Animorphs Re-Read: #1 The Invasion (Chapters 13-16)

Chapter 13

Tobias starts the chapter off by continuing to say they should blow up the Yeerk pool. Marco remains quiet as he realizes arguing with bird-boy will go nowhere.

Marco and Tobias agree that The Sharing is most likely a front for the Yeerk invasion. Marco brings up the fact that he thinks Jake wouldn't fight against the Yeerks if it meant fighting his brother Tom. Marco's final jab is at how Jake has a perfect family and nothing truly bad has ever happened to him. Nothing like what's happened to Marco or Tobias. Jake knows Marco is right in his statement.

Marco continues to egg Jake on about Tom being a Controller to try and stop Jake from fighting the Yeerks. Jake, however, still says he will fight even if he ends up having to destroy his brother.

Jake says the first step is checking out The Sharing and seeing if it is a front for the Yeerk invasion of Earth. I think Marco agrees with Jake here since he doesn't want to ruin the friendship. I believe Marco is smart enough to realize that the meeting will lead to him fighting against the Yeerks. But he values Jake's friendship VERY highly.

Jake calls the others to see if they want to go to The Sharing meeting. Everyone agrees. Everyone will be there. Tobias will be in morph (at least that's what seems to be implied).

Tom gets very excited about Jake and his friends coming to a The Sharing meeting. Jake remarks that The Sharing doesn't sound like a front for the Yeerks. I want a picture of Visser Three and some Taxxons playing volleyball! Now!

Thermals are mentioned yet again and Cassie remarks she has to try flying someday.

Jake and the others arrive at The Sharing meeting. Our fearless leader is having fun after wondering if everyone there is a Controller and how to tell who is one. He also wonders if Tom is really a Controller.

Tom then tells Jake that while The Sharing is awesome now, when you become a full member things get even better. Tom says first you become an associate member and then it's decided by the leaders if you become a full member.

Tom says, "Once you become a full member...the whole world changes."

Thanks, I am sleep deprived and won't sleep for a few nights because of how creepy that line is.

Then Tom temporarily takes control from his Yeerk. Or else the Yeerk allows Tom to have some control to try and see if Jake was one of the teenagers at the construction site. Taking control from a Yeerk, once it has infested you, is extremely hard to do.

Either way this scene is creepy as the reader, if not Jake himself, is brought to the realization that Tom is really a Controller.

Tom's Yeerk then regains, or takes back, control of Tom and goes to the special meeting for the full members.

Marco says that he was wrong about Tom and that The Sharing is anything but a front for the Yeerk invasion of Earth. Jake's reaction is saddening.


Chapter 14

Jake says that the full members are going to a separate meeting. When the others, besides Marco, say that they should check out what this special meeting involves Marco is confused because he thought everyone agree that The Sharing was normal.

Everyone, including Marco, agrees that something is up with The Sharing because people are being too happy. Yes, I knew there was a reason I don't trust extremely happy people. They're really aliens bent on invading the Earth!

Jake says that he's getting into the secret meeting by morphing into Homer again.

Jake fills in Tobias about their plan. Bird-boy makes a comment that is very hawkish. Jake says that Tobias needs to get a grip or else the hawk mind will take control. His comment involved a comment about road kill and Tobias is offended. Though Jake thinks he might not have been offended and he thinks that is the worse option.

Tobias informs the others of where the full members are. Jake says he needs to morph back. Tobias tries to say no and even brings up the fact that he'll be naked. Our fearless leader points out that Marco has brought a change of clothes and the two girls will look away.

Tobias says that demorphing feels like becoming a prisoner. Rachel reassures him that he can morph into a hawk later.

Jake begins to morph as Tobias begins to demorph. Cassie reminds Jake to keep control of his dog morph. Jake replies he knows and not for her to worry. But Cassie still does worry.

And, sure enough, Jake loses control of his dog morph. He quickly regains control of the morph and starts acting like a real dog while eavesdropping on the secret meeting. He makes sure to keep out of sight of Tom as the Controller would recognize Homer and know it was someone in morph. Possibly even know it was Jake.

Jake says he can't see that well but the sense of both smell and sound more than made up for it. He also realizes that Elfangor gave them the ability to morph since animals can do stuff humans can't do. Such as eavesdropping on a secret meeting.

Tom and the other Controllers wait for the same man that told the Hork-Bajir to get Jake's and the others' heads for identification. It turns out to be Assistant Principal Chapman.

Chapman asks if anyone has any ideas about who the teenagers at the construction site were. Tom replies that he thinks Jake is one of them and he brought him to The Sharing to either infest him or kill him.

Just let that sink in a moment: Jake just came to the realization that Tom is a Controller and he is now faced with the fact that a parasitic alien, who is wearing Jake's brother's face, is saying he is thinking of killing Jake.


