Let's take a look at this fourth installment. Spoilers ahead.
Frostpaw, after almost dying, is contacted by StarClan and sent on a quest which would end up aiding her in saving RiverClan. On her way she is joined by an unlikely ally, Nightheart of ThunderClan. Meanwhile, Sunbeam is eagerly waiting for his return, and trying hard to fit in in ThunderClan.
Overall I thought this was a pretty solid installment in the series. If you've read my past reviews of the series, you know in recent years I've grown a bit fatigued by the Warriors books and thought they were lacking in quality lately, but this is a solid book.
First I'll talk about the things I thought really worked in this book. First of all, Frostpaws plot is still the best executed of all three protagonists' and it's great to get some revelations here. Her reaction to being betrayed by the cats she loved also is very realistic and just heartbreaking, with her being heavily implied to suffer from some form of PTSD. But it's also great to see her slowly overcome her trauma by meditating and bonding with the cats of the park, as well as Nightheart. She herself also goes through a solid character arc of being in denial and wanting to run away from the truth, to accepting it and facing things head-on.
Nightheart was also great in this book. While he doesn't have a particular character arc and is mostly static as a character in this book, he is a welcome addition to Frostpaw's quest and a great supportive friend to her. The interactions between these two are just a joy to read, and I genuinely feel these two have much more chemistry than Sunbeam and Nightheart ever did, and I'm not even talking in a romantic way. Frostpaw and Nightheart just bounce off of one another much better than Sunbeam and Nightheart ever did, as I've already commented on in previous reviews.
This book is also the first in this arc to genuinely make me care about Sunbeam. I didn't dislike her before, but I never quite connected with her character or conflict much. Most of her stuff in books one through three was just interpersonal drama which didn't feel too relevant to the overall plot yet. In this book she's really starting to shine as her own cat, rather than being constantly having interpersonal conflict with cats like Lightleap, Blazefire, Berryheart and Nightheart. It's still there, of course, but it's much more played down and this time her arc is about her standing up for herself and deciding what she herself wants, and her finding where she belongs. Even with Nightheart gone from ThunderClan most book, Sunbeam is starting to realize that she feels more at home in ThunderClan than she does ShadowClan, with her befriending many cats there, successfully passing her trials and just becoming her own cat rather than depending on others. This was a well-written arc, and I hope this persists throughout the rest of the arc.
Splashtail as a villain is mostly absent this book, but we do get the sense that he's still pondering things in the background which comes to a head during the ending, when he's appointed RiverClan's new leader before Frostpaw can warn the Clans. And honestly I don't mind this decision, this book is mostly about Frostpaw's arc of acceptance, processing her trauma and facing the truth. I expect we'll be getting a more direct conflict with him in books five and six.
Now, for the things which I did not think worked: One, the journey Frostpaw and Nightheart were taking. This is 100% subjective, but I'm just kind of tired of traveling arcs in Warriors by now. The Erins are just generally not very good at making them engaging and I know for a fact I'm not the only one with this opinion. That said, the neat interactions between Frostpaw and Nightheart were enough to keep me engaged, and it was fun to see the park cats again.
My main gripe is still Berryheart, however. I've already talked about this in a past review, but I don't think she works very well as a villain. She just doesn't feel like a genuine threat, she's really just an annoyance to both the readers and the characters. Last book and this book were building up her being up to some kind of plan, but this plan backfires on her in a quite frankly hilarious way making her seem even more like a pathetic excuse of a villain. Maybe in the future two books they'll make her more of a threat, but so far she's genuinely just an annoying pathetic clown. She could've been an effective villain like Splashtail with some retooling, but how she's written now just does not work.
Overall I'd still say this is a solid book, though. Not my favorite Warriors installment, but probably my favorite of this arc so far.
Rating: 4/5
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