Book 21: The Threat

Publishing Date: September 1998

Narrator: Jake

My rating:

Things with the newest Animorph, David, aren’t going so well. He’s reckless, unmoral, and a coward. He’s also the biggest threat to the Animorphs since they started their war. He knows their secret, and he has their power…

I absolutely love the David trilogy. David is unlikeable from the first time we meet him in The Discovery. Even though this novel is short, his character growth is phenomenal. He grows from a little reckless, quite frightened by morphing, possibly a liar and having problems listening to authority to full on psychopathic murderer, able to see the world in complete black and white, with utterly no respect for anyone and quickly using morphing for his own gain, not just to fight the war. And that’s not all, ladies and gents, because in the next book it gets worse.

But we’re talking about this book. David thinks he’s smarter than any of the other Animorphs, but six brains will always be better than one. And the Animorphs have a secret weapon in the form of gentle tree hugging Cassie. Cassie, who leaps to stop David when he cowardly switches sides facing down Visser Three, then pretends it was his plan all along. This is when Jake starts to get suspicious, but he also recognises the danger David could put all the Animorphs in.

Eventually Jake lays a trap that David falls for, and the wayward sixth Animorph crosses the line. Thinking Tobias is dead, Jake knows he needs to take drastic action. He sends Ax for Rachel and confronts David himself. It’s lion versus tiger, and the fight isn’t going well for Jake…

Oh yeah, and there’s more shenanigans to do with the ‘biggest mission’ the Animorphs have ever faced. Some crap about not letting the most important Heads of State get slimy parasites in their brains. But hey, that’s not half as much fun as the David stuff.

I do understand a little where David is coming from. He’s new to the group, and has always been the new kid what with moving around so much. He doesn’t take kindly to people pushing him around. He wants his old life back. He can’t adjust the way Tobias did when he had nothing left. But David is also a psychopath and a megalomaniac. It’s not that he doesn’t like people pushing him around, he doesn’t like being told what to do, period. He doesn’t respect Jake. He doesn’t think Marco is funny. He doesn’t interact with Ax at all. I mean come on, Ax is a freaking alien. He’s so cool he makes my fingers ache. He thinks Tobias is expendable because he’s got a bird’s body. And he accuses Rachel of being a coward. David is so busy building up walls that he pushes all the Animorphs away in his delusions of grandeur. He could have been a great new member of the team…

Except that he was never meant to be. David was meant to show the audience the disaster of what would happen if the Animorphs picked the wrong kind of person, and give them a reason to keep fighting as a guerrilla army of six.

Overall don’t freaking miss this book. It’s the middle part of the trilogy and it’s by far one of the best Animorphs books in the series.

Join me for a review of #22: The Solution soon!

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