Series Re-read # 33 The Illusion

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

(I don't have the book with me to transcribe the back cover info)

The anti-morphing ray is still a threat and the group comes up with a plan to deal with it. Tobias will let himself get caught as an Andalite, and then demorph to hawk, making the yeerks think the ray is powerless. But the plan goes wrong when a controller girl named Taylor gets him and tortures him.

I love the aspect of Tobias getting in touch with his Andalite heritage despite not sharing actual DNA, and the utzum thing. Taylor will prove a interesting character between now and when we meet her again.

Was the plan thought out well enough? Things go wrong easily in any war plan, but I wonder if the torture could have been avoided or no.

Follow up: Not much. Should there have been more follow up on Tobias's effects from this. He's got to have some PTSD later on. I actually wrote a short R/T piece set after the end of the book but not sure what happened to it.

This is another book I can't bring myself to read again 'cause it's painful lol

hmm Prompt...pain and pleasure

You should all know the rules by now, I hope

Next week: The Prophecy

Oh and Visser is advertised for the first time in this book. So we're sure, it's Prophecy, Proposal, Vissser, right?

Comments

[rayerai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't reread it either. The torture thing was... unexpected, even the first time I read it.

I agree. There should have been some real consequences to that and I'm kind of disappointed in how glossed over they were. I realize they do the bloody battle and pain thing regularly, but what Tobias went through was entirely different and personal.

[tygerwulfe.livejournal.com]

I reread it, and it still made my blood run cold.

It was such a deviation, and Taylor is such a... terrifying character to introduce.

[silvane91.livejournal.com]

This is my favorite book in the series, personally.
Tobias's reactions fascinated me. The 'go away, little boy' line, and how 'the hawk' could deal with the pain where 'the human' couldn't was chilling.
It was also one of the first major glimpse of Tobias's home life I'd gotten, and the short scenes with his uncle and the drawing and the berry-lady were really powerful, at least to me, because they were what Tobias had given up, good and bad, to be a hawk, and an animorph.
When I re-read it, I was also really struck by the intro with Jake. The fact that even at this point, 20 books away from the end, Tobias thinks Jake would be willing to sacrifice one of them to further the war effort shook me a little.

[sporadicfungian.livejournal.com]

ha, I didn't even catch that about Tobias's comments on Jake.

and ooh, the scene with the uncle and the drawing? SO SAD. it's sort of weird and impressive that in a series with so much death and ethical conflict and emotional trauma, 33 books in and wee Tobias having his uncle be mean to him still chokes me up.

[sporadicfungian.livejournal.com]

My angsty Tobias-loving 12-year-old self ATE THIS BOOK UP. This was, at the time of my Animorphs obsession, hands down my favorite book and the one I reread the most. Taylor and her insanity fascinated me, but mostly, I just wanted Tobias to be more emo for my benefit. Except then in his next book he was too emo and I lost interest (heh, my 12-year-old self was fickle. and a little twisted).

There were some repercussions I think - a lot of the books after this mention Tobias being even more withdrawn and quiet than he used to be before the whole Taylor thing, and he does too in the last two books he has. But I feel like part of the problem is that the series sort of went downhill after this, in my view... off the top of my head I can't even think of a book that came after this that I really liked, then or now (except perhaps Visser, if you count that).

Also, this was the first non-Megamorphs book where Rachel and Tobias kissed, and I remember getting really pissed because Jake and Cassie's first kiss got like a whole paragraph and Rachel and Tobias got "she kissed me." I remembered this without rereading (though I did reread) which sort of makes me sad. But then, Rachel/Tobias was my first OTP.

[rideinthelimo.livejournal.com]

Also, this was the first non-Megamorphs book where Rachel and Tobias kissed, and I remember getting really pissed because Jake and Cassie's first kiss got like a whole paragraph and Rachel and Tobias got "she kissed me." I remembered this without rereading (though I did reread) which sort of makes me sad. But then, Rachel/Tobias was my first OTP.

THIS. I had the exact same thought when I read it. I was like, where is my gratuitous kissing talk. :(

[kon-no-yume.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that this book was one of the last good ones. I loved this book - but then again, I'm a huge Tobias fan. I loved that KAA wasn't afraid to show realities of war. Torture happens all the time in wars, and it's not pretty. I wish she's developed the aftermath in future books a bit better though. I think I pretty much stopped reading a few books after this. I just stopped enjoying it.

[koala-sheep.livejournal.com]

I confess I've not re-read the book as I write this, but I remember the first time through that I was excited to see someone FINALLY morph an Andalite and yet being really bored with scenes of Tobias was being tortured.

