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A review by housedesignerking
The Invasion by K.A. Applegate
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? No
4.0
I remember seeing these books in my elementary school library as well as in the stores. These were either next to or near the Goosebumps books that were for sale at the time. Gosh, I remember these books and Goosebumps being somewhere between $3.95-$5.95, depending on where you went. At K-Mart, they were always $3.95 a piece in my city.
Someone had told me that each book stood alone much like most of the Goosebumps books, but that's apparently not true. Apparently, it's one big story that spans about 62 books (64 if you count the Altermorphs books, but those weren't written by Applegate). I was also told that each book was about a character slowly morphing into another species, and THAT apparently isn't true, either. This is the stuff that creates trust issues...
We have Jake, the main character, with his friends Marcos, Tobias, and Cassie. There's also Rachel, Jake's cousin, who is a mutual friend of Cassie's. This entire story (62-ish books) starts with all five of them at the mall. After a time at the arcade, they decide to head home. They can either walk the long way home, or get home faster by sneaking through this abandoned construction site. They choose the latter despite Jake's better judgement. What follows is definitely not what I thought would follow.
A space ship flies over head, and before you know it, their seemingly normal life morphs into something off the Syfy/Sci-Fi channel with three different types of aliens eventually appearing. I personally found the one with hundreds of teeth in a huge mouth to be particularly creepy. Honestly, even though this is a "kids' book series" (phooey!), I thought parts of this were a bit creepy and somewhat cringe inducing, and I was a bit surprised by some of the things that appeared in this book. Let's just say some of the things in here would be more expected in a teen fiction than in young adult.
4 out of 5 stars.
Someone had told me that each book stood alone much like most of the Goosebumps books, but that's apparently not true. Apparently, it's one big story that spans about 62 books (64 if you count the Altermorphs books, but those weren't written by Applegate). I was also told that each book was about a character slowly morphing into another species, and THAT apparently isn't true, either. This is the stuff that creates trust issues...
We have Jake, the main character, with his friends Marcos, Tobias, and Cassie. There's also Rachel, Jake's cousin, who is a mutual friend of Cassie's. This entire story (62-ish books) starts with all five of them at the mall. After a time at the arcade, they decide to head home. They can either walk the long way home, or get home faster by sneaking through this abandoned construction site. They choose the latter despite Jake's better judgement. What follows is definitely not what I thought would follow.
A space ship flies over head, and before you know it, their seemingly normal life morphs into something off the Syfy/Sci-Fi channel with three different types of aliens eventually appearing. I personally found the one with hundreds of teeth in a huge mouth to be particularly creepy. Honestly, even though this is a "kids' book series" (phooey!), I thought parts of this were a bit creepy and somewhat cringe inducing, and I was a bit surprised by some of the things that appeared in this book. Let's just say some of the things in here would be more expected in a teen fiction than in young adult.
4 out of 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail