The changes in narrator between books is going to take some getting used to (it took me almost this entire book to remember Rachel was narrating, and by then i was already so close to it changing again). But other than that, solid story and great progression and I'm still looking forward to the next one! ( )

Spring 2020 / Animorphs 2020 Read;

I cannot lie. I have been dying to get in my read of this book since I realized Rachel was the second narrator (and we all know Rachel, and Jo's love for Rachel, and Amanda's love of fiesty blonde violent girls is really what got me here), even if I've been so sick I've missed out on anything the book club said about it this week. I piled through this one at about an hour some evening in the middle of the week and then passed right out after.

I love the idea of how each of these puts us more and more into the minds of each character to see how they feel about things, people, the events around them, their responsibility or lack thereof. While it continues to be incredibly middle grade (not an insult to Applegate or Animorphs, just a fact it's impossible to avoid while I'm concurrently reading Sanderson's [b:The Way of Kings|7235533|The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388184640l/7235533._SY75_.jpg|8134945] through this whole month), I do find myself getting more drawn into things.

I did like that Melissa wasn't one of the controllers, and how that wound itself around the choices Rachel wanted to make as a friend and the choices she wants to make as an Animorph, and how very different those two things are already (even though that pathway will narrow and blur so fast, as all hero's journeys do). I love that you can already see Rachel's willingness to play it so hard and fast and close to the breaking point in faintest whispers already of what will come at the end.

I wrote down a lot of quotes. It's very sad the downloads don't upload over like kindle books, but oh well. Just know there was a wealth of Rachel things, Rachel feelings, discussions between people. A lot of the last lines of the book again, like last time. ( )

(Animorphs)

Gut-wrenching plot line of this one. I'm enjoying reading this series. ( )

Independent reading level: Grades 4-8