The Exposed

Animorphs #27
by K.A. Applegate

Rachel and Cassie are in the mall when they find Erek- the android Chee- in trouble. His hologram is failing- so the mechanical parts show through his disguise. Quickly they hide him in plain sight- in a display- and stammer explanations to passerby while Marco shows up in gorilla morph to haul them out of there. Strangely, none of the other shoppers blink at this- they think he's a person wearing a gorilla suit- and they pull it off. Discover that all the Chee are in trouble- there's a station deep under the ocean built long ago by the Pemalites (who designed the Chee) and someone shut off the program that controls all the Chee's holograms. If the Chee disguise is blown, it exposes the Animorphs too.

So they bust into a flophouse overrun by drug addicts and homeless people while it's being raided by police, to rescue a Chee that's stuck there (oh yeah because they also can't move during this shutdown). It's a crazy chaotic scene with Jake as tiger, Marco as gorilla, Cassie the wolf and Rachel the elephant rampaging around. Well, after that scene they find out about the station- it's so far down in the ocean impossible reach it- unless they could morph into giant squids. The only way to get a giant squid is to be a sperm whale. And then there just so happens to be a sperm whale that beached itself nearby. The Animorphs are highly suspicious, even they recognize this is too convenient, but it's their only option so they go for it. Manage to acquire the whale in spite of all the people crowded around saving it, get out into open ocean in seagull and dolphin forms, then Rachel and Tobias morph the whale to dive deep and find a squid. That part was creepy. Obvious how frightened their human minds were, inside the whale that didn't care.

So long story short, they manage to find a squid- which puts up quite a fight- and get it to the surface so everyone can acquire. Then they get down to the station and things get very weird. There's a confrontation with the Yeerks (again, of course) and they find out the evil Crayak was behind the whole thing. This thing called the Drode is there, representing Crayak, and seems to know all about them, even their inner thoughts and self-doubts. A very dark scene where the Drode is tempting Rachel to join with him; he recognizes the part of her that favors violence and puts serious doubt in her mind. He even incites her to turn against her fellow Animorphs. Curious where this will lead.

Rating: 3/5                     154 pages, 1999

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