Animorphs #16 is one of my favourites, possibly because of the ridiculous roller coaster of tonal whiplash it presents. Just in the first half of the book you get Marco sending Jake fake love letters and the chatroom nonsense, followed by 3 or 4 chapters of straight toilet humour. This is followed by Marco abandoning his role as chief of security for his higher calling of chief executor of the bit (why were they hanging out in first class as flies. Of course you’re more likely to get noticed even if you don’t try people’s food.) and, because the kids Can’t Have Nice Things, this nearly gets Jake killed (he has a really bad track record with insect morphs actually. Roach motel, bug spray, swatting).
This is followed by Jake in shock, everyone else in shock but knowing enough about the superhero schtick to not dwell on it, and the greatest Animorph diversion of all time - the closest it comes to being topped is a couple of weeks later when Ax walks into a hospital and announces he would like to defect.
It’s a book of moments, much in the way The Reaction and The Unknown are. Of course, as a Jake book it has to be a character piece to a slightly grater degree than the other narrators - Marco is still warding off pity, so Rachel is filling in the humour where he doesn’t, Cassie is deeply frustrated with the war effort not being focused on individuals - Jake’s trauma, Gump not being infested, killing people to pull things off their brains being inherently bad whatever you do. Tobias is out of practice with morphing and still thinks Jake being in charge means he should have a solution for everything, and Ax is along for the weird, weird ride.
And this isn’t even the whole book! I’m missing some of the best bits (because I’m hoping to have the energy to write about them later) it’s an absolute banger start to finish.
