Book 47: The Resistance

Publishing Date: November 2000

Narrator: Jake and Isiah Fitzhenry

My rating:

Jake and the Animorphs learn that the hidden valley of free Hork-Bajir is going to be attacked, so they stage a rebellion against the Yeerks and enlist the help of some campers in the woods.

Well, what can I say about The Resistance, except that it seemed like a waste of a good story and also left me a little pissed off. I didn’t sign up to read about American history, I signed up to read about teenagers kicking alien butt. I got the alien kicking butt part, but half of the story was taken up by some boring shit I don’t even care about. I don’t even care if that sounds callous because I’m Australian and I don’t like war stories and I don’t like American history!

I didn’t skim the historical flashbacks but really it has absolutely no bearing on the plot or action of the present day conflict so you really can skip it and be none the wiser. I think there’s meant to be some wise ‘did this leader make the right choice fighting agains the big bad enemy who was ultimately defeated in the war’ parallel with Jake’s current conflict, but we all know Applegate loves Jake and he can do no wrong even when he’s doing wrong, so Jake is going to be okay. As for Jake’s ancestor in the civil war, well, he’s 20 and looks like a child with soft curly hair and a baby’s face, and he doesn’t talk about a wife at all, so I don’t know how he managed to get laid in an era where you were supposed to get married first and hell he’s twenty, that’s like a baby, so maybe he doesn’t die in this book after all, because he has to go and make babies so that generations later Jakey boy can pop out and save the earth from an alien invasion.

Ha! A war on slavery versus a war on slavery! At least, I think that was what the American civil war was about. We didn’t learn the history of America in school in Australia, and I have no interest in it, therefore I don’t know if I’m talking about the right thing.

Lincoln wanted to end slavery and he’s mentioned in this book, so I’m gonna go with that.

Sly book, you don’t fool me! You simply couldn’t figure out a way to make the present day conflict interesting enough so you flip back and forth (or juxtapose, to us in the know) to some boring Civil War tussle.

Basically, the only reason to read this book is to learn that all of a sudden the Animorphs can now morph clothing looser than skintight (due to ‘experience’, according to Jake, but it’s really due to the ghost writer not sticking to the established lore) and that they reveal themselves to humans who don’t count because we’re never going to see them again anyway.

So overall? Not worth it, unless you think beavers are a wonderful amazing creature like the cover designers clearly do.

Join me for a review of #47: The Resistance next week!

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