Yep, still doing these! Let's hope this installment is better than the last few have been. Spoilers ahead.
Now in ShadowClan with Sunbeam, Nightheart is determined to proof Berryheart and the other xenophobic cats wrong by going through their tests so he can properly join his new Clan with Sunbeam as his mate. Frostpaw, meanwhile, finally comes clean about not having any visions from StarClan, making the situation in RiverClan all the more tense, especially with ShadowClan having semi-taken over it's leadership by now.
Okay, I have been hard on the past few Warriors books that have come out, and with good reason. I did not think they were good and honestly I'm mostly just tired of the series. I've made that much clear. That said, this book was surprisingly not as bad or boring as the previous ones have been.
Disclaimer: this book is no masterpiece, it's just a seven out of ten for me. But it's far better than the past few which I've read such as Sky, Exile from ShadowClan, Leopardstar's Honor, Graystripe's Vow and Onestar's Confession. I just genuinely somewhat enjoyed this book which I cannot say for these others.
So, what does this book do better? First of all, I think the mystery is being built up pretty well. It's definitely a slower buildup than in the first arc for example, where it was clear from pretty early on that Tigerclaw really was a true villain, but there's also enough hints given at the cats who possibly could be involved. Berryheart and her xenophobic lackeys are the very obvious villains this time around, and of course Tigerstar is acting very antagonistic by somewhat taking over RiverClan against their will, but who killed Reedwhisker and what is going on in RiverClan is still very much clouded with mystery, and I like it.
We do get bite-sized hints here and there that whatever is going in isn't right, and Splashtail is becoming a possible culprit, but it's not to the point you instantly think he's also directly the one who is behind Reedwhisker's (and possibly Curlfeather's) murders. It's very clear that he's in some way involved in all of this, but I'm not quite sure yet if he's going to be our true villain for the arc yet. Maybe he's in cahoots with more cats (likely from within RiverClan) who possibly had plans to overthrow Mistystar and Reedwhisker, as well as possibly Curlfeather, for one reason or another? The answers aren't clear-cut and so far it's all been built up very well.
The same goes for Frostpaw's flimsy connection with StarClan. In the first book or so it seemed she had at least some form of a connection, though different from other medicine cats, but then during book two she realized she has none and now in book three, after finally accepting this fact and training to be a warrior instead, she's receiving a very vivid new type of vision regarding Reedwhisker's death. So like, I'm very interested in seeing where this goes and it's once again being handled rather well without giving too many or too few hints. I personally feel that maybe Frostpaw does have a slight spiritual connection, but just a different and weaker connection than most medicine cats have. Still, I hope that she keeps training as a warrior because it's very clearly making her much happier than being a medicine cat apprentice and having to be the one the entire Clan looks to for answers.
I also like the characters and character development in this. Sunbeam I'm still a bit mixed on. I don't dislike her or anything, but as someone who doesn't like and doesn't really relate to love drama much I just don't find her POV that interesting because it mostly revolved around her relationships with Lightleap, Blazefire and of course Nightheart. The parts of her POV I find by far the most interesting is the one with her very antagonistic mother, Berryheart. Sunbeam is very outspoken against her mother's stance, but she's also not immune from being manipulated by her.
Frostpaw and Nightheart were my favorite POV characters this time around, though. Nightheart because he finally matures and comes around to his family and ThunderClan, accepting the consequences for his actions and trying to mend the rifts he caused. Frostpaw I liked because things genuinely seemed to be looking up for her after she abandoned being a medicine cat apprentice, but she's still not free from being involved in the mystery with her new vision and of course Splashtail trying to manipulate her to become a medicine cat apprentice again. Both were (at least for Warriors standards) well-written and executed. I do personally think that Nightheart's big turnaround from being totally against ThunderClan to leaving Sunbeam and going back to ThunderClan and apologizing was a bit quick, but the idea definitely still works and it's not horribly executed, either, just a tad rushed.
I also think that Bramblestar stepping down in favor of Squirrelflight becoming leader is a good way to go. I really don't like their relationship anymore, but at least this seems to be some kind of good thing for both of them. Bramblestar is old, mentally scarred and possibly depressed and doesn't desire to lead anymore, Squirrelflight meanwhile is very capable of it and honestly I think she'd make a much better leader than Bramblestar ever did with some of the decisions he's made across the books (even when not possessed by Ashfur). I guess that Squirrelflight is pretty old by now and honestly I'd also be up for a new leader from a younger generation taking over (preferably one not related to Firestar, however difficult that may be with his genes being nearly everywhere in ThunderClan) but I do think that Squirrelflight would make a good leader. Let's just hope nothing goes wrong in book four to prevent this from happening.
Now: things I did not like much. One: The Sunbeam and Nightheart romance. Warriors has had it fair share of rushed and forced romances before, don't get me wrong. But usually I could at least feel something there, some form of a romantic connection, even if rushed or poorly executed. With Sunbeam and Nightheart I just feel nothing. They feel like close friends, but in no way do they come off as a romantic couple to me. Even with them admitting they love one another multiple times, I feel nothing romantic at all based on their interactions. Honestly I kind of wish that they do not go the mates route for them and just keep them as close friends. That'd be very cool because it's kind of rare for Warriors not to have a romance like this at least once per arc. But so far they do seem to be heading in a romantic direction with these two and I just don't feel it.
Second: Berryheart as a villain. Sure, she's effective, I'll give them that, and I appreciate that she has a logical backstory for her villainous actions. But I wish she felt like more of an epic threat. Warriors has a history of having almost no (major) female villains aside from Mapleshade and Fury, and now that we finally have another one Berryheart comes off more as an annoying "Karen"-type character than an actual threat. I'm not saying we should have her kill other cats or something like that, but she could be a lot more threatening if she came off as more manipulative or mysterious or whatnot. She just doesn't feel particularly well-written or interesting, just a on-the-nose one-note antagonist.
She's very vocal with what she wants and does whatever she needs to get it, but there's not much more to her. I do appreciate that there seems to be something more going on behind the scenes with her scheming with RiverClan, but that one scene does not instantly make her a well-written and interesting villain. We've had some pretty good (at least for Warriors standards), at times more subtle villains in Warriors in recent years, so it's a bit disappointing that the first obvious villain we get in this book is just a kind of obvious annoying xenophobic she-cat with not a lot more to her.
There's also Tigerstar, but I'd say he's more of an antagonist than a direct villain. I don't agree with him forcefully taking over RiverClan at all, but at least you can kind of see where he's coming from with trying to "help" them this way after they indirectly caused the death of one of his sons. He's definitely going about things the wrong way, but him trying to help the Clan to prevent future deaths like that from happening does make sense and isn't inherently villainous, it's mostly how it's going about it. He's still a major antagonist so far in this arc, but I'd say his motivations are at least on some degree morally gray, though his actions are not. Berryheart meanwhile is just a blatant xenophobe who uses her sad backstory and loss of Needletail as an excuse to justify her bigoted viewpoints.
So, overall, I do like this book and the direction the arc is heading into, but I don't consider this one great, either. Just a solid installment, nothing major. I do hope the arc continues on this route, with recent Warriors arcs having the trend of things slowing down and getting worse after the first three books. We'll see what the future holds.
Rating: 3.5/5
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