brother'. But I'm really glad Cassie was able to reconcile the warring parts of her and make just a sliver of peace and color in this dark dark world. She deserved that.
What a good book omg. Thank you for starting this book club, @emeraldmew . I knew this series would be worth it but I'm so glad I have some schedule to keep me accountable to reading them and a few people who read what I have to say about them. Fingers crossed I can make it through the rest of these books without reading too many spoilers and that this will be entertaining for all of you really cool talented animorphs fans who read these silly little liveblogs. I'm so pumped for more animorphs already. Brb gonna listen to the morphclub episode on this book and then get to reading the next one asap! <3
Okay, I gotta rave about one of my absolute most favourite books in the Animorphs series.
Firstly, I adore the cover. I think in terms of aesthetics, it may be one of the best covers with a morph sequence.
I then love the theme of this story. Cassie could be considered a static character here, where she's not the one changing, but the world is changing around her. These characters can be very tricky to pull off well, but it can be very cool when they are. I think about Captain America and Superman as good examples.
That isn't to say she doesn't struggle. She has to change her biases about Yeerks and see that they are not one unified idea. They are individuals. I also love that it's not making peace with the whole yeerk race, but making peace between one human and one yeerk. It shows how change often happens with small steps, and our ability to influence individuals around us is more important that massive global change. Real change happens one person at a time.
Karen and Aftran are such a cool combo, and it's cool to realize that while Aftran has a lot of anger, she was also getting tired of the fighting. Initially she says she was assigned to Karen and hates it, but as the story goes, she says she chose Karen. Aftran is ready for change and she and Cassie are able to open each other's eyes.
I also love that it's Marco who finds her first. Marco is ruthless, but he's also incredibly intelligent and has the capacity to think things through. Because of that, I also love when all the others are paralyzed trying to decide whether or not to let the leopard kill Karen, Marco is actually the one who stops it, which might feel out of character, but it just works so well. (I also love that he just yeets the cat).
The butterfly clock reset is a bit of a stretch, but I think most importantly, it drives the story forward. I'm willing to look past it, because the whole series would be worse off without Cassie. It's also just really funny to picture all the kids trying to catch a butterfly.
And then I love that Cassie gets to see Karen again. To see that Aftran kept her promise. I also want to share an absolutely brilliant piece of fanfiction here which explains how Aftran and Karen were able to keep the promise (and it also has some of my fanart at the end) so check this out! It honestly slots perfectly into canon for me:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25679572
Cassie’s transformation from caterpillar to butterfly and her consequent unlooked-for return to human form foreshadows Aftran’s unlooked-for escape from death via transformation into a whale!!!!
