The Hidden

Disclaimer: If you've heard of Animorphs and you're thinking "Aww, how cute," maybe you should read my introduction to the first book to see how wrong you are.

THE HIDDEN

Animorphs #39
by K.A. Applegate

Summarized Plot:

The Yeerks have repaired some captured Helmacron technology and are now able to track morphing energy, including that which emits from the Escafil device--the morphing cube hidden in Cassie's barn. She has to make a run for it after Erek the Chee informs her, and helicopters armed with the sensor technology chase her as she tries to keep the blue box out of their reach. Erek warns the Animorphs, and they all converge to help her, but Cassie encounters a buffalo in the back of a truck where she's hiding, and the buffalo accidentally acquires morphing powers because it touches the box while she's hiding in its truck.

Cassie also uses a buffalo morph to attack when the Yeerks zero in on her truck and examine its cargo. Cassie and the real buffalo do some damage, and the high-ranking Controller Chapman gets hurt by the buffalo. As they're trying to escape, Cassie encounters the buffalo morphing into Chapman. It doesn't know what it's doing, but it's morphed a human. She immediately feels guilty and responsible for it.

Throughout the book, the Yeerks keep locating the Animorphs and chasing them, cornering them, and making them fight their way out, which they do because the buffalo keeps showing up. They determine that they're going to have to destroy this creature because it could be infested and its memories could be stolen. They develop a plan to "drop an anvil" on the helicopter that has the Helmacron sensors, which involves Cassie smashing them from the sky with her whale self.

But in the process of getting out to the beach and being constantly followed by the poor buffalo, Cassie bonds with it. She has a frightening encounter with an ant that also accidentally gets morphing powers, and she's forced to destroy it, with some help from the buffalo. But then the Yeerks blow the buffalo up, and she feels she's lost a good friend. She botches her mission because she's sad and distracted and exhausted, and finds herself unable to grow big enough while falling from the sky. But an unlucky seagull getting sucked into the helicopter engine causes a fireball, and Cassie is lucky to escape with her life. The technology to track their morphing destroyed, they're able to resume their abnormal lives.

About this book:

Narrator: Cassie

New known controllers:

• None

New morphs acquired:

• Jake: None
• Cassie: Buffalo
• Marco: None
• Rachel: None
• Ax: None
• Tobias: None

Notable:

• This book is ghostwritten by Laura Battyanyi-Weiss. Her name's misspelled in the credits page.

• It makes no sense that an animal like a buffalo could "accidentally" morph since it's been said many times that both acquiring and morphing take concentration and intent. How could a buffalo do it randomly?

Best lines:

Cassie: So you can see why I need to work with wounded animals. To help heal them. In some way, I think they help heal me, too.

Rachel: "While you do the right thing, I do the necessary thing. Get it?"

Marco: "Your wish is my command, Prince Jake."
Jake: "Then I wish you'd be quiet."
Ax: "Ha-ha! Ha! . . . That was, I believe, the appropriate response to human humor, correct?"
Marco: "I quit. If Ax is gonna 'ha-ha' after all of Jake's feeble jokes from now on, I swear I quit."

Next book: The Other, Animorphs #40