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

 

The Predator
Animorphs #5
K.A. Applegate
December 1996
Scholastic
152 pages

Amazon

Marco never wanted to be an Animorph. He never wanted the ability to change into any animal he touches. He just wants to chill. Whatever happens, happens.

Jake, Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias know why Marco feels the way he does. He's worried about his dad -- the only family Marco has left. And if anything happens to him, his father will be all alone.

But something is about to change Marco's mind. It seems the Yeerks have a little surprise waiting for him. And it's definitely not nice. Now Marco has a reason to fight...

This story was from Marco's point of view. It's much easier to tell that beyond that sassy exterior is a big ball of mushy feelings and sensitive characteristics when the book is entirely in his head.

Marco was always my least favorite of the Animorphs, though I think that Cassie may have relinquished the title from him at some point, because there is really only so much tree hugging I can handle before I just want to set everything on fire.

Let's grab our suspension of disbelief hats and jump right in! Ax wants to assemble a distress beacon in order to call a Yeerk ship to Earth. Why? So he can steal it and flee back to his homeworld. The boys end up going with him to Radio Shack in the mall. That's right, they took an alien to the mall. Somehow they didn't expect him to go all crazy culture shock weird on them. Yet, that is exactly what happens. How? How could you not have predicted that?

In their escape they morph into lobsters at a grocery store. Really? That grocery store doesn't have surveillance cameras? No one requested the tapes after the culprits mysteriously disappeared inside? I think that it might blow the entire lid off their secrecy had the bad guys been in control of half a brain.

With all these shenanigans happening, they do have a really cool couple of scenes in which the crew morphs into ants. It all goes a little pear-shaped, but what in these books has not. Even their distress beacon call creates a situation in which they are taken captive and leave Earth's atmosphere.

Of course, they meet Visser One, who's identity is one of the biggest shockers of the entire series. Since the Vissers are all teenage girls, the Animorphs are able to escape with Visser One's help. There's no way Visser Three is going to be prom queen now!

This episode of the series was a lot of fun, even if it did get really silly at times.