The Separation

Animorphs #32
by K.A. Applegate

Warning for possible SPOILERS as this is pretty far into the series. Rachel's falling apart, seems to be experiencing some pretty bad PTSD. She's jumpy, easily angered, and does some stupid stuff, morphs a starfish on a field trip within view of other kids in order to retrieve her earring from a tide pool. Being a starfish didn't last long- a kid comes along with a shovel and chops starfish/Rachel in half. In a panic Rachel morphs back to human, avoiding death- but now there's two of her. With two different parts of her personality, and two different parts of her brain. She's impossible to work with- one side of her being indecisive and  timid, the other incredibly volatile and violent. While trying to deal with the Rachel issue, the Animorphs also have to find out where the enemy is keeping a secret weapon that could defeat their morphing abilities. They don't want the two Rachels involved, but they need the Nice Rachel along to have enough numbers to cover all the bases and can't avoid the other as Mean Rachel is furious at being left behind. Luckily in the scramble to avoid disaster when (of course) they confront the enemy in the final scenes, the two Rachels realize they need each other to be whole and functional (Mean Rachel does so very grudgingly) and with some help from the Chee, the Animorphs are able to fuse the two halves of Rachel back into one. There were -as always- some completely ridiculous situations, but for the most part I found this one interesting. Seems like the Animorphs are using their abilities more cleverly, too- not always barging into the fray with large, dangerous morphs but using the small ones to be sneaky and pose a threat from the inside. I liked that. (This book is on my e-reader).

Rating: 3/5               158 pages, 1999

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