Maybe Marco is just more cagey than the others, but I really thought the first four books did a much better job of tying the POV characters' emotional arc to what was happening in the plot.Īnd things did pick up in that respect by the end. The beginning of the book especially is curiously light on Marco introspection, and even after the big reveal at the end, he never really comes out and says what he's feeling. In fact, part of the reason I'm only rating this one 3.5 stars is because I don't think Applegate hit that nail hard enough. (I seem to remember there will be an incident with a Baby Ruth thrown into a pool in our near future?) I knew theoretically that Marco's humor was a coping mechanism, but it's only now reading through the eyes of an adult that that idea actually holds resonance for me. I found his inane jokes and inability to be serious quite charming and hilarious. I was looking forward to our first Marco book particularly, because he was my favorite character when I was a kid. But now on the two year anniversary of his mom's death with his father still devastated emotionally, he realizes that he can't keep going and risk that his dad will have two family members to mourn instead of one. Until now, he's been the most reluctant of the group, only going along at times due to wanting to help Jake, being shamed by Rachel or Cassie, because something drastic happened that he could help with in the moment, or simply because he saw a mission as low risk or fun. This book is nominally about the Animorphs trying to carry out Ax's plan of luring a Yeerk ship to the ground, stealing it, and then hightailing it back to Andalite space (where, theoretically, he can send reinforcements back to the Animorphs), but really, it's about Marco finally committing to the mission. I've been sitting here for twenty minutes trying to figure out who exactly the predator is in this book, and I still don't have a definite answer.

Animorphs the predator