A Starless Clan, Book 4: Thunder

Good news, Thunder was much more tolerable than Shadow so I got through it faster and I actually enjoyed it!

Starting off with Sunbeam's story: I liked it! Her growing friendship with the cats of ThunderClan and the way the trials are different than Nightheart's ShadowClan trials was interesting. Turns out, when Sunbeam is allowed to exist without Nightheart, she's actually interesting to read about! She adapts to ThunderClan's teamwork culture quickly, stands up for herself in a way she rarely if ever did in ShadowClan, and overall is having a better time in ThunderClan..

Now Frostpaw and Nightheart's side of the story: I don't think Nightheart needs to be here at all. How is he really contributing to the plot? He got Sunbeam to ThunderClan, which is important, and he goes on the journy to the park with Frostpaw, but I don't think he specifically needed to be with her. Personally, I think literally any other cat could have gone with her and been more compelling. I just hate Nightheart's existance so much he's a waste of a pov character and he's damn near useless in the story. Frostpaw is the only main character actually trying to do things. If she was the only pov character, I don't think anything would change.

The cats of the park have never featured in a mainline book yet so I had no idea who they were, but I think the book covered for that fairly well. I didn't have to wonder who these cats were the whole time and I'm sure anyone who did know them had a fun time. I'm excited to see Waffle and Wasp's warrior names! And I liked how the park cats weren't looked down upon for their way of life quite as obviously as other groups have been. They are still slightly judged for relying on twolegs for food, but Nightheart's not mean to them about it and I appreciated it. The meditation and connection to Riverstar was pretty cool too! I've avoided Dawn of the Clans like the plague but everytime I hear about Riverstar I get a little tempted to actually read it. I also think Frostpaw getting spayed is going to be interesting but also Warrior Cats haven't handled fixed cats very well in the past (see: Henry from Into the Wild), so I don't have very high hopes

Another small note is that part of the reason I hated Shadow so much was the strange more modern sounding prose that just didn't fit Warrior Cats. But even weirder, this book didn't have any of that weird modern prose? Everything stuck to the normal Warrior Cat prose, which made it a lot easier to read for me.

A Starless Clan, Book 3: Shadow

To preface: I started reading Shadow ages ago and only managed to pick it back up recently. I hated Shadow so much that it took months for me to get through it so this is less of a review and more a rant. I really really didn't like Shadow.

The prologue was cool! I think using Berryheart's trauma at the paws of Darktail and the Kin is almost a good motivation for her behavior! I say almost because Darktail and the Kin weren't from the clans, so it would make a lot more sense for her prejudice to be towards rogues and loners instead of her fellow clan cats. The whole book this was kind of nagging at me because they talk as if the other clans are complete strangers to ShadowClan. They literally all know each others names and see each other every gathering? It just doesn't make sense to me.

ShadowClan taking over RiverClan is a very cool parallel to The Prophecies Begin that I wish was expanded upon. It would have been really cool to see more of arc 1 repeating itself but alas. All we get is Tigerstar. Okay now moving on to the worst part of this book: Sunbeam and Nightheart. Nightheart shows up in ShadowClan claiming to be her mate after talking to Sunbeam like twice EVER and not informing her beforehand THIS IS CREEP BEHAVIOR. DO NOT TRUST SOMEONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE DATING YOU WITHOUT CHECKING WITH YOU FIRST. I felt like this book as gaslighting me the whole time, it kept saying that Nightheart joined ShadowClan for Sunbeam when that DIDN'T HAPPEN? HE LEFT TO GET AWAY FROM THUNDERCLAN?? WHAT DID I MISS??? This stupid romance is so unnatural and strange, I can't take it seriously at all. The issue with Nightheart is that he's treated like he's in the right no matter what, even when his behavior is weird and would be a major red flag in real life. The issue with Sunbeam is that she's another she-cat defined by her romances with toms AND she keeps talking like a modern teenager and it's freaking me the fuck out. Why does she say things like "is he for real". Warrior Cats are not meant to say that. My general rule is that if a medieval knight wouldn't say it, a Warrior Cat probably wouldn't say it either. Would Sir Lancelot say "break up" and "crush"? No. Sunbeam shouldn't either. There's also that Sunbeam wasn't at RiverClan camp super often so she wasn't super involved in Frostpaw's side of the book, which was frustrating, but it seems like she will be next book so I'll hold off on commenting on that much more.

