Skip to main content

Featured

Series Review - Teeth: The Complete Meal by Chele Cooke

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as returning patron Chris Alvarado. Full Audio Here   Teeth: The Complete Meal by Chele Cooke TEETH: The First Bite Being dead just got complicated.   Spencer’s life began after his death. Being a vampire is better than any teen flick made it out to be. After all, what’s not to like? He’s stronger, faster, and deadlier than any predator. He has a job, a home, and he’ll be young and pretty forever. When Thomas wakes up in the throes of transitioning, Spencer is assigned to train the newly sired vampire. He thinks it’ll be fun, but it could turn the afterlife upside down for everyone, even the people Spencer didn’t know existed. Spencer is about to learn that the rules he ...

Animorphs Book 40: The Other by K. A. Applegate

This book confronts the Andalite ableism that has been shown since early in the series. It examines norms, friendships, and prejudices through an alien lense. This is all during a high-stakes life or death mission that’s standard for this series.

I appreciate the angle taken in this book, it acknowledges human ableism while pushing back on ableist language in general using a sci-fi analogue. On the podcast we frequently find ourselves using the concept of a magical analogue as a way to examine a type of trauma while keeping it separate from what the reader could actually experience. This book confronts both the specific Andalite prejudice against physical disabilities and non-normative bodies, while also using the Animorphs’ particular situation to push against any idea of a “normal” that could be used to judge and demean anyone.

For Marco this is a break from the ongoing issue of Visser One, but even though nothing changes on that front it’s clear that it weighs on him. This isn’t a light book, but it deals with a different issue than Marco normally faces, which itself can be a break of a kind.

A boy (Marco) turns into a bee

Comments

Popular Posts