Urban fantasy-ish YA series (found!)

[buttonsbeadslace]

 This is a series of YA books (I think three books, but maybe more?) set in a more or less normal "present day" world, where a small minority of children are able to shapeshift into animals. At some point in their teens (on a birthday, I think, but I don't remember at what age) they lose the ability and get stuck in whatever form they're in at that moment. Some of them choose to become animals permanently. There's a lot of angst.

The plot of one of the later books revolves around some of the shapeshifters discovering that they can take the forms of supernatural creatures, too-- unicorns, phoenixes, vampires. But these creatures aren't really meant to exist and getting stuck permanently in a supernatural form messes with the balance of the world somehow. I think what happens is that someone takes an "evil" form permanently (a vampire, I think), and that forces someone else to stay in a "good" form permanently to balance it out? But I don't remember for sure which happened first.

I read these in the mid 2000s in the US.

Comments

[pipibluestockin]

The Animorphs series by K. A. Applegate?

You are in luck, there appears to be way more than three books in the series.

Never read them myself that is the series that springs to mind.

[buttonsbeadslace]

I remember the Animorphs books pretty well, and it's not them. There are some similarities-- the possibility of getting stuck transformed is a plot point there too, but it doesn't work quite the same, and there aren't any supernatural elements to the Animorphs books, from what I remember, just alien technology.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I also tend to think of the Animorphs books as being aimed at a younger audience (I read them around age nine). The series I'm trying to find is aimed at older teenagers, I think.

Thanks for the reply, though!

[pipibluestockin]

Oh well, I thought it was a match. The search continues.

[explorewithtwine.wordpress.com]

I'm pretty sure your book is also not the Golden Compass Series by Philip Pullman. Shapechanging souls that solidify in shape around puberty, yes, but no vampires or unicorns or phoenixes.

[buttonsbeadslace]

You're right, it's not. :) I guess I might as well add that it's also not any of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' books (she has both shapeshifters and vampires, but I don't think those continuities overlap?). Nor is it Diane Duane's Young Wizards, there's some shapeshifting in there.

[cyphomandra]

Switchers series, by Kate Thompson? (haven't read it - suggested by a friend)

[buttonsbeadslace]

Yes! Thank you!