The ride never ends. Spoilers ahead.
Our three protagonists continue to face their own issues. Nightheart feels disillusioned with ThunderClan, feeling like they don't respect him for who he is and wants to be. Sunbeam is still struggling with the fact that she isn't on the best terms with her two (past) best friends. Frostpaw's story is the most severe, as RiverClan is still without a leader and deputy and no solution she and Mothwing come up with seems to work while StarClan remains silent. Finally, greencough is back once again, which indirectly leads to the other Clans discovering RiverClan's troubles. Tensions are on the rise again as the Clans now must decide what to do with this weakened, leaderless Clan.
What a mouthful of a summary. Okay, so, as you probably noticed by now, my gusto to read the Warriors series is kind-of at an all-time low. It hasn't been this low for years now, I think I only had this type of lack of motivation to read them before when I was around 16-17 years old. And the series, as most of us have accepted by now, is not good. It's suffering from various problematic aspects such as cultural appropriation/racism and stereotyping/ableism/misogyny and the like.
But even these aside, I just don't feel that invested in the books anymore. They're not well-written, at all. They never really have been, but I will say that the first arc feels like the most solidly-written whole. It had a pretty consistent quality and didn't suffer from as many plotholes and retcons as later arcs would. But that said, even in the first arc there were quite a few bland characters that didn't have much personalities.
Okay, case in point. I'm not a Warriors fan anymore. Haven't been for a while now. I'm still reading them and sticking to my oath to review all Erin Hunter books that aren't the guides and graphic novels, but not out of joy or anything. I mean, I do have a mild curiosity of what is happening in the current books that's helping me keep going, but I think we can all agree that this series needs to end. I hope that A Starless Clan will be the last Warriors arc and that after that the Hunter team will focus on non-Warriors xenofiction such as more Bamboo Kingdom and Bravelands, or even new series.
Rant over, sorry for that but I just need to get some feelings off my chest. Reading these books isn't an godawful experience, but it's just so boring by now. And this book shows why. Most of it is just the same cookie-cutter conflicts, only with a few new twists added. And I will say that the new concepts introduced here are interesting. A Clan without a leader, deputy or connection to StarClan. And stuff like the code changes having its effects in ShadowClan.
But even then I just don't care about the execution. The characters are okay but I don't find them that likable. The only one I genuinely kind-of care about by now is Frostpaw, she's just in such a hopeless situation at such a young age you're bound to feel for her. But Nightheart, even with me defending him, isn't that likable, just kind of an edgelord, and Sunbeam's pettiness isn't all that likable anymore when she genuinely seems to care more about Blazefire possibly getting sick than a literal kit dying. I know that it's okay to have characters with flaws, heck, I encourage it, but I still don't find our main cast here (or even the side characters) all that great.
Also, characters like Sparkpelt, Finchlight and Squirrelflight really do act so unreasonable here quite out of nowhere. I'm not saying that Nightheart is 100% in the right, but others should respect him when he asks to be treated for who he is and to be named by his correct name. Yet these three consistently seem really mad at him without even trying to truly hear his side of the story. Whether you read Nightheart as trans-coded or not, I think it's not that egregious to ask to be respected for who you are and be called what you want to be called. And Sparkpelt, Finchlight and Squirrelflight right now just treat him like dirt, but I also know that's on the writers as this even feels quite out of character for them. I can buy them being upset to an extent, but come on.
As for the rest of the book it was just kinda eh. There's a few traveling chapters regarding the greencough remedy, but the greencough subplot is dropped pretty soon once everyone finds out about RiverClan's weakened state. From then on Tigerstar truly starts to live up to his name and tries to take over under the guise of "helping them". Which is just. Dude, you know it's wrong. Everyone is making the comparison between you and the first Tigerstar back in arc one. Are you dense?
There also seems to be something up with Bramblestar and again he and Squirrelflight are consistently bickering. When will the Erins just let Bramblestar die? Or at least break up with Squirrelflight? These two do not have a healthy relationship and haven't for quite a few books, even without Bramblestar being taken over by the Impostor in the past arc. They're just fighting so often it's not even fun to read anymore. I didn't buy them as a romantic pair back in the second arc, but things have only gotten much and much worse since then.
As for the relationship between Sunbeam and Nightheart, I will say that I like it...as a friendship. Not as a romantic relationship, which I fear they're setting up here as that's heavily implied. Seriously, they have good interactions throughout this book but nothing that feels romantic yet outside of Sunbeam thinking Nightheart is handsome a couple of times. But by the end of the book Nightheart is very determined to be her mate in ShadowClan.
Which as a setup is fine, but I do hope that the conclusion is that he's clinging too much to Sunbeam as an escape from ThunderClan and not as a romantic partner, which seems to be the case. The two seem to like one another fine but I'll need more than that in order to truly buy them as romantic partners. Warriors has a track record of poorly-written and developed romances, so I'm not expecting much else here, but it'd be nice if they'd just stay friends or something. Also, I do not care about the implication that Frostpaw is also having a romantic subplot this arc. It's very minor but the stuff in RiverClan right now is the most interesting out of this arc, but I don't need that bogged down by yet another poorly written romance. We'll see, I guess.
So overall this was just kind of an "eh" book to me. Has some interesting concepts but it feels mostly boring in the execution. I didn't care that much about anything going on here except the RiverClan subplot and even then that doesn't hold my attention that much.
Rating: 2/5
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