The Sickness

Animorphs #29 
by K.A. Applegate

Rachel is always bold and gung-ho, but I think Cassie showed true bravery in this episode. Ax becomes deathly ill, and all the other Animorphs get sick also, leaving Cassie the only one who can save Aftran- a Yeerk on the side for peace, who knows all about the Animorphs and has been captured, about to be interrogated by Visser Three and spill all. Cassie moves desperately, sneaking into the Yeerk pool by morphing a Yeerk herself and hiding in the brain of a Controller who's also part of the peace movement. You'd never think she'd get away with what she has to do down in the Yeerk pool, but she does. By the skin of her teeth. Later in the story Cassie allows a Yeerk into her own brain. The same one that she came to know in The Departure The other really crazy part of the story is when Cassie has to do brain surgery on Ax in attempt to save his life. Yeah she was nervous and shaking and fumbling but it was successful and sounded way too easy. It's a dark storyline, but I couldn't put it down. Really a lot of depth, the stuff Cassie was thinking about: why should the Yeerks be denied sight, sound, taste, etc? also the realization that many of them simply don't want to be part of the war to dominate Earth. Oh, and I really liked the ending, where Aftran ended up when they realized she had no place to survive as a wanted Yeerk. It was really nice.

Rating: 4/5               152 pages, 1999

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