Book Review: Cloudstar's Journey by Erin Hunter (Warriors Novella #3)

 

Doing another Warriors novella review here today. Cloudstar's Journey is a story taking place quite long before The Prophecies Begin. Onto the book. This review will contain spoilers, you’ve been warned!

There are five cat Clans in the forest. Cloudstar is leader of SkyClan. His cats are suffering, as Twolegs are causing more and more ruckus in their territory by removing trees and thus chasing away the prey. Cloudstar is desperate to keep his Clan safe in their current territory, but, in the end, they have no choice but to leave the forest.

I thought the plot was interesting, as we haven’t often seen a Clan being chased out of their territory before. However, I did actually hope for this story to focus more on the titular journey and less on Cloudstar’s desperate attempts to stay in the forest. The title is even “Cloudstar’s Journey”, but we don’t get a single journey in this book. It’s just SkyClan suffering, and it ends with the cats leaving the forest. So the title was a bit of a lie.

I feel like “Cloudstar’s Struggle” might’ve been a better title. The current one really made me look forward to seeing SkyClan settle in the gorge, but we did not get that in the end.

 The pacing was rather slow, and it felt rather repetitive, with cats often telling Cloudstar that it might be better to give up and leave, but the leader being headstrong and not giving in. It was also rather painful to see the Clan decrease in hope and strength over the course of the entire story.

 The main character, Cloudstar, was not one of my favourite Warriors protagonists. Seeing him be so headstrong and refusing to give up even if it means having his Clan suffer made me dislike him quite much. I did enjoy Petalfall and Buzzardtail, however.

The other Clans were also really unlikable in this, with them essentially telling SkyClan to get lost once their territory has been completely destroyed.

Overall, I thought this was one of the lesser Warrior cats short stories I’ve read. Not too bad, but it could’ve been better. It does have a big impact on the later stories, with the major event of one of the five original Clans being chased out. I’d say, if you’re interested, check it out.

Rating: 3/5