Book Review || The Invasion (1996)
"Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night he and his friends saw the strange light in the sky."
: 🌕 : SPOILER ALERT : 🌕 :
Following the adage that gold can be found at the end of a rainbow, I walked through the World Wide Web in search of a story I could carry in my pocket. I had worked my way through gargantuanly large tomes of the classic variety & felt unjustly tricked; the majority of my encounters have left me feeling like the joke was on me, that the revered story was lost, too far away to be grasped by my dexterous fingers. It was at this point that I endeavoured to turn back the clock. Readers of my generation & veracity had sung to the Heavens a hymn of universal acclaim, fine-tuned with the melody of the angels’ chorus, a love most heartfelt for the Animorph series. I wanted to trust the common glee, the eager applause, & the popular story, once more.
“And if you think you’re brave, well, wait till you’re cowering a few feet away from a monster who can turn you into coleslaw in about three seconds flat.”
I opened this book with trepidation. When these books were first published, I had not been among the crowd of young happy readers who consumed them. I had seen them in the library, & witnessed the eagerness of other readers as they fondled the covers, exchanging their joy with a friend, but for reasons I cannot necessarily express, this series existed on the periphery of my young life. Although I write to you now during a decade of life that far exceeds the target age range of the reader, I find myself leaning on my beliefs as they hold true now, as ever; a good book is a good book, no matter who it is written for.
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Selecting this first book of the series, which accounts for 54 books in total, felt like an odd coin toss. I was eager, I do admit, to read the story that had captivated so many readers. I was also apprehensive about what I might find; worrying as I was that the joy would be wrapped in a gift that I was too old to appreciate.
This admission is tedious; one need only scroll through my reviews to note that I read nearly every style, genre, & type of story. I suppose that my feelings reflect a trepidation regarding the appreciation for something that holds so much nostalgia. It is an odd thing to describe but, it holds its place as all other feelings do & so, I have included it here.
As I worked through my eager insecurity towards this book, I found myself seated one evening ready to dive in. Stacked & waiting for me were the books I had yet to read, among them Dostoevsky, Gogol, Steinbeck, Christie, & Jackson, all monster writers with wickedly brain-bending stories for me to consume. This I note, specifically for the reader who dawns judgment on the diverse bibliophile.
Readers have a special gleaming opportunity when they practice their craft. The world begins to open like the sea; everything grows, becoming glorious & wonderful, no one book accomplishes this alone, as no one writer has perfected their craft without the efforts of another. Looking at this pile waiting patiently for me, I wondered where among the tomes that have created my reader’s mind, might Applegate’s stories sit comfortably as well.
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My appreciation for this book is difficult to quantify. Within the mere novella that one beholds, shaped coyly by the cover art that depicts the physiognomic transformation of a young boy, the story within presents the twists & turns of glory found in the science fiction genre.
In essence, this is a story about a group of young friends who begin their quest to save Earth & the human species. The main character & the story’s narrator, Jake, is young, one might be generous by saying he is thirteen; one might be forgiven for believing him to be twelve.
One evening after a few hours spent at the mall, Jake & his friends—Marco, Tobias, Cassie, & Rachel—decide to take a shortcut home, wandering through an abandoned construction site where they are met by a lowering spaceship.
The driver of the ship, an alien known as an Andalite, speaks to them through a form of telepathy & explains that another group of aliens known as the Yeerks have waged war on planet Earth & intend to colonize all human life. The Andalite, who was fighting to protect Earth, grants the group of friends the power to transform into any animal species they come into physical contact with by absorbing the animal’s Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
What ensues is a rapidly moving, fast-paced struggle. The young group is unsure whether they should even believe what they are being told. They feel conflicted about their role in safeguarding their home & also about the violence that would ensue should they decide to engage in war against the Yeerks.
Reading this book as an adult allowed for an interesting perspective. While I fully appreciated that Applegate might simply have her characters scurry around town worrying about the reality of their alleged new powers, I was surprised to find that she endeavoured to write with gumption. In fact, Applegate’s decision to ensure that the cast of characters was fully realized bode so well for the story that I felt myself immediately immersed.
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The main struggle of this first installment of the series focused on laying the groundwork for the reader to understand who these characters are. Jake is a character who is apprehensively confident & insightful, he has a traditional family nucleus & an older brother with whom he shares a warm relationship. I pause here to reflect on the value of this setting.
