Spring 2020 (Animorphs Read 2020);

Into the mind of Tobias, our red-tailed hawk, we spend a lot of this one getting to see the war in Tobias heart/mind/soul/body for who he is now. Whether he's a hawk. Whether he's a boy. Whether it would be easier to let his humanity slip away. Whether there are things more important to being human than looking it (especially juxtaposed to Controllers who still look human, but *definitely are not*). I really like that they have chipped a tiny bit into this and hope they do continue to deep dive into his further books.

I did love getting to see more of Rachel through Tobias' eyes, because we all know I'm here to basically fall into love with Rachel and Tobias is already well into that job. I like that with him we do see the more sensitive side of her sometimes.

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Honestly should put this on my horror shelf wtf ( )

Good fun paranoid fluff. ( )

This is the one I started with when I saw it at a Scholastic book fair when I was 11 years old. I didn't care that it was the third in a series--it had a rad looking guy turning into a hawk on the cover! I bought it for $3.99, loved it, and then went back to get the first and second books.

So, reading it now, it was a bit surprising to realize that the main character, stuck in an animal body, is actually suicidal. He almost succeeds in killing himself and is barely stopped by a friend. Somehow I missed that as a kid. It continues the trend of these books being much darker than I realized.

This third volume ends with the most successful mission so far, with the team destroying a giant transport ship and Tobias coming to terms with his situation. Overall it's fun and fast. (I think it was the shortest of the series so far.) ( )

words: https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-animorphs-book-3-the-encounter-by-k-a... ( )