The Departure (Animorphs, vol. 19)

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Summary: What Happens In The Departure #19
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Summary: Whoa...
Review: A shame to leave this one out of your reading list! Cassie's usually the one to explore the moral dilemmas the Animorphs face, and The Departure is no exception. It's a different structure: the Jake chapters at the end, for example. However, I didn't think Applegate really succeeded in portraying the emotional devestation that would have been caused by Cassie's presumed loss late in the book - a minor detraction from a book that provides legitimate narrative furthering.

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Summary: The Departure
Review: Cassie is tired of the missions. She's tired of the secrecy. She's tired of being an Animorph. So she quits. But the fight is far from over. A human-controller has discovered Cassie's secret.

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Summary: New Animorph & book 19
Review: First of all, the Controller Cassie gets lost with is a girl. And the new Animorph is HUMAN, A MALE, AND EVIL. K.A. Applegate said this herself. Secondly, I doubt Cassie will quit for good, but I can't wait to see what she does to the Controller. Hey, maybe she'll just keep locked up somewhere for 3 days or until the Yeerk in her head dies...wait that wouldn't work because she'll remember Cassie's secret and if she's captured by the Yeerks again the Yeerk in her brain will know about the Animorphs. Sadly, the only way I see to keep the Animorphs' secret is to kill the Karen, the Controller. Anyway, this book sounds really good. When I get it, I'll make sure to post a review here.

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Summary: Haven't read it yet
Review: Hello! The book sounds okay, but the reason that Cassie is quitting? That ridiculous! She has no reason to quit! I mean, look at Tobias! He's been turned into a hawk. His life is twice as hard as the others. And he is the most willing to survive, and fight. His life would be hard enough as it was as a hawk, trying to survive. And Marco? His father almost cracked when his wife died. And Rachel? Her father moved away. And Rachel hardly ever gets to see him. They all have reasons to quit, but Cassie has the least. But the book sounds exciting. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Summary: The best Animorphs book
Review: K.A. really tops herself with this book. I used to think of Yeerks as just evil slug with no feelings, no right to live. But after reading The Departure, I thought about what the Yeerks were really trying to do: survive. We do that when we eat animals and plants. If we said that the Yeerks were wrong for trying to survive, then we are wrong for eating plants and animals. Maybe there is a better way to survive then by taking over planets, like symbiosis, but the Yeerks don't know that, just like we don't think about substituting meat and plants with something else. Cassie understood that, and she accepted to be infested by Aftran to show her that maybe there was another way. Maybe what changed Aftran was the fact the Cassie didn't hate her, but pitied her. Maybe thats what we need to change Earth. Maybe thats why in book 52, Ax says that people like Cassie are more dangerous, because they pity the enemy.

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Summary: Reader Over 25
Review: Synapsis: Cassie decides she's had enough of the war with the Yeerks and with the Animorphs, so she quits the team. She's lost the capacity to feel anything, love, hate, even fear, as it blurs into a kind of emotionless nothing within her. Unable to cope with the lies to her parents, the stress, and the inhumanities of war, she tries to leave it all behind. To make matters worse, her parents are going to lose the animal rehabilitation center which they run. Yet, even that, she finds herself unable to care about as much about it as she knows she should. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the fans of the series), things don't go anything near what Cassie plans, and she finds she has someone watching her. The watcher is revealed to be a little girl, who Cassie rescues from a bear, then finds herself swept into a river, washed into the heart of a forest. Without any idea of which way to go, against the elements, and the very real threats of dying of exposure, Cassie would normally morph and fly to civilization. To complicate things, however, the little girl is with her. It's easily discovered the child is a Controller, and the Yeerk inside her mind wants to learn everything about Cassie. Throughout revealing herself to the Yeerk, yet survive, Cassie is forced into some tough problems which have nothing to do with battle. There's also an added problem in an escaped leopard who is determined to make an easy meal out of the wounded Controller or Cassie.

This is one of the more thought provoking books of the series, and isn't focused on the battles as others have been in the series. We get a look at the Yeerk race as never before, that not all of them are the evil, cowardly creatures like Visser Three. Although not precisely nice beings, it presents concepts such as a parasites view on its right to live, expand, and experience the world of sight and colors as opposed to blindness. This is the first book of the series which introduces the idea of the Yeerk resistance members.

