Back to Warriors Super Edition-land we go... Spoilers ahead.
In this book we follow Riverstar, before, during and after the events of Dawn of the Clans. We see him struggle to form his own Clan and eventually return to the park to help his old friends there get rid of Slash. However, he starts to have his doubts as he travels there: where does he truly belong? In the park with is old friends and new mate, or with RiverClan?
For the record, I know his name changes multiple times throughout this book, but I'm just going to keep calling him Riverstar for consistency's sake.
Like most recent Warriors releases, I am unfortunately disappointed by this book. Part of the reason you probably can already tell if you've read my reviews on books like Onestar's Confession or Leopardstar's Honor: I am getting really tired of the books that just recount old events through a different POV character. While this can be done well, I feel it's few and far between where it actually works and honestly with how often it has been happening lately it just starts to feel, well, lazy.
In recent years the Hunter team have been putting out one Super Edition per year, but the past three we've gotten so far have all recited older events we've already read before, simply through a different character's lens. And, unless something is done to really add to it or the characters, it just feels lazy and like they're running out of ideas, so they just take the easy route and decide to recycle old plots.
Honestly, Riverstar's Home isn't all bad, I honestly thought all of the stuff after the Dawn of the Clans plots was at least semi-decent at times. It's new, it's interesting. But we did not need to see so much recounting of previous events especially if it barely added to Riverstar as a character.
Also, I'm going to have to be honest: this book kind of ruined Riverstar's character to me. What made him a fun and interesting character back in Dawn of the Clans was how different he was from, well, most Warriors characters. He's calm, he's laid-back, he has a very different mentality from other cats surrounding him, he has a unique connection to the river, he doesn't care about territory. But this book just...basically made him another basic Warriors protagonist.
He doesn't even start out like this, but gradually he starts to become more and more of a standard Warriors character as he lets go of his old mentalities. However, even in the earlier chapters the Riverstar in this book does not feel the same as the one we saw in Dawn of the Clans. The only things they really kept is his meditation and connection to the river, but even that they had to go and lessen as Riverstar didn't even learn to or fish himself in this book, instead having to be taught by Night. Which definitely lessens the impact of the whole "wow, he has a special connection to the river" and all.
The latter part of the book, where we travel to the park, is definitely what I'd call more interesting than the former because we don't know what's going to happen. However, this part of the book also is not devoid of frustrations. I did like some aspects, such as them finally taking care of Slash and Riverstar feeling torn between his old and new homes.
But then there's also the others. Slash is still a very underwhelming villain. I'm glad they at least wrote his death this time around so there's nothing left open anymore, but this villain has failed to feel intimidating or interesting to me as a reader in every appearance he's had so far.
Also: Finch. In the last third or so of the book, Riverstar falls for a park-cat named Finch. There was also some stuff with his dead girlfriend from the past, but all things considered the Flutter-plotline did not amount to much. Finch? I literally have nothing to say about her. They try to pass her off as a strong character with a temper, but outside of like two scenes this really isn't shown with her and she falls into "generic Warrior Cats she-cat" territory personality-wise.
And she becomes Riverstar's mate and honestly she instantly becomes such a boring character after that. There's some drama whether Riverstar will choose to stay with her and their future kits in the park, or will return to RiverClan. Riverstar chooses his Clan, but in the end he doesn't even have to make this difficult choice because Finch chooses for him and travels back to the Clan. Honestly I just really don't like how selfish Riverstar was here. He knew way in advance he'd have to return to RiverClan and Finch made it clear she loved her life as a park-cat and had kin and friends back there.
So honestly why did both of them choose to have kits if they knew it would over-complicate things? If Riverstar had chosen to stay with Finch and his kits (in a hypothetical scenario where she didn't go with him), he would've been an ass who abandoned his Clan. If he'd chosen to go back to RiverClan, he'd have left behind his mate and kits all to themselves.
Both of these make him look like a major prick for making either decision, so why the chose to mate and have kits is still beyond me. I will admit that this made for some interesting drama, I guess, but it just makes both cats come across as really unlikable to me.
Riverstar knew he had to return to his Clan, so he could've kept his distance from Finch to prevent heartbreaking situations like this. Even in what ended up happening, Finch coming home with him, the kits' lives were still put at risk as the journey was perilous, and Finch had to leave behind all of her old friends and family of the park. Not to mention the fact she initially really didn't want to be a part of RiverClan; she just wanted to be with Riverstar. Just an overall scenario that has no real happy ending and make our characters come across as really unlikable.
As for the rest, I don't have much to say. I still really dislike Skystar (he never really did change despite what the last few books of Dawn of the Clans will tell you) and the book is overall just rather boring and could've skipped a few parts.
I do like a few elements here, but this book really could've cut out some scenes from Dawn of the Clans we didn't need to re-experience and honestly I wish they'd kept Riverstar more consistent with his personality and appearance in said arc. The last third of the book was admittedly more interesting, but I still didn't like it, per se. One aspect I do genuinely love in this book is Night, however. She's a great character and it's so nice that she has a real best bud relationship with Riverstar without things ever turning romantic or her personality drastically altering.
Honestly I think a short novella to explain Riverstar growing into a leader would've been better. We still could've had a few integral character moments before, during and after the Dawn of the Clans-events, but it wouldn't feel so drawn-out. And of course in this novella I would've kept Riverstar's personality and affinity for the river from the original arc, without hopefully taking away too much of the mystery of the character.
Rating: 2/5
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