[Animorphs Reread] The Invasion by K. A. Applegate

The Invasion
Animorphs #1
K. A. Applegate
June 1st, 1996
Scholastic Paperbacks
184 pages

Amazon

Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night he and his friends saw the strange light in the sky. He may even tell you about what happened when they realized the "light" was only a plane -- from another planet. Here's where Jake's story gets a little weird. It's where they're told that the human race is under attack -- and given the chance to fight back.

Now Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco have the power to morph into any animal they choose. And they must use that power to outsmart an evil that is greater than anything the world has ever seen..

I totally dropped the ball on this. I had such a busy weekend and I fell into cleaning that I just didn't get around to posting this yesterday. Whoops.

This is the first of the Animorphs books, it introduces the main characters, their quirks, their aspirations, their tragic back-stories. They receive their powers and decide ultimately that they're going to attempt the save the world.

I don't know what to say about this book. I originally picked it up when I was twelve. Hanging out at the mall was a thing back then, that people did regularly. The arcade at the mall was always packed. This book spoke to me as a pre-teen, it knew me. I would peruse Waldenbooks every time I went to the mall, waiting to see that the next book had come out.

I don't have the re-release, but did they change any of this? The basis for the whole plot? They couldn't possibly have Jake playing videogames on his Xbox with Marco at another house. The culture that thrived in Mallrats and Clueless just does not exist any more.


Granted, there are a lot of things in this book that are somewhat ridiculous. More ridiculous than the plot. Why would they talk in great danger? Also, if the Andalite could hear them, and answer all their questions, why were they not captured IMMEDIATELY. If the Andalite was just going to pontificate information to begin with, they could have just shut up the whole time.

Despite this shaky start, that the nostalgia part of my brain still adored, there's something endearing about Animorphs. By the end of their book, after botching an infiltration, they realize that they're not superheroes after all. The job still falls on them, but their sense of invincibility is shattered. It is reflected in later books, as they attempt to save the world little by little with less exorbitant missions.

It might not have been as great as I remember, but it was still really fun.