Customer Reviews

The Departure (Animorphs, vol. 19)

5 star:		(89)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

K.A. really tops herself with this book. I used to think of Yeerks as just evil slug with no feelings, no right to live. But after reading The Departure, I thought about what the Yeerks were really trying to do: survive. We do that when we eat animals and plants. If we said that the Yeerks were wrong for trying to survive, then we are wrong for eating plants and animals. Maybe there is a better way to survive then by taking over planets, like symbiosis, but the Yeerks don't know that, just like we don't think about substituting meat and plants with something else. Cassie understood that, and she accepted to be infested by Aftran to show her that maybe there was another way. Maybe what changed Aftran was the fact the Cassie didn't hate her, but pitied her. Maybe thats what we need to change Earth. Maybe thats why in book 52, Ax says that people like Cassie are more dangerous, because they pity the enemy.

Wow! Iloved this Book! I think everyone was impressed because usually the Cassie books stink. This book is a turning point in the Animorph series. Cassie learns that she can't escape the war, but when she has to return, it will be even harder to fight . .

A shame to leave this one out of your reading list! Cassie's usually the one to explore the moral dilemmas the Animorphs face, and The Departure is no exception. It's a different structure: the Jake chapters at the end, for example. However, I didn't think Applegate really succeeded in portraying the emotional devestation that would have been caused by Cassie's presumed loss late in the book - a minor detraction from a book that provides legitimate narrative furthering.

What I think about this book is totally, wonderfully, entirely wonderful. And intriguing. I would rather start out with what has happened in the past books, but since this book is REALLY old, it doesn't have many books left. If the AMAZON.COM asked me, "What series of books do you want to have?", then without hesitation, I would say "ANIMORPHS" immediately. If, by any chance, Hollywood asked me, "What movie would you like to make?", then I would say "ANIMORPHS" seconds flat. I really do LOVE Animorphs. It kicked "Harry Potter" and Septimus Heap's butts and ran over "Droon" which WAS my favorite back three years ago. Anyway, this book makes your heart stop dead cold.

Till now, you might have thought the Yeerks were all bad, disgusting, evil, whatever. However in this book, Cassie reveals the secret by having a Yeerk in her head. You probably noticed the cover, there was a butterfly. Well, no problem. We will get to that after some summaries. This time, the story is lead by our animal-hugging tree-kissing wuss, Cassie. After some trick-or-freak of trying to know about sharing, Cassie found out that she was followed by a girl named Karen. With a Yeerk in her head. eventually, the Yeerk found out that Cassie was a human and mocked her to kill Karen. Cassie, on the other hand, didn't want to hurt the girl while trying to kill the Yeerk. So she just ignored the Yeerk and started to think how to survive off this stupid mess of getting stuck in a forest. Probably miles away from home, with a very-hungry leopard on the loose. In the end, however, Cassie made a deal. The Yeerk will go back to its pool, never return to a host with Cassie turned into a Caterpillar and became a nothlit. Eventually, there is the Amazing know-it-all Ax-man comes into action and saves the day. So does this book. After Cassie becomes her own self, she talked with Karen who is now free, about some things and the book ends.

This is so good that if the Amazon.com had any sense, they would beg to Hollywood to turn it into a movie!

Cassie is tired of the missions. She's tired of the secrecy. She's tired of being an Animorph. So she quits. But the fight is far from over. A human-controller has discovered Cassie's secret.

Synapsis: Cassie decides she's had enough of the war with the Yeerks and with the Animorphs, so she quits the team. She's lost the capacity to feel anything, love, hate, even fear, as it blurs into a kind of emotionless nothing within her. Unable to cope with the lies to her parents, the stress, and the inhumanities of war, she tries to leave it all behind. To make matters worse, her parents are going to lose the animal rehabilitation center which they run. Yet, even that, she finds herself unable to care about as much about it as she knows she should. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the fans of the series), things don't go anything near what Cassie plans, and she finds she has someone watching her. The watcher is revealed to be a little girl, who Cassie rescues from a bear, then finds herself swept into a river, washed into the heart of a forest. Without any idea of which way to go, against the elements, and the very real threats of dying of exposure, Cassie would normally morph and fly to civilization. To complicate things, however, the little girl is with her. It's easily discovered the child is a Controller, and the Yeerk inside her mind wants to learn everything about Cassie. Throughout revealing herself to the Yeerk, yet survive, Cassie is forced into some tough problems which have nothing to do with battle. There's also an added problem in an escaped leopard who is determined to make an easy meal out of the wounded Controller or Cassie.

