After the preamble that we've gotten for the past six books, we open with Rachel and Cassie at the circus. They hate the circus because of the animals being poorly treated, but Rachel's dad had tickets and it was the big thing that she and her sisters could do with him for that week of visitation. Speaking of the animals being abused, Rachel and Cassie enter the elephant pen where they had seen the trainer, some guy named Josep, torturing them with a cattle prod. So, Rachel being Rachel, she morphs into an elephant, grabs Josep, and using thought speak, tells him that she's the elephant police and that he had better treat these elephants right or else. Then she throws him into the air on to a tent. So this continues Rachel's streak of using her morphing powers to get justice for animals, and while it was for a good cause, it was still excessive. But at least it wasn't to defend herself against a rapist, so the others can't get THAT angry.
The next day, Marco and Tobias take the other Animorphs to Ax as the three of them have a huge announcement. They've found a new entrance to the yeerk pool. And because this is the nineties, of course it's at The Gap. People go in through the dressing room and exit through the movie theater. Ax is of course ready to tear the place apart, but the kids still have bad memories of their first encounter with the yeerk pool. But they do have another plan. What about the Kandrona, the miniature sun that releases the Kandrona rays that the yeerks feast on? Can that be destroyed? Ax says it's a possibility, but even if they did, there would still be one on the yeerk mothership. Plus the size could be anything from a barn to a car, so they might need to spy the place first before going gung ho.
But finding a Kandrona is the least of Rachel's problems. When she gets home, her father shows up with dinner. He has a major announcement. He has an opportunity to become an anchor for the six o'clock news. The downside is that this means he'll be moving a thousand miles away. This upsets Rachel who storms to her room. Her dad comes into her room where he then tells her the other major announcement. He wants her to move with him, believing it can give her better opportunities to work with a famous gymnast, and that the two of them can bond like they did before the divorce. It doesn't seem like he's trying to force her hand, or even bribe her, which makes Rachel all the more conflicted. She says she has to think about it.
The conflict is obvious that she has a great relationship with her father, and in a somewhat progressive bit for this time, she's even fine that he even treats Rachel like she's "as good as any boy", which she's fine with. Then there's the real conflict, leaving the Animorphs. She morphs owl and flies to Tobias to talk. She doesn't mention anything about what her father said, but Tobias knows something's up with her. She flies to the Gardens in search of a new attack morph. He choice is, as the cover suggested, a grizzly bear. As she acquires the DNA of a sleeping grizzly, she starts to think that maybe she should stay, but starts to have doubts.
The next night, the Animorphs arrive at the Gap, ready to scope out this dressing room entrance. This includes Ax in human morph, which means more crazy eating from the alien who had no mouth previously. Cassie and Rachel head to the dressing room and start morphing roach, and since the room is mirrored, that means that they get a nasty look at their morphing. Although, I gotta wonder, is there no security cameras in these dressing rooms? If not just for Yeerk surveillance but to, you know, make sure no one's stealing anything? I mean, this is 1997, that's not out of the question. Anyway, all five kids morph roach and begin their spy session as they make it down to the pool. This all goes well... until a taxxon catches them and traps them on its tongue, ready to eat them. Then, all of a sudden, everything just stops.
The animorphs suddenly demorph without their control back to their normal forms. This even includes Tobias, who is suddenly human again. But despite the six of them, nothing else is moving. And the being responsible introduces himself. An old man appears, alien in form with long ears and deep, black eyes. He is an Ellimist. Ellimists are all powerful beings, and Ax isn't too happy to be around one, considering some of the stories he's heard about them. The Eliimist says that he is here to give the animorphs an ultimatum with the fate of the human race at stake. He shows them around the planet and the many beauties within, then tells them flat out, the human race is going to go extinct. The yeerks will win. But, there is a chance for them. He is offering them the ability to move to another planet that will be safe from the yeerks, and they can choose people close to them to live with them. Hey look, parallels.
But, if they say no, everything goes back to normal. Tobias is a hawk again, and the others are about to be Taxxon lunch. Cassie is the only one on board initially, but the others soon realize that the Ellimist threw this offer to them at their most vulnerable, hoping they would be easily coerced. However, everyone, but Rachel (who can't make her decision) ultimately say no. And, as stated, the others return to their roach forms as they're eaten by the Taxxon. Before they're digested, they morph human again, busting the Taxxon from within. They try to escape through the drop shaft, but get attacked by human controllers and Hork-Bajir. It's here where Rachel uses her grizzly morph for the first time. However, since it's the first time, she's completely out of control until the others manage to snap her out of it. They escape through the drop shaft, winding up in the water tower by the school. They're all exhausted and mentally burned out.
Rachel wakes up late the next day as her mother is concerned about her coming home barefoot in a leotard and just going straight to bed. She believes that it has something to do with the stress her father put on her over the moving ultimatum. She stays home from school, still trying to balance all of these things that have been heaped on her. Doesn't help when she turns on the TV to see her dad doing a report from the convention center, reminding her that he's going to be leaving soon. Still bothered, she morphs eagle and flies off.
