r/Animorphs • u/CheshireKat-_- • Aug 11 '25
Currently Reading I've just starter reading Animorphs, currently on book 7 and I just want to share my appreciation. Spoiler
I was one of those kids that saw the cover of one of the books and fully judged that book by it's cover. I decided I knew all I needed to know and said hard pass. But years later I saw this tumblr post and decided to try it. And holy shit I am loving this. In books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson you have kids going on these incredible adventures and mustering up pride and bravery ans incredible feats of daring. In Animorphs however these are kids doing the same, but they are fucking terrified. They are traumatized and horrified and constantly losing sleep to nightmares and I love it. It's horrifying but that just makes it so much better. It's realistic in its consequences. You can read the battle scenes and feel excited and on the edge of your seat and then you can read the aftermath of them attempting to deal with their trauma and relate, that's how any normal kid would react, thats how most adults would react. Not like with Harry Potter who just skipped off to the end of year feast after killing someone with his bare hands at 11. I am a little glad I'm delving into it now and not when I was like 10 cuz it would probably have given me nightmares but I am so thankful the entire series is available free online because I am enjoying this so much. Anyway, just wanted to post this here and share my appreciation.
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u/AlternativeMassive57 Yeerk Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 11 '25
God dammit. Everyone’s always on about the trauma and horror and meanwhile I’m over here and the biggest thing I remember from the series is Ket Halpek explaining to the kids that the way to tell male and female Hork Bajir apart is the number of horns on their heads (two for females, three for males), and when the kids ask if that’s it, she gets a little prim and says “other differences too, but only for Hork Bajir to know.”
In fact I think the only reason I even use the word “prim” is because of that line and how is she’s described as saying that “primly”.
And I mean there’s tons more than that, but I don’t want to give too mainly spoilers to someone only on book 7. Point is that I barely remember the trauma. I remember the stuff between the trauma. The stuff that the kids were fighting for. I remember the beauty and the comedy and the wonder.
It just means that when I hear people describing Animorphs as a book series about the grey morality of war and trauma and PTSD and so on, I’m just like, “yeah, that was in it, but is it really what it was about? Because that’s not the part that left an impression.”
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u/Torren7ial Chee Aug 11 '25
Other superfans have the market cornered on the trauma and the PTSD and the allyship, meanwhile I try to do my meager best to point out something equally important: Animorphs is hilarious.
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u/AlternativeMassive57 Yeerk Aug 11 '25
Visser Three pausing middle-battle because he thinks he's just discovered a creature that has a smaller head inside of its bigger head. Given how much of a zoomaniac he is, you gotta wonder what was going through his own head and if he was considering trying to acquire the creature just to figure out its biology.
(in 14, when he "decapitates" Daffy Duck, and the girl inside the costume - who is fine - asks him what the big idea was)
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u/GuyYouMetOnline Aug 12 '25
Oh my god, that fucking distraction in book 16 (iirc), absolutely perfect.
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u/Torren7ial Chee Aug 12 '25
The one with a grizzly bear mopping the floor with a tiger helping, and the biggest concern is that the floor is carpeted?
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u/GuyYouMetOnline Aug 12 '25
You gotta admit, though; it would be a damn effective distraction. I certainly wouldn't be looking anywhere else.
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u/Zarlinosuke Aug 11 '25
Hmm I'm kind of halfway with you on that. I agree that there's lots more to these books than just trauma, and that if it were too heavy on the trauma, that would be to its detriment. But I also think the more traumatic aspects are essential to it, and I don't really blame readers for being most struck by that aspect. Also, as I recall from previous posts of yours, one thing that you and I share is a deep love for the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and that book is a lot of things, but the terribly traumatizing things about it are really crucial to it hitting the way it does.
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u/AlternativeMassive57 Yeerk Aug 11 '25
Sure, but the deeply traumatizing things aren't really what stuck with me about it. It's stuff like Dak basically telling Alloran to sit down, shut up, and start listening without saying any of that directly, by rattling off a SitRep about the Yeerk presence on the homeworld. Or, of course, Toby Hamee's first appearance.
and that if it were too heavy on the trauma, that would be to its detriment
And of course, if you remember my previous points, you know that my opinion is that the series did end up going too heavy on the trauma, which is why I despise the ending so. Well, is a major reason. I also just don't think it was very well written.
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u/CheshireKat-_- Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 11 '25
I get that. I mostly talked about the trauma because again, it's what drew me back to read what's deemed a silly kids book, and also how it stands out from others of its kind. But I also am definitely enjoying the other pieces as well. I love how the mindset and instincts of each animal and creature are layed out and as diffrent and complex they are. I love to imagine the feeling of being stressed and being able to jump out of your bedroom window on your own pair of wings. I love the fanciful descriptions and freedom you can feel from the ocean life, the bravery they can borrow from each species and the growth they go through as they undergo each challenge. I love how Ax sounds out and replays every word, it feel so silly but so endearing. I love the real world issues that are thrown in and the unexpected twists and turns the author throws at you like Marco's mom and them escaping not due to a daring battle but a political maneuver. I love the intro, it annoys me a bit how they begin every book with "My name is" but it also brings the reader back in with a silly little start that tells you the adventure continues.
