Published monthly from June 1996 - May 2001, the Animorphs series spanned fifty-four regular books, four special edition "Megamorph" books, four companion books, and even two "choose your own adventure" books. It followed the stories of 13-year olds Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco as they receive the ability to transform into any animal that they touch, as their only weapon against an alien invasion. What starts out as a fun way to learn about animals slowly becomes a chronicling of the loss of innocence as children are forced to fight and kill to protect their planet. After penning about twenty-five books herself, author K.A. Applegate handed the reins of the series over to a handful of ghostwriters. Although there were certainly plenty of great ghostwritten instalments, Rachel's character suffered the most from the inconsistent authorship, appearing out-of-control violent in one book and conflicted as she tries to control her impulses in another. Nevertheless, Rachel remained one of, if not the most popular of the five original characters. As it happened, all five managed to survive all of those many books, and they were right at the end, just on the verge of completing the mission for which they sacrificed their childhoods, so very close to saving the world once and for all...and Rachel is ripped apart in human form by an alien in front of all of her friends whilst telling the one person who depended upon her most that she loves him. This, while reflecting on the injustice of it all and mourning her un-lived life. Worse, her sacrifice was ultimately pointless, with sabotage rendering her death and final act of bravery irrelevant in the overall scheme of things. Of course, maybe it's just me that was traumatised by her ending. I'm sure all the other kids in the 8 - 12 target demographic were just fine.
Fiction buff and writer. If it's on Netflix, it's probably in my queue. I've bought DVDs for the special features and usually claim that the book is better than the movie or show (and can provide examples). I've never met a TV show that I won't marathon. Follow on Twitter @lah9891 .
