The Experiment

Animorphs #28
by K.A. Applegate

The Chee inform the Animorphs that the enemy have recently acquired ownership of both a research lab and a slaughterhouse, so of course they are suspicious and have to check it out. They break into a truck carrying animals to the lab- while it's driving through a tunnel by the way- take the place of the chimps inside, and set them free. Wind up in the lab themselves and find out the experiments are completed and Visser ordered all the animals killed (after they lobbed excrement all over him). They scramble to escape in time, just manage to set some animals free as well (because Cassie insists). Next stop is the slaughterhouse which they can only get into morphed as cows- and Ax nearly gets killed. It's pretty horrible and Ax is very shaken. Of course once again they barely escape with their lives- and having found out very little this time. Visser Three had intended to put something into the ground beef that would destroy humans' free will if they ate it- but it turns out the experiment results were all faked by his terrified inferiors. Other readers have said this plot was pointless, but I found a lot going on here. There's plenty of angst between Cassie and the others about how the animals are treated, is it okay to morph chimps because they seem intelligent and self-aware but can't give consent, the ethics of eating animals- brought up by Ax who is the narrator, no less. His viewpoint is always intersesting, and here is no different. Sidestory in this book is that Ax has acquired a television and spends a lot of time watching soap operas, enthralled with the commercial breaks. He starts quoting things and mimicking some of the tv actors' mannerisms and phrases, which gets him a lot of odd looks, and made me laugh. There's also a particularly chilling moment when some bystanders are in the way- and Rachel without hesitation tells Ax to remove their heads, with his tail blade. Instead he just knocks them out. But hey- Rachel. Resorting to violence a little to easily now?

Rating: 3/5                 139 pages, 1999

more opinions:
the Library Ladies
Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales
Arkham Reviews