Okay now on to Frostpaw and RiverClan: Frostpaw switching from being a medicine cat apprentice over to be a warrior one could have been interesting if the way hunting and fighting and training wasn't written so boring. As Tumblr user Skinwretch has pointed out, Frostpaw and Shadowsight have very similar stories, with the key difference that Frostpaw's features romance prominently, most definitely because she's a she-cat and of COURSE the woman wants to have babies and a husband. God forbid a woman wants to chill. I can't think of a single female medicine cat pov that didn't have a romance of some kind, meanwhile damn near every tom medicine cat barely shows any interest in romance at all. Hm I wonder why. Other than the pointless romance with Splashtail going on, I actually liked a lot of Frostpaw's plotline this book! I think her first real vision being of Reedwhisker's violent death and seeing through his killer's eyes specifically is really interesing and makes me think Curlfeather is the one that killed him. Also, Frostpaw standing up for herself to the whole gathering was pretty cool. If only she actually had any agency.

My Thunder review might take a bit to get here since my hold at the library is taking a while, but I hope it's better than whatever Shadow was.

A Starless Clan, Book 2: Sky

I did not like Nightheart at all in River, but I think this book has endeared me to him a little. He's just so miserable I can't not feel a little bad for him. I really really hope his whole thing with leaving ThunderClan doesn't end up with him as the leader of RiverClan. That seems like how it might shape out, but I do not think he would make a good leader at all. And we already had a Nightstar, whom I loved dearly. I also know him and Sunbeam are going to become mates but I'm still hoping in vain that they don't. It would be really nice if we had a non medicine cat main character that wasn't interested in romance. Speaking of Sunbeam, I'm not really into her whole drama with Blazefire and Lightleap, but I do like her as a character. Frostpaw is also really interesting to me. I love her issues with having too much responsibility and not actually being connected to StarClan at all. I hope Mothwing becomes leader, that would be fun.

Crookedstar's Promise

I read this entire book today and I don't have much to say about it. It was fine. I like the seemingly eternal cycle of Crookedstar's relatives falling in love with ThunderClan cats. Also the manga at the end with Silverstream saying the code needs to change for half-clan relationships... she was ahead of her time. I also like how Rainflower's behavior is never excused by Crookedstar. He still wants her approval the whole time, but when other cats try and excuse her actions he doesn't buy it at all. I don't like Hailstar though. He seems like a reasonable guy throughout the whole book but he also let Rainflower rename her son Crookedkit and I never really got that out of my mind. I loved Brambleberry and I miss when medicine cats were portrayed as a little crazy because of all the omens and such. Now that we've had so many medicine cat POV characters I think the role has been kind of watered down. They tend to TELL us that medicine cats' connection to StarClan is important but rarely seem to actually SHOW it in a way that actually gets the point across. Overall this was a pretty good book to me. I liked it I guess but it didn't blow my mind or anything.

The Prophecies Begin, Book 2: Fire and Ice

WindClan was my favorite for a long time. I just adored Tallstar and how him and Fireheart were friends. Funnily enough I never actually read Tallstar's Revenge. I think Ravenpaw doing a lot better with Barley is sweet. Graystripe in this book makes me so annoyed. People tend to portray him as Fireheart's wonderful best friend and he is like that in Into the Wild, but by this book he's just horrible. Constantly dumping Brackenpaw on Fireheart, never thanking Fireheart for covering for him, putting his clan at risk because RiverClan could scent him on their territory. He's got moments of good, like standing up for Fireheart when he brought Cloudkit into camp, but that's about it. Cloudkit's pretty cute though. He's kind of a brat but I like how much he clearly cares for the clan. Even if he's breaking rules, he's at least trying to help.

I really like the battle at WindClan's camp at the end, I think it really shows Fireheart's care towards others. He didn't need to let Silverstream go and he didn't need to cover for Graystripe again but he did anyway. Graystripe was not a good friend in this book and him and Fireheart making up at the end didn't entirely feel right. Graystripe did nothing to make up for all the other things he did all book, and his relationship with Silverstream contintues to get Fireheart in trouble. As sweet as it comes off, Fireheart and Graystripe's friendship just doesn't work in this book. Silverstream is a whole 'nother bag of worms. Every interaction with Fireheart she has just screams spoiled and little too over confident. This isn't me saying I don't like her, I think it makes sense that she thinks she can get away with everything. She's the only child of Crookedstar, who has lost everyone else in his family so it would make sense for him to be a lot easier on her than a parent maybe should have been. It really is a shame we don't see too much of her before her death.

The Prophecies Begin, Book 1: Into The Wild

Very early in this book it establishes that the clan cats call the vet "the Cutter" because they fix cats, which is objectively really really funny but I am kind of thankful this isn't really mentioned behond arc 1. It's a little weird.

Rusty's fight with Longtail is pretty iconic to me and it made me really like Longtail. When I was a kid I always imagined him as a siamese instead of a tabby and that always stuck in my brain until I watched SSS Warrior Cats, which totally changed my view of him. He looks like his SSS Warrior Cats design in my minds eye now.

I love Yellowfang. I don't have anything else to say I just love her.