Book Review: The Return (Animorphs) by Katherine Applegate

Animorphs is awesome to begin with, mediocre in the middle, trash towards the end and awesome again at the end. The Return is absolutely one of those books that are towards the end of the series.

I understand the Applegates have had a lot of the books in the series ghostwritten, so that might explain the decidedly mediocre plot in 'The Return'. Also the books with Ellimist and Krayak or their stooges can be weird to read because the Almighty beings have no rules to contend with. They defy gravity, time, space and even logic. It makes for irritating reading.

The only book one can read in the series and walk away contended and completely mindblown with is 'The Ellimist Chronicles'. Every other book in the series is as risky to read as the Animorphs invading a Yeerk pool.

Book Review: The Animorphs #39: The Hidden by Katherine Applegate

'The Hidden' is one of those Animorphs books that manages to bring back fast paced, high octane action. The Animorphs must protect the morphing cube from the Yeerks and there a couple of very interesting story points where random animals get the power to morph. However, the book is let down by a sloppy ending, all the action ending with a damp squib at the end.

Disappointing.

Book Review: A Midsummer's Equation by Keigo Higashino

From the author who pulled off literary magic in 'Salvation of a Saint' and 'Devotion of Suspect X', this book went automatically on my reading list. I had thought Higashino's standards had lowered with 'The Name of The Game...' but this book was decidedly worse. Higashino is best at slow burn thrillers where you know who committed the crime but games are afoot to evade the law, but he struggles to put together something even half thrilling in 'A Midsummer's Equation'. The story is linear and placid. And flashes of Higashino's brilliance are rare. 

Readable only as a flight-read.