Were they this bad?

I remember reading the prequel to animorphs along with the whole series..it was pretty dark

I never even knew animorphs were a thing until I saw people talking about them on the internet.

I never finished the series but I vaguely remember something about the government

One of the main characters got possessed by a small slug alien thing and lost all control of his morphing, body, and words. He was just watching that thing try to ruin his life and get his friends killed while he was /talking to it in his mind the whole time./ But his friends caught on and imprisoned him in a barn in solitary confinement for three days to starve the Yeerk, and while it was dying he had horrible hallucinations of death, memories of species-wide enslavery, visions of Satan and the Eye of Sauron’s lovechild, and memories from every creature that the Yeerk had ever controlled and/or killed.

I remember a part where the kids heard actual gunshots and being mortified by them.
I have no idea how they were for kids.

I tried to read one once. Couldn't get into it so I, ironically, turned to Goosebumps.

I read animorphs yet I can remember much. Just how many died. It's amazing that it's a children series

Yes. Yes they were

Was an amazing series. Hated the ambiguity of the ending. Still saddened by the way tobias just left after the yeerks were stopped

Animorphs was my shit! The starfish one was my favourite, I read it like eight times. And I shipped Rachel and Tobias so much!