You completely overstated how violent and gritty these books really were. They were still these Scholastic books marketed to preteens for crying out loud.
Are you sh*tting me?! Of
course they were marketed to preteens. They were Scholastic books.
What you fail to grasp is, Animorphs was somewhat unique among the Scholastic crowd, in that it was undoubtedly the most violent and high-concept. You DON'T see this kind of crap in Goosebumps or Harry. You just don't. Don't make me go looking for excerpts/passages from the books to grind your stubborn little face into the ground with about this. The (mostly Katherine/Michael-written, less so with the ghosts) books included graphic descriptions of people losing limbs and vicious animal mauling and burnt flesh. They did. Don't come here saying they didn't.
The books were disturbing and visceral.
And yes, that doesn't mean they weren't marketed to kids. They were. Which was the entire controversy with the incidents of parents and teachers complaining about them at the time. These WERE children's books, and they WERE violent.
That's not something you see often. Somewhat of an anomaly.
So yeah, nothing personal, but shut up.
