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Ravenpaw has always been one of my favorite Warriors characters, that's no secret. I really related to him and him slowly recovering from his PTSD after seeing Redtail's Death. We also didn't see him for a long time after the Clans left the forest (safe for the graphic novels, but I don't read those so...). So let's have a look at what is probably his last appearance, Ravenpaw's Farewell. Spoilers ahead, but the title alone makes this book extremely predictable, so they're probably not very unexpected.
Ravenpaw has lived at the barn with Barley for many years after the Clans left the forest and is growing old and sick. Barley's cousins, Bella and Riley, dream of living in a Clan. Ravenpaw finally decides that it is up to him to go on one last warrior quest: to bring these two potential Clan-cats to the last remaining group of cats around, SkyClan. This causes a rift in his relationship with Barley, and Ravenpaw soon realizes that his time is drawing shorter than expected.
I have mixed thoughts on this book. On surface level, I really liked it. Not only is Ravenpaw as always a great character, but I also really enjoyed his relationship with Barley. The journey in this book wasn't grand, but considering Ravenpaw was slowly collapsing to liver cancer while he was making it, that's totally justifiable. I did think it was kind of weird for SkyClan to just send away these two potential new members when they also take in kittypets, but at least they later came around.
However, there's also some negative aspects to this novella. First of all, SkyClan, despite being huge and trained fighters, seemed extremely incapable in this one. They just couldn't handle four or so kittypets threatening them? Did they really need Ravenpaw, Barley and the young ones to step in here?
Also, the relationship between Barley and Ravenpaw is (probably intentionally) being left a bit vague. Sometimes they're talked about as if they're a couple, which is awesome because Warriors is lacking in LGBTQ+ relationships, but then also time and again, Barley is only referred to as Ravenpaw's "old friend", which makes me really question whether or not they're mates or not. I think maybe HarperCollins wants to have them be mates, but is careful about being explicit about it because it might garner negative attention? Either way, that's kind of cowardly. Either go all the way or don't at all, don't make it vague like this. Especially since they seem to have no problem whatsoever with featuring explicitly stated to be LGBTQ+ ships/characters in other series they own such as Wings of Fire.
Also, on a sidenote, Leafstar is awful with picking names. What the heck kind of names are Bellapaw and Rileypaw? Those aren't even warrior-type names, they're just their kittypet names with a suffix added.
But even with that, this book was still cute. Seeing Ravenpaw and Barley's relationship was a joy, and it was nice to see Ravenpaw briefly take on the mentor role over Riley and Bella. And of course there's the bittersweet moment where Ravenpaw parts ways with his dear Barley, succumbing to his sickness. I knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any less hard to read. Especially since we know that Barley is at least a two years older than Ravenpaw, so you'd really expect things to be the other way around.
Still, this was a heart-wrenching moment, and I hope that, in whatever afterlife Barley may end up in, he can meet up with his friend/mate again.
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