She heads to the barn and everyone's pissed off at her, as usual. Mad at her for acquiring a bear without them knowing, and for skipping school and morphing around all afternoon. I mean if she defended herself against a rapist, then they'd be through the roof. And no, I'm not going to let that go. Rachel finally tells them about her dad moving and the ultimatum given, and how she's finally starting to lose it. The grizzly incident, the near death in the taxxon, the other ultimatum from the Ellimist. It's all getting to her. Marco says that maybe they should take the Ellimist's offer. That they haven't been winning this war, only barely surviving. And, wouldn't you know it? The Ellimist shows up, ready to show them something.
He sends them into the future, where everything is dilapidated and dead. They head to the mall and see a large glass tube acting like a sort of high speed train. They also see Taxxons using the Sears and JC Penney as hives. The kids take the train and make it to the EGS building, which is the largest building in town, which is also near a lake-sized yeerk pool. There's also some sort of dome atop the building. The kids try to BS that Ax is the current Visser Three, and it surprisingly works. As a bug fighter lands, Rachel and Ax go to investigate, only to be greeted by the real Visser Three (now Visser One in this time) and Rachel. The Rachel of the future.
It turns out that this Rachel knew of this moment, that this shift in time would affect the future. Essentially this is the timeline where the animorphs lost and were controlled. A lot of timey wimey stuff that is bound to confuse, but the point that Rachel realizes is that Visser Three and the others can't kill them or it stops them from winning. Rachel morphs grizzly and is about to destroy Visser Three when they're all brought back to Cassie's farm like nothing had happened. Rachel is beyond sick of these games from the Ellimist, and is ready to say yes to his offer. The rest ultimately agree... but nothing happens.
At school the next day, Cassie and Rachel begin to unravel what the Ellimist is up to. When they first met, he showed them the way to escape. It's as if he's trying to open their eyes to something they haven't fully figured out yet. That night, Rachel finally seems to get it. About the Ellimist, about the location of the Kandrona, about everything. She believes that the Ellimist does want to save earth, but doesn't have the ability to interfere himself. As for the Kandrona, he did show them where it is. Under the dome atop the EGS building. They may not know if it'll change the future, but they still need to try. So, it's time to kick yeerk butt.
Of course, the dome was only in the future, but Tobias senses something hot and powerful in the building as he tries to spy. They all morph their battle morphs, with one hilarious scene of Marco in gorilla morph just straight punching out the controller guard. They head up the building, but get attacked by Hork-Bajir, Jake's tiger morph taking damage. Rachel as a grizzly however just continues to plow forward. They fight eight more Hork-Bajir and despite the kids taking some serious damage, they send them in retreat. The kids demorph in time and they find it, the Kandrona. It's a cylindrical device the size of a car. Rachel morphs elephant and pushes it out of the building, crashing sixty stories to the ground below. They did it. They actually got a big win.
But then the Ellmist shows up again, telling them that there will be another in three weeks. But this does mean that the yeerks planning will be delayed in the process. They also realize that the Ellimist only showed them a possible future, not the one set in stone. The kids fly home, happy about their result. We end the book with Rachel saying goodbye to her father as he heads to the airport. She ultimately made her decision to stay with her mother and sisters. It's actually a nice, sweet moment to end this book, and after the turmoil Rachel's had, it was well earned.
The Stranger is a strong book. One that really benefits Rachel more than her first narration did, even if I did enjoy that one as well. In this one, we see a lot more of her character having to deal with all of this mental stress, brought on not just by her dad moving, but the Ellimist's ultimatum. It really does explain her tendancies toward being more quick to attack. Giving credence to that Xena nickname that Marco gives her. This is the Rachel we need and the Rachel that I'm more than glad to be following from this point onward. We do wrap up the moving conflict a bit too quick, but it still works for that much needed character growth that Rachel needed to have.
The Ellimist is an interesting character. An almost Q-like entity with limitless powers who can change the game if he wanted to, but can't. He's kind of bland a character with really no personality, but I guess that's also the point. Trying to be more the strategist behind the scenes who is trying to aid the Animorphs, but still giving them the ultimate decision. At least in this situation. The book offers some great insight as to a distopian, yeerk-controlled future and it offers some genuinely unsettling imagery. Particularly the skeletal remains of people. And the confrontation with future controller Rachel, while brief, still feels really intense. There's a lot of talk later about the butterfly effect, how a butterfly's wings could cause tornadoes in other parts of the world, and it does feel a bit tacked on, but then again, I'm not the super science fiction expert. I bought these as a kid cause the covers were cool, and just came in enjoying the story.
And for once, the animorphs get a big win. Even bigger than destroying the tanker ship in #3. They destroy the Kandrona, crippling the yeerks for a few weeks. A light in all the doom and gloom the kids were experiencing throughout this story. This was what they needed to finally show them that the future isn't just meant to be bleak. That it isn't set in stone. That they still need to fight. While not a perfect book, I still found The Stranger to be one of the strongest books of the series to this point. An A rating.
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