Book Review: Spotfur's Rebellion by Erin Hunter (Warriors Novella #20)

 

Damn, can you guys believe there's 20+ of these already? And they just keep churning 'em out. I'm gonna be honest, though: I generally like the novellas, or at least the format in principal. Warriors has a huge cast of over 1000+ characters, with the main arcs being only restricted to a select few protagonists. So these novellas, alongside the Super Editions, are a great way to explore characters that don't get a lot of focus in the series. I actually prefer the novella format even more than Super Editions simply because they're short and get to the point. Some of the Super Editions are great, but they require a lot more commitment to get through than a quick novella.

So let's look at Spotfur's Rebellion. Spoilers ahead.

During the events of The Broken Code, Spotfur and her mate Stemleaf slowly grow to be fed up with the Imposter's harsh rule, eventually trying to kill him. However, this has dire consequences for both cats.

Honestly this is one of the few novellas where I don't really get the point of there being one. Spotfur was never a character I cared all that much about, and she already got a rather decent amount of pagetime in the actual arc itself. I don't feel this book really explored her character beyond her maturing as a cat. 

Daisy's Kin wasn't that necessary also, but at the very least it explored a cat who hasn't been in the limelight for ages, and it gave her quite a bit of character development to boot. It also made me really care for Daisy, when Spotfur's Rebellion didn't make me feel any closer to our titular protagonist. Her romance with Stemleaf wasn't all that developed and I feel her attitude change going from being playful to more serious not to be that interesting. 

And we already got pretty much all of her development regarding the rebellion and standing up to fake-Bramblestar itself in The Broken Code respectively, so this book just doesn't really feel justified in existing. It was okay, but I just don't really care that much about it.

Rating: 3/5