This is one of the more thought provoking books of the series, and isn't focused on the battles as others have been in the series. We get a look at the Yeerk race as never before, that not all of them are the evil, cowardly creatures like Visser Three. Although not precisely nice beings, it presents concepts such as a parasites view on its right to live, expand, and experience the world of sight and colors as opposed to blindness. This is the first book of the series which introduces the idea of the Yeerk resistance members.

As for my personal opinions of the book, I'd have to say that in thinking about the entire series, this is probably my favorite book. I don't have a favorite character, because each one is great in his or her own way. There's enjoyment for me reading about each one for many different reasons. Cassie, however, has always been more or less the keeper of the morals of the group. She's always had a feeling for people's feelings, and been relied upon to help judge the right from the wrong. For her to suddenly lose her ability to care is like the character losing her own soul. From the other reviews I've seen by fans, I don't get the impression Cassie is as popular as Rachel and Tobias, but I see her as very much a critical part of the team. Without Cassie to help counterbalance Rachel, even "Xena, Warrior Princess" could easily go running headlong into decisions she'd regret later. Rachel is the group's courage, directness, and shares a bit of ruthlessness with Marco (all critical elements.) Cassie, however, helps keep the scales balanced, and never has such an in depth look been given to her character as this story. We see her make a tremendous sacrifice, and all of it, in her mind, to do nothing but make a small amount of peace between one Yeerk, one human/Animorph, and free a solitary little girl from being a Controller. In finding that one, small, fragment of peace, she's also able to make peace with herself and find where she belongs in the war. There are no easy, pat answers for her. She does, however, find a place for someone who regaurs all life as sacred -- yet is in the middle of a war to save the human race.

We also see what life is like for some of the Yeerks, some of which are equally tired of the war. Like any war, there's more than one side, and much like a common German soldier in comparison to Hitler in WWII, there's no utter black or white when you look at the big picture. This gives the series even more depth and realism overall.

The imagry of the forest is very well done in this story, as well. In the earlier Megamorphs: Time of the Dinosaurs, we were shown a world which was nearly impossible to survive in. However, that was largely due to the fact the humans went from the height of the food chain to the very bottom. In this novel, its a very mundane and normal forest which provides most of the opposition against the little girl with the twisted ankle who Cassie is trying to get back to civilization for the sake of the host ... or perhaps the Yeerk and the host... or even more possibly for herself. Cassie knows the best thing to do would be to kill the Yeerk with Kadrona starvation, or even kill host and Yeerk together. In her heart, however, she knows the "best" thing is not the right thing. This prompts long nights trapped in the wilderness which Applegate brings to life in a very vivid way for such a short work.

I found the book itself was also the typical fast paced read, although it didn't focus on fights, battles, or humor. The author moved her plot along well with a sprinkling of action here and there, keeping me interested with facts about the Yeerks or other tension which didn't have to do with physical confrontation. Highly recommended.

This book realy made me think .I thought yeerks where mainly evil with a few good ones.sadly,I read #29 first so I had no idea who they where talking abount.When I saw it here and saw all those reveiws I was dying to read it.When I fanily did I thought Marco was nuts.He said in #20 that he did not realy trust her.That he probibly changed his mind when Cassie saved his butt in #21.Cassie is sensitive and that is why people don't like her but If the world was full of Rachles I would be scared to death because I HATE shopping. ....

Cassie is tried of violence, tried of the Yeerks. She wants peace, but how can she get it? In this book Cassie leaves the Animorphs, for good. She quits. No more Animorphs for her. Then she finds someone who knows there secret. Will she go back to violence to solve this promlem and break her vow? Or will she stay w/ her morals and let this person(Or alien, I'm not telling!) live? To find out more about this book and see what happens, read it! It's really good!

All right, I am the world's biggest Animorph fans. I am twelve, and they still interest me. Every one of them. And this book took the cake, the ice cream, and all the cheap plastic utensils. It's a Cassie book, and I thought it was going to be boring. I mean, so Cassie quits. Big deal. Halfway through the book I felt like throwing up with worry. When it ended, I felt like singing. Neither would have been good ideas, because I was supposed to be asleep. An hour was all it took to devour the book. It was a very exciting book, and it brought up new truths in the Animorphs world

Xander (Could be my real name, could not. The Yeerks are among us)

This book is definatly going down as one of the best Animorph books along with 6 and 13. Who would ever think Cassie would ever go so far in her beliefs that "All Life is Sacred" I was shocked at what she did for Karen, Aftan and herself. It is a wonderful book.