I feel like the only reason I didn’t get into Animorphs when they were super hot was because I was already into Goosebumps. If I could only get 1 book, it was for sure going to be a Goosebumps book.
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jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org 1 week ago
I feel incredibly out of the loop. I’ve seen references to these Animorphs books for years online, but I’ve never seen one or spoken to anyone that has. They were obviously popular, but I have no idea of when or where they were popular and it is starting to bother me.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 week ago
jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org 1 week ago
Maybe it’s an age thing? I’m 41 and have no memory of these books existing, but I do remember Goosebumps.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
You are the exact age group within 2 years of these books and them being popular. They were the biggest push at your scholastic book fairs when you were in jr.high and 13 years old. They were huge 1996-1998
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 week ago
I’m only a couple years younger (40 in February). It could have been regional. I just remember seeing them all the time in my school library and I knew at least 2 people that did one of them as book reports for class.
Agent641@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You’ve Mandela’ed in from a universe where they never existed
dingus@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I’m 30 and we had Animorphs books in our house and at school as a kid. However, I think the original several books were kind of old at that point and not as popular.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
Their “hay day” was 1996-1999 and were popular enough that nickelodeon tried making a terrible live action TV show that went 26 episodes before being canceled in 98,99. The books were way too violent and traumatizing to make a kids show out of it, but those dumb tv executives still figured they’d give it a shot.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
Mid 90s they came out and were super popular. At all the school book fairs. There’s about 60 books in total and each one is about 200 pages. They were probably the most read book among kids and teens before Harry Potter, so chances are you weren’t born soon enough to know much of them
As far as YA books go, they were brutal as hell. Lots of killing, enslavement, difficult moral choices, sacrifices, and fucked up situations. Without giving too much away, it’s about a group of teens that get powers given to them by a dying alien that’s part of a huge war with another alien race that’s wanting to enslave/control the galaxy. They are given the power to temporarily change into any creature that they have touched. No other humans on the planet who haven’t been enslaved and controlled by the bad alien species (that crawl into your ear and enslave you, taking over your mind) is aware of aliens existing, and the teens are left trying to hold off the bad aliens long enough for more of the “good” aliens to get to earth and help.
If you sail the high seas you can find all the books in e reader format, or if you’d prefer, a few years ago they made audiobooks of the entire series.
All the book covers look a bit cheesy and they made a tv show that was horrible due to cheap budget and having to make it rated G. I don’t know what nickelodeon was even thinking trying to make it into a kids show. No chance that was going to work out well.
So you get those cheesy looking covers and then inside the books you get descriptions of a girl turning into a grizzly bear and ripping off heads while getting covered in blood while being shot at by alien slaves that are being ripped apart simply because they were enslaved and controlled by alien slugs that have taken over their minds.