Chapter 15

Jake has to remind himself that Tom isn't the one speaking. That it is a Yeerk that is speaking with Tom's mouth. That Tom doesn't want to kill him.

Jake's next thoughts are of how impossible it is to battle the Yeerks. The Yeerks can be anyone. Tom is a Controller. Chapman is a Controller. He thinks that Marco is right for saying that they shouldn't battle the Yeerks because it is such an impossible thing to do.

Jake gets depressed and lets himself get lost inside the dog mind. Dogs are happy and don't understand despair. Especially the kind Jake is experiencing at the moment. Jake finally faces the fact that he is going to have to deal with reality.

Jake tries to listen to the rest of the meeting and keeps thinking of Tom saying, "Make him ours...or kill him."

Again, he is a teenager and a lot of things have been thrust upon him. He wanted to be close to his brother but now he's the enemy. On the bright side, though, Jake now has a reason to fight.

The Yeerks also discuss the schedule for going to the Yeerk pool.

Jake then hears Cassie's voice. A policeman is questioning why she's by the area for full members only. Jake, again, complains about how poor dog vision is. Luckily Cassie doesn't get in trouble...trouble being either infested or killed by the Yeerks.

Jake asks why Cassie risked her life. She said she did so because she was worried about Jake. This is very sweet, but why not get Tobias to morph into a hawk again? There was no need for her to risk herself like that.

Jake finds himself reluctant to demorph as he realizes what Tobias already has: morphing is a great way to escape your troubles.

Once Jake has demorphed, Jake tells Marco that he is right. Tom is a Controller. For someone who kept on bringing up that point, he doesn't look happy about being right. This sort of hints at the fact that Marco was only making such a big deal about that because he knew if Jake decided to fight he'd be forced to fight too.

Jake also recaps the secret meeting to the rest of the group.

Rachel is surprised when Jake says that Chapman is also a Controller.

Jake says that Chapman must be some sort of leader as he was the one that said to take their heads for identification.

Marco's reply is, "That is so Chapman."

Tobias says they have to get out of The Sharing meeting now. Jake says that no one will try to kill them at a The Sharing meeting. As the readers and Rachel breathe a collective sigh of relief Jake kills the moment. He does so by by saying Chapman thinks that they will talk and then the Yeerks can kill them then.

Rachel says they won't talk and Marco agrees. Marco agrees because he wants to use this chance to say they shouldn't fight. However, Jake counters by bringing up that he needs to save Tom. I'd say something about Katniss and Prim from The Hunger Games trilogy, but I don't want to spoil the ending from either series.

You're welcome to those of you who have read only either Animorphs or The Hunger Games trilogy. Not both.

Marco brings up that fighting the Yeerks is an impossible war to win. Jake replies confidently as does everyone but Marco. I'm not really liking Marco at the moment but feel that's only because he's going to be the last one willing to fight the Yeerks. And it's not until he has a personal stake that he decides to put his full support into trying to stop the Yeerks. I know I enjoyed him when I read the series previously, so I'm waiting to love him again.

Since the meeting of the full members has ended, Jake decides to delay the final vote until later. Again.

Jake asks Cassie what animal she has that he can acquire so that he can spy on Chapman. She finally decides that a lizard is the best option.


Chapter 16

Jake says he morphed into a lizard in his locker at school. What makes me laugh about this part is that he says that the exact species is a green anole that is a member of the iguana family. And that the reader wouldn't care about that part.

Jake says he tries to make it appear him going into his locker look normal. Yeah...don't think you can really make that action look normal.

Jake mentions that morphing a dog was cool, but turning into a lizard is plain creepy. Listen, man, you will turn into things that will make lizards look downright pleasant. Not that I, myself, think lizards are creepy.

Jake mentions he should have practiced before morphing the lizard before he used the lizard morph to spy on Chapman. He then recounts, in a very shortened version, how he had acquired the lizard.

Jake then morphs into the green anole. Arg! He ends up stepping on an old wad of gum!

When he fully morphs into a lizard the green anole's mind kicks in and it's afraid. Jake tries to gain control by telling his lizard mind to go to the light aka the ventilation slits on his locker. When he finally gets to the ventilation slits he has trouble understanding what his lizard eyes are seeing. Our fearless leader manages to make sense of the lizard sight at the same time the lizard mind is trying to fight him.

The way Jake describes the lizard racing down the hall is just damn amazing. It makes me want to morph into a lizard just to race down a hallway.

Then the lizard mind takes over and Jake goes after a spider. He feels disgusted when he can't resist the lizard's mind need to eat the spider. He wants to demorph and doesn't care who sees him. He even thinks that Marco is right and he shouldn't fight the Yeerks.

Suddenly someone steps on Jake's lizard's tail and he think he's trapped. I'm glad a lizard's tail doesn't have the ability to detach and then a new one regrows or anything!
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