A Famous Human Named Rolling Stones.

I've been rereading the Animorphs series, and these books really are startlingly dark. In Book 15, The Escape, there's a scene in which Marco (the book's narrator) goes to the school swimming pool and tries to morph into a shark. This is obviously a terrible idea, as the pool is treated with chlorine and I don't imagine a hammerhead is going to be very happy in it. Perhaps fortunately, a couple of arseholes come in and Marco stops the morph. At this point Marco is mostly human but, unbeknownst to the bullies, has a mouthful of shark teeth.

One of the bullies, Woo, starts making comments about Marco's mother. This is, for various reasons, a very sore subject for Marco. And then we get this:

All I had to do was walk away. And all I did was stare at Woo's throat.

I could see the arteries there. The ones that were pulsating on either side of Woo's Adam's apple.

[Then, when Marco's friend Jake sees him cornered and steps in:] I swung my head fiercely towards Jake. I grimaced, baring my teeth. "I thon't neeth you help."

The shark's teeth that filled my mouth distorted my speech. I saw Jake's eyes flare in surprise. Then wary concern.

"Let it go, Marco," Jake said.

I turned back towards Woo. I could still see the pulsing blood just below the skin of Woo's neck. It would be so easy...

I read these books when I was nine. How is there a scene in which one kid has to be talked down from literally tearing another kid's throat out with his teeth?


Speaking of amazing Animorphs quotes, here's a bit from Book 12, The Reaction, first published in 1997. Rachel is explaining the influence a tremendously popular actor holds:

"Jake, you're not getting it. About half the girls in our school have a poster of Jeremy Jason McCole in their bedrooms or in their lockers, or both. He is the number one cute guy in the country. He has like twenty Web sites just about him."

I reread this about a month ago and cracked up. How times change!