It's Animorphing Time: Book 2 - The Visitor
Body horror and the love of a father.
Animorphs: The Visitor is the 2nd installment of the main Animorphs series and was released the same month as the first book in June of 1996. The book is told from the perspective of Rachel, Jake’s cousin. In the first book you’ll remember he mentioned that his cousin is attractive and immediately was like HAHA BUT THAT WOULD BE WEIRD RIGHT?....unless
I may have missed this in the first book and I’m too lazy to get up and look, but I was struck at how Rachel addresses the reader in the beginning. She begins with telling us her name but refuses to give her last name in fear of being found. Excuse me - do you think I would tattle on you? But I get it.
We start the book with the gang flying through the skies as birds such as an eagle, osprey and of course Tobias is stuck being a red-tailed hawk. A couple of dude-bro hunters take shots at them and the team swoops in and steals both the gun and beer from them. Great opening!
What I notice now about the books, is there is this Buffy-vibe to the whole thing. The kids are trying to manage attending high school while also dealing with this evil force that is basically happening right in their school. Buffy has the hellmouth and the Animorphs have the Yeerk pool under their school. This is a good comparison for me!
The gang is wrestling with the events of the last book - they exude PTSD symptoms and trust no one but each other. There are heavy themes in here dealing with both mental health and VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN. I was also struck with the body horror that is ratcheted up in this installment over the first book which also had troubling imagery. Early on in the book we see the kids change from birds back into humans.
My lips grew out around my teeth. My eyes went from pale gold to my normal blue. My legs grew quite a bit, from about three inches to normal size.
I looked over at Jake and saw the same things happening to him. Let me just tell you - watching someone morph is not a pretty sight. It’s the kind of thing that would give you screaming nightmares if you didn’t know it was going to be alright.
- Rachel on transforming from Eagle back to human
Another incredible scene happens early on when Rachel is chased by a man down the street. The implication is ADULT because the man clearly is looking to commit sexual assault. Rachel leads the man around a corner and she turns halfway into an elephant to scare the shit out of this dude. All he sees is a girl stuck in transformation - he screams and runs away. It’s just like…perfect! Once again, body horror is king here.
The book teases existential questions for the Animorphs. Turning back into humans is an awful experience for them as they revert to dulled senses and lack special abilities like flying or speed. They act depressed to become people again but there is also this exhaustion that comes with turning into animals. This idea reminded me of Shinji in Evangelion where every time Shinji “gets in the robot” he loses parts of his humanity. The gang also brings up “morph limits” and wonder if there is a limit on how many creatures they can code into their DNA. These are good questions a reader (especially an adult reader) would have. As a kid I don’t about the bigger picture with these folks but I sure do now.
The main plot line of The Visitor revolves around the gang infiltrating Vice Principle Hendrick’s house to see how he is in communication with Visser Three. Like a good video game, they have to figure out how to do so without getting noticed. Rachel knows her friend and daughter of Chapman, Melissa, has a cat named Fluffer. Rachel and Melissa’s friendship has been strained and that comes up a bit here. Hendrick Chapman and his wife both are controlled by the Yeerks but Melissa is not.
The team devises a way to lure Fluffer out by turning into a shrew for the cat to chase, capturing Fluffer, animorphing as Fluffer, and then infiltrating the Chapman home. Pretty good video game logic, honestly.
Turns out Chapman has a holographic device in the basement where he is able to communicate with Visser Three - Rachel as Fluffer is able to get down there but Visser Three is suspicious of the cat thinking it could be one of the Animorphs. Visser is no dummy!
During the 2nd attempt to listen in on the meeting, Rachel (and Jake as a Flea on Fluffer) are captured and are to be taken to Visser Three to have experiments or torture done to them. The climax of the book is a rescue attempt to get Rachel out of the hands of Visser Three before she can’t morph back into a human and isn’t taken away to the Yeerk homeworld. Jake fucks shit up as a Tiger and Rachel is saved to morph back in the eleventh hour.
A couple of takeaways
Hendrick Chapman voluntarily became a host for the Yeerks to protect his daughter, Melissa.
Visser Three’s real name is Esplin 9466
Chapman’s Yeerk is named Iniss 226
The book’s final chapter has Rachel leave a note for Melissa. The note, which Rachel doesn’t sign and has typed up on a WORD PROCESSOR, states that her father loves her and it just might not seem like it. Sweet!
The next book is The Encounter and maybe we will finally actually rescue Jake’s brother?
Check out my write up of the FIRST BOOK