In May 2001, when the 54th and final volume of the Animorphs series was published, many of its millions of readers felt short-changed by its bleak ending and took to the internet to vent their frustration. Created by American author Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, Animorphs was a popular science fiction saga for young adults in which a parasitic army of slug-like aliens, called Yeerks, wanted nothing more than to invade Earth but were constantly thwarted by a group of teenagers who possessed the ability to morph into animals. A tale as old as time. To be completely honest, I have never read Animorphs, nor have I watched the TV adaptation, but that did not stop me from enjoying and admiring this refreshingly honest letter, written by Applegate for the attention of the saga’s disappointed fans.

The letter ends with the below paragraph, but it is well worth a read in full.

So, you don’t like the way our little fictional war came out? You don’t like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don’t like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you’ll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.