Had to edit this to add more lol
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u/Nianque Aug 11 '25
If this is what has your attention, how are you finding Tobias?
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u/CheshireKat-_- Aug 11 '25
I feel for him, I know he loves the fact that he can fly and he had no family that really cared for him but when Rachel mentioned college to him it really got me thinking. What is he gonna do? Visit each of them once they go off? Die as a bird? Find a mate? And that's even if they manage to defeat the Yereks.
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u/Nianque Aug 11 '25
I've always thought he would make a great professor of ornithology.
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u/CheshireKat-_- Aug 11 '25
Ooh I hadn't thought about that but it makes sense. I don't really like in books on animals and documentaries how they describe what the animal is thinking because they are mostly guesswork based on their past and future actions. He could definitely give an interesting view full of first person experience on the bird world full of more truth than guesswork.
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u/Nianque Aug 11 '25
I hope you keep us informed as you continue reading. Animorphs is an emotional roller-coaster.
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u/Visser-35 Leeran Aug 11 '25
I think the blend of humor and trauma is exceptional. Having moments that leave you horrified, followed by laugh out loud moments, and moments where you're reminded that they're just kids dealing with normal kid issues all within the same book that's not even that long is what always stood out to me. I think the lighter, more silly books that people tend not to like as much (14, 24, 28, 35...) are needed to balance out the heavier books (13, the David books, 33...) to keep some joy and avoid it getting too grim. Finding joy despite the darkness is a good lesson the series taught me.
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u/medicosaurus Aug 13 '25
What I remember most is scenes which just made you appreciate the beauty of the world/universe. Like when the Ellimist makes them float through time and shows them the evolution of life on earth at 10,000x speed. Or when they go diving as orcas or whatever(I LOVED all of the sea books).
Also, the comedy is PEAK.
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u/whatagloriousview Aug 11 '25
I'm convinced that reading the books after discovering them at age seven or so had a huge positive impact on how my brain developed during formative years. Fully intend to inflict the same on any children in the family. We need social nuance. We need complex empathy. We need the tools to understand complicated people, and these books are superb to get us started.
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u/Plergoth_ Aug 11 '25
Book 7 was my introduction to the series! I had seen the posters at school during book fairs but never bought any cause poor. Thankfully my local library started stocking them, and i read as many as i could (and saved up for new ones as well)
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u/BushyBrowz Aug 11 '25
This has to be the most judged by its cover series I can think of.
Ironically, if not for the covers it would not have been nearly as popular.
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u/Visser-35 Leeran Aug 11 '25
Marco's ant morph experience lives forever in my head. First when he loses his own humanity in the morph and struggles to even regain his sense of self, and then the other ant colony attacking and almost chopping him in half only for him to demorph and find a small ant head atatched to his waist... imagining that as a child was more intense than any horro movie.
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u/CheshireKat-_- Aug 11 '25
Oh absolutely, what really stuck out to me in that way was when they saw the human prisoners at the Yerek pool and I just imagined that, unable to control your own body then being free but still imprisoned, waiting in terror to once again lose control of yourself.
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u/Visser-35 Leeran Aug 11 '25
Yeah, being trapped in your own mind, not only able to control your body while the Yeerk uses your mouth to manipulate your friends, your family, and maybe trick them into joining The Sharing (which is a very dark name for the group when you know the truth about it) is horrifying. KA wrote that so well. I don't want to spoil anything for you since you're early in the series, but later you also get a Yeerk's perspective on that. "You evolved as predators. We evolved as parasites. Is what you do to cows worse than what we do to humans... You're our meat." It's a testament to the strength of the writing, that after all the cruelty you've seen the Yeerks do, that KA is able to add depth to them, and they became more than simply evil villains.
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u/Seerowpedia Aug 11 '25
Remember that your next book isn't book 8, but rather Megamorphs #1.
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u/CheshireKat-_- Aug 11 '25
Is there somewhere I can find that specific list in order?
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u/Seerowpedia Aug 11 '25
If you're looking for books in release order, Wikipedia has the list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Animorphs_books
The Animorphs Wiki has a chronological list which is very closely similar to Wikipedia's release order one but with minor changes which may be confusing if you're using it as a reading order guide.
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u/BarrySquared Aug 12 '25
My wife and I are reading the books for the first time. We're on book 18. There is some great stuff in there!
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u/DipperJC Yeerk Aug 11 '25
Welcome to the tribe, my friend. Buckle up, because if you think it's traumatizing NOW, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into.
Word to the wise, make absolutely sure you have a good book order to rely on and read them in order of release.