Book Review: Lost Stars by Erin Hunter (Warriors: The Broken Code #1)

Okay, here's the deal: this is the first arc of Warriors that I'm reviewing that hasn't been fully published as of me writing this. So, obviously, I don't own all the books yet, and therefore can't do a big review of the entire arc like I did with my other Warriors arc reviews. So what will I do? 

For now, I'll review each book separately, until I've gotten to all of them. Then, I'll combine all these smaller reviews into one bigger arc review. Yes, this means that technically there'll be less reviews on my blog once I delete the smaller ones in favor of one big overarching review, but I prefer to stay consistent and review each arc that isn't the Super Editions or Novellas in one fell swoop. Deal? Deal. Now, let's get to the first book. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

StarClan is silent for the longest time yet, and the Clans are growing desperate on what to do. The only cat who seems to receive any messages from them is Shadowpaw, a young ShadowClan warrior. However, the instructions given to him by StarClan are far from usual, eventually leading to Bramblestar's death. In the middle of all this, two other cats, Bristlefrost and Rootpaw, are dealing with their own problems, with the former wanting to prove herself to her leader, and the latter not wanting to be acknowledged as odd like his father.

Quite a mouthful for a summary, but there was quite a lot going on in this book. But I'm overall really positive about this start of the arc. I can't say this for every Warriors book, but it's certainly the case here.

The story had be engaged from the start, unlike certain arcs (cough, Power of Three, cough). The characters are really likable and I genuinely feel attached to them, something else that doesn't often happen to me with a lot of Warriors protagonists. I liked Bristlefrost a lot, and how dedicated to Bramblestar she is. I loved Shadowpaw and his odd visions. But most of all, I liked Rootpaw, who constantly fears that he might turn out to be like Tree. 

At first it seems like he isn't, but then the book drops the bomb on the last page, revealing that Bramblestar is somehow a ghost despite having come back to life after his ice cold death. 

I also thought it was just really interesting to have an book (hopefully an arc) that doesn't involve StarClan as much. I don't know yet why they're silent (other than possibly the frozen Moonpool), but whatever is the case, it's really damn interesting. I liked Omen of the Stars, but I did get tired of how much meddling with StarClan there was in this and some other arcs. This arc so far (I'm nearly done with book two as of writing this) deals very little with StarClan, other than the Clans looking to contact them and possibly Shadowpaw's visions. StarClan has fallen out of favor for me a while back (see: Leafpool's Wish), so it's interesting to see these Clans panic in absence of them. 

Overall this was a strong start to the series. If you've read the other arcs, I do recommend you pick this one up. 

Rating: 4/5