As for my personal opinions of the book, I'd have to say that in thinking about the entire series, this is probably my favorite book. I don't have a favorite character, because each one is great in his or her own way. There's enjoyment for me reading about each one for many different reasons. Cassie, however, has always been more or less the keeper of the morals of the group. She's always had a feeling for people's feelings, and been relied upon to help judge the right from the wrong. For her to suddenly lose her ability to care is like the character losing her own soul. From the other reviews I've seen by fans, I don't get the impression Cassie is as popular as Rachel and Tobias, but I see her as very much a critical part of the team. Without Cassie to help counterbalance Rachel, even "Xena, Warrior Princess" could easily go running headlong into decisions she'd regret later. Rachel is the group's courage, directness, and shares a bit of ruthlessness with Marco (all critical elements.) Cassie, however, helps keep the scales balanced, and never has such an in depth look been given to her character as this story. We see her make a tremendous sacrifice, and all of it, in her mind, to do nothing but make a small amount of peace between one Yeerk, one human/Animorph, and free a solitary little girl from being a Controller. In finding that one, small, fragment of peace, she's also able to make peace with herself and find where she belongs in the war. There are no easy, pat answers for her. She does, however, find a place for someone who regaurs all life as sacred -- yet is in the middle of a war to save the human race.

We also see what life is like for some of the Yeerks, some of which are equally tired of the war. Like any war, there's more than one side, and much like a common German soldier in comparison to Hitler in WWII, there's no utter black or white when you look at the big picture. This gives the series even more depth and realism overall.

The imagry of the forest is very well done in this story, as well. In the earlier Megamorphs: Time of the Dinosaurs, we were shown a world which was nearly impossible to survive in. However, that was largely due to the fact the humans went from the height of the food chain to the very bottom. In this novel, its a very mundane and normal forest which provides most of the opposition against the little girl with the twisted ankle who Cassie is trying to get back to civilization for the sake of the host ... or perhaps the Yeerk and the host... or even more possibly for herself. Cassie knows the best thing to do would be to kill the Yeerk with Kadrona starvation, or even kill host and Yeerk together. In her heart, however, she knows the "best" thing is not the right thing. This prompts long nights trapped in the wilderness which Applegate brings to life in a very vivid way for such a short work.

I found the book itself was also the typical fast paced read, although it didn't focus on fights, battles, or humor. The author moved her plot along well with a sprinkling of action here and there, keeping me interested with facts about the Yeerks or other tension which didn't have to do with physical confrontation. Highly recommended.

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Summary: The best Animorph book ever!
Review: This book realy made me think .I thought yeerks where mainly evil with a few good ones.sadly,I read #29 first so I had no idea who they where talking abount.When I saw it here and saw all those reveiws I was dying to read it.When I fanily did I thought Marco was nuts.He said in #20 that he did not realy trust her.That he probibly changed his mind when Cassie saved his butt in #21.Cassie is sensitive and that is why people don't like her but If the world was full of Rachles I would be scared to death because I HATE shopping. ....

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Summary: Cassie's Big Departure
Review: Well from the frist day, things were strange. But, for Cassie, the longer she was an Animorph, the more things started bugging her. Her grades got lower she was constantly lying to her parents and she was killing not only the enemy but the enemy's helpless slaves. Things didn't sit well with her. The only thing to do now was quit. But on her first day of not being an Animorph she still had problems, the enemy found her and they were now stuck in the woods. The only way for Cassie to save her friends now was to stay in woods for three day with the enemy or kill the enemy. The Departure was the best Cassie book I ever read. I don't even like Cassie. This was due to the fact that the real action began early in the book. Normaly books like that are real boring in the end, but KA kept the consistancy of the excitment and suspence the same level through out the whole book. It was more than just the suspence and excitment that kept me reading, it wa! ! s the setting I could see the woods all so clear and I could see the rivers and the fire and most of all the wildlife start to grow swiftly through my walls. I truly enjoyed the way that KA use the book HATCHET not only in mear text but in the story its self. She compared it to this story to make the more alike. This story also has a flaw. One controler uses the thought-speech brackets as his voice. Other than that this book is a marvel. I love the discriptive writing KA has been noted for, but moreover, the continuous action and suspence. I would suggest this for you to read under any circumstance as long as you also read HATCHET.

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