Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Encounter by K.A. Applegate

16 reviews

eleanorjmca's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

More life-threatening situations for our heroes, who in this book plan to morph into fish to infiltrate a Yeerk supply tanker and switch off its cloaking device. But this is really just a side plot to the main story of the book, which is Tobias’s identity crisis after getting trapped in hawk form. It’s brave of the series to tackle this often very dark subject so early, though it also means that the POV is restricted to the one character who can’t morph. This gives the story a different character to the previous two, and it does drag a little in the first half as the fish-infiltration plot doesn’t really kick off until halfway through. It also is a little much that

Visser Three appears again for the third time in three books - does he not have anything better to do than supervise water deliveries? The conflict would have worked just as well without him.

I found the subplot with the other hawk very effective and a great bookend to the action scenes; the final scenes of the book, after the

other hawk is killed

, were especially poignant. All in all a very different sort of book from the first two, but an important one for Tobias’s character.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Body horror

Moderate: Suicide attempt

bookseller's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

seadeepy's review against another edition

3.5

One of the most memorable of the early books, diving deep into Tobias’

struggle with his new hawk body.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide attempt

booksthatburn's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Slavery, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail

roxcollector's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide attempt

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gun violence, Violence, Suicide attempt, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Dysphoria

Minor: Child abuse and Death of parent

voidstar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

Absolutely one of my favorite early Animorphs books!! Tobias' books get pretty sad and definitely deliver on the angst. This one also has a handful of great and underappreciated moments between Tobias and Marco, feeding me for a thousand years.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Dysphoria

Minor: Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Dysphoria

booitsnathalie's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Death of parent

kaaaaaaaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Due to a mixture of nostalgia and understanding the average age of the books' audience, I'm trying to be pretty lenient on this reread. That being said, I cannot get over a) Tobias interrupting

a LIVE commercial for a car dealership, a television phenomenon I certainly don't remember from the '90s,

and b) Marco

throwing a baseball so accurately and with such force that it breaks a skylight

.

Also, in case anyone is curious, the "Alpha" wolf thing, while believed true at the time of publication, is flawed science:
The 1947 paper that drew conclusions about wolf hierarchies was describing two wolf packs in captivity. The study specimens were unrelated animals who'd been brought together at a Swiss zoo, where they shared an enclosure measuring 2,153 square feet (200 square meters). 
Unlike their counterparts at the Swiss zoo, natural wolf packs mainly consist of genetic relatives. They also take up way more space, patrolling territories of 1,000 square miles (2,590 square kilometers) or larger.
And the term 'alpha' isn't really accurate when describing most of the leaders of wolf packs. Because the term implies that the wolves fought and competed strongly to get to the top of the pack. In actuality, the way they get there is by mating with a member of the opposite sex, producing a bunch of offspring which are the rest of the pack, and becoming the natural leaders that way. Just like with a pair of humans producing a family. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide attempt, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Tobias's legal guardians check up on him/with each other so little that they haven't noticed

he's been gone for over a month. And Tobias is unsure if they will ever notice his absence.