As you probably know, if you’ve watched my Power of Three review, I wasn’t too fond of that arc. Omen of the Stars I've also already reviewed, and I liked it. Today we’re having a look at a novella taking place between the two: Hollyleaf’s Story. Spoilers ahead.
This novella reveals that Hollyleaf did in fact not perish in the cave-in of the tunnels. Instead, she’s nursed back to health by Fallen Leaves, whom she befriends. She spends a lot of time in her new tunnel home, but starts to feel homesick for Clan life more and more. Finally, it is up to her to decide whether to return to her Clan or stay hidden in the tunnels with Fallen Leaves.
I’m personally not too fond of this book. While it was nice to see Hollyleaf’s point of view of some of the events of Power of Three and thereafter, I still think she wasn’t exactly fun to read about. It’s good to see her slowly come around and trust Fallen Leaves and decide to return, but I still feel like she deserved some comeuppance for what she did.
Her obsession with the warrior code made her kill Ashfur, which, granted, he did deserve, but not in the way it happened. The Three never bothered to tell Firestar about what Ashfur did back when it was important, so he couldn’t have been properly punished by their leader. Hollyleaf then proceeds with the utterly confusing decision to tell everyone at the gathering about the secrets anyways, bringing not only herself down in the process, but also her brothers, Leafpool, Crowfeather and Squirrelflight. Finally, to make things worse, she nearly commits matricide.
Excuse me, but are we supposed to like this character and want to see her redeemed? I don’t. Honestly, I think Holly might as well have stayed dead, at least as far as I’ve read this. She somewhat gets a redemption arc in this book, and also in Omen of the Stars. But she does not deserve it. At least, not yet over here. She gets backlash that she caused herself by revealing the secret, murdering Ashfur and attempting to get Leafpool to eat deathberries. What does she get as comeuppance? She gets to start a completely new life with a close friend/possible lover and with the ability to go back to her Clan at any given moment. That doesn’t sound terrible, that sounds bloody fortunate for her. Even in Omen of the Stars she never stops Brambleclaw when he lies about the exact way Ashfur died. I don’t think Hollyleaf fully deserves to return to her Clan just like this yet.
Are there positives in this book? Well, yeah. I do think that Fallen Leaves is a somewhat enjoyable character. I thought his bond with Hollyleaf was pretty cute and felt not completely forced. I personally don’t ship the two in the slightest, but it’s left nicely ambiguous for the people who do like to see them together.
The pacing was all right, though it felt a bit repetitive. I
also personally feel that this book didn’t really add much to the overall
Warriors canon other than a bond between Hollyleaf and Fallen Leaves. I really
didn’t feel the need for a Hollyleaf standalone, especially after how unlikable
she was in the final Power of Three book, so this one just feels like a bit of
a drag, even though it’s short.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to people unless they really want to have read all of the Warriors books or really like Hollyleaf or Fallen Leaves. I don’t like the former, so it didn’t do much for me other than the nice tidbits of Fallen Leaves.
Rating: 2/5
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