Book Review: Blackstar's Reckoning by Erin Hunter (Warriors Novella #21)

If there's any character I actually have wanted a POV-book for for a long time, it's Blackstar. Together with Leopardstar he's one of the major antagonists in the first arc, but both their stories haven't been told until recently. So let's dive right into his novella. Spoilers ahead.

Before being able to receive his nine lives after the battle with BloodClan, Blackstar must go through a trial set up by StarClan, a trial that gives us a look into several pivotal moments of his life where he made the wrong choice.

Not a fan of this one, despite it finally being a Blackstar-POV book. It's still good, but it just...isn't what I wanted. We do kinda get what I want, with there being some scenes of The Prophecies Begin as seen through his eyes, but it's all done in a very after-the-fact way. Each chapter is just a brief flashback to one time Blackstar fucked up in the past and then he gets his next life.

The concept of this whole trial is interesting, but Blackstar never seems all that put off from receiving his next life even after reliving the atrocities he committed or allowed others to commit. He just each time briefly thinks "wow that was fucked up, but the show must go on" and gets his next life. 

Sure, he's reflective, but it doesn't feel all that thorough. He just goes through these events and then emerges a new leader. He has some self-doubt if he's going to be the right one after everything he's done, but even after just going through all his screw-ups again he still seems pretty damn determined to be a leader.

I also don't really care for how Blackfoot was portrayed here. He consistently justifies the crimes against the warrior code he committed as "I was following orders" which is just lame. He is portrayed as a pretty decent cat who just makes bad choices, when this clashes with his brash portrayal in the first arc.

I'd rather he genuinely was a depraved follower of Brokenstar and Tigerstar who slowly but surely came to his senses rather than him being giftwrapped the leader position and just being told to do better afterwards. 

I don't know, for a character who is guilty of as many atrocities as Blackstar I really hoped for a more thorough exploration of his character and for him not to be able to go through these trials so easily. His leader position doesn't feel earned by the end of this book. It was okay, but not what I expected of it.

Rating: 3/5