Animorphs book club book 5:
My friends and I speedran the first 4 books to get to the fifth one and catch up with the book club. We finally finished book 5 today.
Finally we're all caught up and on schedule and so at last we can deliver our thoughts and opinions. The most important one being our PowerPoint essay titled "Why giving a pink glittery cabriolet and a hazelnut cappuccino to Visser 3 would solve everything", in this essay we will-
Anyway. Back to book 5. The ant event was...intense. Intense and brutal. Especially the scene in the bathroom. I find it really cool how it's becoming more and more apparent that the only semi-objective source on the kids' traits and behaviour are each of them themselves. I mean, Marco nor Cassie have a good grasp on Rachel. Nobody but Rachel has a good grasp on Rachel. Neither Jake nor Cassie understand Marco. Only Marco understands Marco. So on and so forth.
The books try to hammer down the fact that the kids are one way, but that the perceptions of them are that way and then another way and then yet another way. Even more interestingly, the books (so far) make it so the perceptions of others don't shape each of the kids but go against their "true nature". I mean, sure, Marco does say that he makes jokes so often partly because someone has to lighten the mood, but he sees it as something that doesn't become a part of him but as a...performance? Obviously it is also his coping mechanism, but he plays it up (very deliberately). That's interesting, because to me, so far, it seems that where other stories would assert that you are nothing but others' perceptions of you and that there really isn't a real or important line between your perception of yourself and others' perception of you, Animorphs draws that line and the perceptions are something that's unreliable and decidedly "not you". If that makes sense.
I actually had another thought about the ants but ngl now I think it's stupid so whatever.
Notable harrowing moments:
"If I don't talk about it, it won't become real" - oh ok I see the pattern and how this can lead to choosing jokes as a coping mechanism.
"When I lost my mom, I also lost my dad." Jesus fucking Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus fucking Christ. I mean it do be like that but still.