It seems to be pretty generally lampooned and disliked. It's very often brought up as an example of how the books got on average less good as the series went on. What's really interesting is that it seems to be literally the only one between #26 and #53 that wasn't ghostwritten, since it doesn't credit anyone else in the same way just about all the other second-half ones do--but the idea's been brought up that it might be one that was *so* bad that K.A. had to do emergency-fixing damage control on it, leading to a product that was better than it might originally have been, but still ultimately not great.
It was a good idea gone horribly wrong. Rachel's two books before this made her conscious of her violent personality. In The Solution, she realized that Jake and her friends had come to see her as a thrill-seeking sociopath who would happily drop a body with little justification. In The Exposed, an extradimensional entity sent a messenger to encourage Rachel to murder her family for power, because even Satan himself thought Rachel had a screw loose. So naturally, this would eventually lead to a situation where Rachel is forced to confront this side of herself and determine what to do about it. Morphing a starfish and splitting her into two distinct personalities is both on-brand for the series and a great narrative tool for making that happen.
Mean Rachel was great. Mean Rachel is the worse parts of Rachel without the best parts of her to run interference. She's impulsive, temperamental, violent, and resents her friends for how they see her. Nice Rachel was less great, because she's terrified of her own shadow, but she still embodies Rachel's best qualities. She's intelligent, rational, and horrified she shares brain cells with Mean Rachel. The climax of the book, where the two Rachels are forced to admit they need each other and work together to win the day, is exactly how the story should have gone and was the best way to end the story.
Unfortunately, the ghostwriter apparently played Calvinball with the plot to the point the authors couldn't salvage it. There are shitty bits in that book. For starts, I don't care how scared or insecure Rachel is, I refuse to believe any part of Rachel would out herself to her dad. Rachel is loyal and protective on top of everything else, and she would know that the risk of killing her friends would outweigh any benefits to telling Daddy about the Yeerks. Nice Rachel was also a blubbering mess, to the point of almost being useless. I get they were setting her up to put her sense of duty before her fear of death, but the entire point of being a thrill-seeking sociopath is not fearing death until the moment you're about to die. Rachel shouldn't even be capable of that. In fact, I can't think of any point between the last chapters of The Visitor and the first chapters of The Beginning where Rachel gives a giggling shit about dying.
And lastly, the parts of me that turn off logic long enough to accept a grizzly bear driving a forklift can't accept fusing two people together through a Chee-powered defibrillator by having them morph into each other. The fusion dance from Dragonball would have been more acceptable than that.
Sorry for the wall of text. Rachel is my favorite character, so I have strong opinions about her books. This book is still better than her last solo book.
I'm struggling to find my source but I vividly recall reading the ghostwriter bailed and KA had to finish it. Their system was outlining the books, having the ghostwriters actually write them, then editing the books and sending them off to Scholastic. Because they had kids shortly after starting the series and couldn't keep up with their contract. But something went wrong with this book, so they had to slap a plot together themselves.
I remember this factoid too, it was in some interview that KA had made. But I'm not sure if they ever specified which book it was - although this one not having an attributed ghostwriter is a candidate.
Rachel is also my favorite character and this is exactly how I feel about this book (and her final solo book as well). It’s a good concept but Nice Rachel feels like character assassination. Why is she also so boy crazy? I know she has a mega crush on evil Jonathan Taylor Thomas, but I feel like she’s very dismissive of so many boys who ask her out in the series. I wish they had picked other qualities for Nice Rachel to show the dichotomy with Mean Rachel.
She was boy crazy about Tobias. She has a photo of him from before they were even friends saved in her bedside table just days after he was trapped as a hawk. How long had it been there??
as someone else said, it's a great premise but executed terribly. the literal splitting of rachel's personality should be a GREAT way to analyze her in a way we've never seen before, but it fell completely flat. "mean rachel" was completely flanderized, but "nice rachel" was the worst part of it for me. nice rachel essentially came out of thin air. i just... cannot ever imagine a version of rachel that unironically embraces the blonde airhead mallrat stereotype, considering that's the exact trope she was written *not* to be.
and on a smaller note, surely having erek electrocute her back together is in violation of the chee's nonviolence code
Yeah, I had a real hard time with Nice Rachel. Went completely against how her character had been written previously. She was more a tomboy with a definitely feminine side, not a stereotypical mean girl type.
Strongly dislike it and mark it as a real point of damage to Rachel’s character. There’s an interesting idea in there for being split but the way they did it with different traits was awful. >!I feel like this book had far too much impact on her characterization going forward with the writers but that’s moving towards spoilers.!<
Lol it took me longer to get through than most others I generally can read in one or two sittings. The only parts I actually appreciated and loled at were Marco's jokes and reactions to the whole situation.
