Moran Rereads the Animorphs Part 9
Book 9: The Secret
AKA “The PTSD squad does termites, and Visser Three learns about the true ruler of the forest”
- Cassie and Rachel using a rat morph to improve Cassie’s grade is weirdly cute to me. Like. They have priorities, they have shit to do, but nah, they’re going to scuttle around as rats so that Cassie gets an A. It’s adorable. Also, Rachel is definitely the one who usually starts shit, and it’s endearing to see how ready she is to let her best friend drag her into shenanigans. Cassie and Rachel’s friendship means so much to me you guys, oh my God, I just read Book 19 and I am INTO THAT FRIENDSHIP right now.
- I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but I ship Cassie and Jake with all my heart. Not quite as hard as I ship Rachel and Tobias, but PRETTY FUCKING HARD. And it’s killing me how cute they are when Jake tries so hard to scold them for their antics.
- Termites are awful and I will not hear debate. I can’t believe these idiots thought termites were going to be better than ants. These children. Babies. Honeys. No. The termites make this a Very Traumatic Book.
- Speaking of termites: Cassie is the gentle one. The one with emotional intelligence and a reverence for life that the others just can’t match—ruthless Rachel, predator Tobias, soldier Ax, desperate Jake, tactician Marco. And after everything they do—and even by this point, they’ve been through some shit—it’s killing a bug that really sticks with her. She wreaks total destruction on the termite colony and that haunts her, even to the end of the series. Cassie, the moralizing, tree-hugging soul of the group, gets a glimpse at coming in and annihilating a culture she’s further ahead of than humans are from Capuchins, in the body of one of their own. And it is way too close to home for her. This book is actually pretty heavy on the emotional distress for Cassie, poor sweet girl. She’s so not cut out for this.
- The skunk kits are my favorite part, honestly. I love how Tobias goes from eating one (he needs to eat to live, Cassie, don’t be an asshole, baby girl) to saving the others, I love how Rachel clearly thinks it’s a little nuts but is ready to go to bat for Cassie anyway, I love how Jake just fucking caves (to his girlfriend), I love how baffled Ax is, I love how Marco goes from “this is insane” to “those are our kits and the Yeerks can fuck RIGHT ON OFF”. Except not in those words because they’re kid’s books (says the girl who read them at seven and hasn’t heard the end of it yet).
- ACTUALLY I LIED. My favorite is that, of all the big, terrifying, menacing creatures they can morph, the one that they use as a weapon against the Yeerks is the sweet little skunk. Cassie’s not wrong—until you startle them or piss them off, skunks basically do not give a single fuck about humans or anything else. And then you do startle them and you’re totally screwed. Time to pack up and go home. Unless home is a spaceship, because, as Ax so astutely points out, you will NEVER get the smell to go away.
- Ax’s line <I believe the smell is causing me to become deranged, I may have to run away in panic> makes me fucking cackle every time.
- Obligatory Thoughts about Andalite sense of smell if they don’t have a sense of taste? They’re prey animals, so maybe they have a sensitive ‘disgust’ trigger for smells as a residual from when they had predators but not a whole lot of other variation? I have questions, Ms Applegate.
- Purple Visser Three. *snickers forever* Sucks to suck, Visser. It’s is such a good cathartic release after this TRAUMATIC-ASS BOOK. NO BUGS EVER. DO NOT MORPH BUGS.