As I have been working my way through a few series that featured rather heavily in my youth, I note that many authors publishing books in the 80s & 90s disregarded the value of family support. That is not to say that a person without the traditional domestic setting is lesser than another but rather that many authors emphasized the casual abandonment of parents. These stories often lay claim over the boisterous banality of a young life & the tired annoyance of a parent towards their child.
In contrast, Applegate witnessed the world around her & found a way to include a dynamic domestic reality for her characters. While Jake has a brother who cares about him & parents who are warmly attentive, Tobias is an orphan who is shipped from one family member to another. Marco lives with the worry that his father might commit suicide as a consequence of his immense grief over the passing of his wife & expresses this fact openly & earnestly to his friends, each of whom values his honesty & reality, validating his sentiments.
These three experiences feature throughout the novel without lingering over one aspect too long. A reader who is within the target age range for this book will be able to gauge why each character acts the way they do without necessarily becoming bogged down by the gruesome details as might a more mature reader.
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As I learned about each character & was allowed to witness them at play, I forgot entirely that I was reading a book. When finally, I recalled that this was a sweet treat of a story, it was over & I was left reeling; how had I spent all these years without such enjoyment caused by this book?
As silly as this seems it is the clearest way I have of describing my experience. Applegate took such care to work against the stereotypical approach of middle-grade fiction; the intricacy of the characters & their dynamics both within themselves, that which only the reader comes to learn, & among each other, was so refreshing. The 90s sense of humour shone brightly as the characters made crass jokes & exhibited self-deprecating quips.
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Because Applegate spent time allowing her characters to bloom & grow, the rising action of the plot felt enticing & riveting. The friends must decide whether they believe this war is one worth engaging in & also, whether their new skill is something they can morally accept.
During the time in which this story was published the intricacies of DNA were not as well-known as they are today. Sequencing & the thorough breakdown of the molecule might not have been factors that a middle-grade reader cared much about, even less so given the dynamic of this book. However, I believe that undercutting the eager mind from engaging in a subject simply because they are not yet well-versed would be deeply ignorant.
Had I read this book in my youth I might have felt similarly to how I do now. I spent a great portion of my early adulthood consuming non-fiction, whose goal was the exhibition of DNA & human genetics. The study of such biology has always been quite fascinating to me & I would wager a guess that those lucky young readers of yore who absorbed the genomics of this story may well now find themselves among the great thinkers of genome research & those who wander through the imagination of fiction, publishing the work that will enthuse a future generation.
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As always, the science behind the super-human power to morph into animals left me wondering about its specifics. I longed for the group of friends to grow confident & explore the parameters of the Andalite’s gift. I began wondering where they might go in order to gather the DNA of large animals & who they might rely on to gather intel on different species.
Stories of this calibre engage readers in a variety of ways, one of which is the necessity of revisiting theories as the story unfolds. I wondered whether the friends might be able to engage the museums where dinosaur DNA was alleged to be held & whether they would be able to warp & manipulate the DNA they had acquired to combat the ultra-giant monster of the Yeerks. I suppose I will have to continue reading to see what becomes of their skill.
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Ultimately, what made this book so enjoyable was the apparent care the author took in building it. The world of the young friends is filled with equally unique & true experiences, most of which the reader will have lived or witnessed themselves. For this reason, it was easy to root for the friends & hope for their success.
As they transformed into the Siberian Tiger, the African Savanna Elephant, & the Red-tailed Hawk, the reader will be along for the adventure with them. The lines between the written word of the storybook & the realism of the reader’s quarters will be blurred; soon both the characters & the reader will find themselves sneaking down the stairway to the resting pool in the school’s hidden basement. The winning streak of luck & courage that will leave the group reeling, hoping for a better day, always blows winds into the sails of the ship that has sailed.
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Readers may find in this first installment the cultural marker of a story written with gumption, poise, & purpose. Taunting the reader with the mystery of youth & the bliss of naivety that was shed.
The characters will easily make their mark & leave readers rooting for the day that Tobias is set free from his form, when the will to power may riddle the mind of the possessed with enough fire to eviscerate the insane colonizer of the Yeerk. I eagerly pen this review in anticipation of the next book in the Animorph series & the opportunity that is sure to come as the young protagonists battle the intergalactic armies of evil for freedom here, on Earth.
C. 💌