[verrine.livejournal.com]

SMOOCHIES

MY HEART MELTED ;__;

[aquilolumen.livejournal.com]

does anybody remember at the end of the torture part where tobias finally breaks and divulges everyone's names? i don't know what to make of that.

it seems like the capitulation could have just all een in his head... or maybe his interrogators actually heard him but didn't take him seriously...? the implications of tobias 'betraying' the group was never addressed later on, so maybe it was simply repressed from his memory.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

he didn't give over rachel, though, which I think makes it even worse

[karma-fucked.livejournal.com]

how so?

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

idk, it may just be that I never bought in or cared about their angsty little romance, but to me the fact that he'd rank the importance of his war buddies by his own personal relationships with them is selfish and cruel. It's not like if taylor was actually listening, they wouldn't have found out about rachel anyway--it was just this one little flaw in tobias' character that worked really, really effectively and was really sudden.

besides, every other sentence of an ax book is "oh yeah tobias is my bff for life" and the fact that tobias is so apathetic about that kind of stabbed me in the heart :(

[rideinthelimo.livejournal.com]

I loved this book. The darkness of it was really shocking, as a children's book series there was some really scary stuff in this one. That's one of the reasons why it was my favourite though, it showed the KA wasn't afraid to push the boundries of children's books.
I also loved it because I'm a bit of a Taylor freak. I loved this character, she was so messed up. I feel lik ea bit more could have been done with her, especially with her and Tobias and her and Rachel.

[tallyslium.livejournal.com]

I loved this book so much. The interesting part of it wasn't the torture, it was the fact that Tobias could relate to Taylor. Someone was torturing him and he could relate to them because of their shared problems. If that isn't awesome, then I don't know what awesome is :)

The hawk/boy and Yeerk/girl comparison was pretty dead on too, and I would have liked to have seen more of it when Taylor showed up again.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

omg I just read it again b/c of this post and that stuff with Elfangor's shared memories almost made me cry. All that left-over Andalite Chronicles angst in his head...omg that was so sweet

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

ok I was in bed and had a moment of fridge logic regarding ax's explanation for what happened...elfangor conceived tobias when he was human, so he couldn't have passed on utzum or whatever ridiculous scientific, logical explanation that was. You could argue that he *meant to* but it sounds like, in the AC, Tobias was a *mistake*, so really this doesn't work, but it doesn't matter b/c it was so sweet and poignant that I'm just going to forgive it

[deslumbrar.livejournal.com]

I remember reading an FAQ on the Scholastic website where Applegate answered a question about why no one morphed Ax. I think she said something about a bunch of clones of himself running around and it being really awkward. (Anyone else recall this?) Then, lo and behold, book #33 came out.

This is my absolute favorite Ax/Tobias book. Tobias is alone in all kinds of ways for so much of the series, and seeing some major bonding time with him and Ax was really cool. I love that Tobias is secretly excited about morphing an Andalite but tries to be all nonchalant. And for some reason the whole "im in ur head, bein perpetually optimistic" thing just cracks me up. I also LOVE the morning ritual scene; it's incredibly cute and touching and makes me fangirl and squee and...yeah. Like I said, I'm a sucker for bonding.

This book also scares the daylights out of me. The Animorphs have to deal with horrific violence in battle and its psychological damage, but what Tobias goes through is, as another poster pointed out, extremely intimate and personal. It's dark stuff for adult fiction, let alone YA, but I'm glad that Applegate wasn't afraid to "go there." Makes the book much more powerful.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

lol I love all ax/tobias bonding scenes. there weren't enough of them.

[deslumbrar.livejournal.com]

I agree. I mean, they were out in the woods together from book #8 on, they had to have had some interesting conversations. I'd like to think Ax was able to tell Tobias a little more about Elfangor, especially post-#23.

And your icon makes me giggle every time I see it.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

lol ty

ikrite? did we even get the scene that was like "look ax, this may sound weird and highly improbable, but it turns out your brother went awol on earth for a while and married my mom so...yeah he's my dad and you're my uncle." I think it was just common knowledge after whatever book he found out, right?

[deslumbrar.livejournal.com]

You're right, we never got a "big reveal" scene. I think there was a line that was something like, "For those of you just tuning in, Ax is Tobias's uncle. In other news..." And that was it. Which is really a shame, because an "Ax Finds Out" scene? Would've been comedy gold.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

lol comedy or heartwarming

or both

[crazy-catlady.livejournal.com]

Somebody definitely needs to write that.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

lol I got bored:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4755715/1/Tobias_Tells_Ax

[crazy-catlady.livejournal.com]

Aww, that was wonderful. Thanks.

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

cool, you rock :)

(I didn't think about leaving a review at FF.net until after I was in the process of writing this lol)

[karma-fucked.livejournal.com]

um i bought the action figures and acted it out *blush*

[almighty-patsy.livejournal.com]

Logging in to tell you you are awesome. *nod*