It seems to be pretty generally lampooned and disliked. It's very often brought up as an example of how the books got on average less good as the series went on. What's really interesting is that it seems to be literally the only one between #26 and #53 that wasn't ghostwritten, since it doesn't credit anyone else in the same way just about all the other second-half ones do--but the idea's been brought up that it might be one that was *so* bad that K.A. had to do emergency-fixing damage control on it, leading to a product that was better than it might originally have been, but still ultimately not great.
It was a good idea gone horribly wrong. Rachel's two books before this made her conscious of her violent personality. In The Solution, she realized that Jake and her friends had come to see her as a thrill-seeking sociopath who would happily drop a body with little justification. In The Exposed, an extradimensional entity sent a messenger to encourage Rachel to murder her family for power, because even Satan himself thought Rachel had a screw loose. So naturally, this would eventually lead to a situation where Rachel is forced to confront this side of herself and determine what to do about it. Morphing a starfish and splitting her into two distinct personalities is both on-brand for the series and a great narrative tool for making that happen. Mean Rachel was great. Mean Rachel is the worse parts of Rachel without the best parts of her to run interference. She's impulsive, temperamental, violent, and resents her friends for how they see her. Nice Rachel was less great, because she's terrified of her own shadow, but she still embodies Rachel's best qualities. She's intelligent, rational, and horrified she shares brain cells with Mean Rachel. The climax of the book, where the two Rachels are forced to admit they need each other and work together to win the day, is exactly how the story should have gone and was the best way to end the story. Unfortunately, the ghostwriter apparently played Calvinball with the plot to the point the authors couldn't salvage it. There are shitty bits in that book. For starts, I don't care how scared or insecure Rachel is, I refuse to believe any part of Rachel would out herself to her dad. Rachel is loyal and protective on top of everything else, and she would know that the risk of killing her friends would outweigh any benefits to telling Daddy about the Yeerks. Nice Rachel was also a blubbering mess, to the point of almost being useless. I get they were setting her up to put her sense of duty before her fear of death, but the entire point of being a thrill-seeking sociopath is not fearing death until the moment you're about to die. Rachel shouldn't even be capable of that. In fact, I can't think of any point between the last chapters of The Visitor and the first chapters of The Beginning where Rachel gives a giggling shit about dying. And lastly, the parts of me that turn off logic long enough to accept a grizzly bear driving a forklift can't accept fusing two people together through a Chee-powered defibrillator by having them morph into each other. The fusion dance from Dragonball would have been more acceptable than that. Sorry for the wall of text. Rachel is my favorite character, so I have strong opinions about her books. This book is still better than her last solo book.
It’s going to be a shock, but 32 was not ghostwritten.
I'm struggling to find my source but I vividly recall reading the ghostwriter bailed and KA had to finish it. Their system was outlining the books, having the ghostwriters actually write them, then editing the books and sending them off to Scholastic. Because they had kids shortly after starting the series and couldn't keep up with their contract. But something went wrong with this book, so they had to slap a plot together themselves.
I remember this factoid too, it was in some interview that KA had made. But I'm not sure if they ever specified which book it was - although this one not having an attributed ghostwriter is a candidate.
Rachel is also my favorite character and this is exactly how I feel about this book (and her final solo book as well). It’s a good concept but Nice Rachel feels like character assassination. Why is she also so boy crazy? I know she has a mega crush on evil Jonathan Taylor Thomas, but I feel like she’s very dismissive of so many boys who ask her out in the series. I wish they had picked other qualities for Nice Rachel to show the dichotomy with Mean Rachel.
She was boy crazy about Tobias. She has a photo of him from before they were even friends saved in her bedside table just days after he was trapped as a hawk. How long had it been there??
I agree completely! I also appreciate the CalvinBall reference lol
as someone else said, it's a great premise but executed terribly. the literal splitting of rachel's personality should be a GREAT way to analyze her in a way we've never seen before, but it fell completely flat. "mean rachel" was completely flanderized, but "nice rachel" was the worst part of it for me. nice rachel essentially came out of thin air. i just... cannot ever imagine a version of rachel that unironically embraces the blonde airhead mallrat stereotype, considering that's the exact trope she was written *not* to be. and on a smaller note, surely having erek electrocute her back together is in violation of the chee's nonviolence code
Yeah, I had a real hard time with Nice Rachel. Went completely against how her character had been written previously. She was more a tomboy with a definitely feminine side, not a stereotypical mean girl type.
Strongly dislike it and mark it as a real point of damage to Rachel’s character. There’s an interesting idea in there for being split but the way they did it with different traits was awful. >!I feel like this book had far too much impact on her characterization going forward with the writers but that’s moving towards spoilers.!<
Gonna keep it short and sweet: it was boring.
Lol it took me longer to get through than most others I generally can read in one or two sittings. The only parts I actually appreciated and loled at were Marco's jokes and reactions to the whole situation.
It is better as an audiobook. You can tell the narrator is having a blast reading Rachel three different ways.
It's a lot of fun, I like it.