His reaction to the near-impossibility of their situation is to let things ride. So whereas Jake is depressed and apathetic, and Cassie is horrified, and Rachel is gluttonous for war, and Ax is conflicted, Marco is … kind of chill. In a weird way, he has benefited the most of the Animorphs (except maybe Tobias?) from all of these awful events: his parents have been reunited. Marco also gets a chance to shine in his last round as narrator. Oh, yeah: I loved how Applegate and ghostwriter pull the gender bait-and-switch and hang a lampshade on the kids being surprised that the governor is a woman. It’s Marco and Ax who have to find the governor, extract her from danger after the Yeerks discover what’s happening, and protect her long enough to get her to safety. The other Animorphs don’t really show up for the first 25 or 30 per cent of the book, and then they do only briefly.

This book is interesting because it’s basically a Marco/Tobias team-up (with an assist from Ax). Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this one overall, but I have to give it credit for the way it handles this crucial story arc development. But I had to flag this review, because this … I mean, I haven’t generally been marking these reviews with spoiler alerts, because I feel like if you’re reading a review for book 51, you’re either in way too deep or you don’t care about being spoiled. #51: The Absolute is where the proverbial manure hits the air redistribution machine. Because there’s nothing like reading some Animorphs books out of order …

Animorphs 51