Yes, finally! What I've been waiting for! Let's dive in, spoilers ahead.
Peril has overtaken the Bamboo Kingdom after the splitting of the Great Dragon. Sweltering heat and terrible storms are raging. Rain is determined to find out the culprit behind Pebble's death and reunite with Ghost. Ghost is facing his own troubles in the mountains as he reunites with his snow leopard siblings and has to keep his Speaker stone safe. Finally, while Leaf is still missing, Dasher goes to look for her and in turn tries to keep her stone safe.
Yeah, this was another solid installment after I was pretty disappointed with the last one. It wasn't bad per se, just not as strong as the rest. I really like the character work in this book. We get some neat development for Ghost and our new protagonist Dasher (whom I quite like as a main character), but this book is especially about Rain. This I am just super happy about, both because she is my favorite character and because she was painfully neglected last book, with barely any POV chapters or things to do for her.
As for Leaf being missing as a protagonist and just overall absent in this book, I honestly don't mind it that much. And hear me out, this isn't because I dislike her or anything. While she's not my favorite character, I do like her. It's more so because the book this time gives an actual reason for her to be gone: she's missing and when we do find her it turns out she's very, very weak and in hiding. So there's proper cause for her not to be present in this book. Last book, there was no real reason not to give Rain more POV chapters or more to do, because she was just out and about like all the other protagonists. So the book ignoring her felt unearned. In Lightning Path it does feel earned, and we're all the more glad to finally see Leaf once she is back in the picture near the end.
As for the plot, it was interesting enough. We get a neat murder mystery alongside a quest to keep the Speaker stones safe. Meanwhile the looming threat of Brawnshanks and his troop is still present throughout. If anything, I do wish the book focused a little more on the consequences of the Dragon splitting last book and Brawnshanks' plans. It was built up to be a big deal, but not much is really done with it this book aside from the weather becoming extreme.
About the monkeys, they're there but they don't do that much throughout all things considered. They hold Dasher captive for a bit and ditch Nimbletail, but aside from that the most major thing they do is taking one of the Speaker stones, which isn't until the end and it doesn't have enough clear final implications for what that might mean. Sure, he has the stone now, but what's next? We're given hints but it's not super clear, therefore making this not feel like a super threatening ending which it is supposed to be.
Now, for the big murder mystery: I like how the book handled it. Could it have been better and a tiny bit more subtle? Sure. But I like the buildup we were given. Lychee turns out to be the murderer and we're given enough hints to be suspicious of him, but it's also subtle enough (at least for kids book standards) to not be a dead giveaway. I did put the pieces together pretty quickly and figured out it was him, but it wasn't painfully obvious so that's nice. Regarding big mysteries and character twists like this it's always difficult to find that perfect balance of the revelation not being too obvious, while also not coming out of left field to the point it feels unearned. I think this book balanced things pretty well all things considered.
One thing I did not like in this book was the authors shoving Rain into a forced romance with Lychee, though. And this isn't because Lychee is the murderer, it's because their romance doesn't feel well-written and Rain never really struck me as the kind of character to be into this kind of stuff. Which is a bit of an subjective reading, sure, but Rain was never really a romantic character, and even the scenes in this book which are supposed to be romantic come across as dry and stale, lacking in intrigue and affection. It's mostly just Rain saying she likes Lychee and him returning the feelings. So none of this romance feels earned in any way, it's just stale and it feels like it's just there to add an extra "oomph" to the revelation that Lychee is the murderer. It doesn't feel genuine for either character.
Overall I still enjoyed this book, though, and I think it's rather good! It just didn't handle the romance very well and the stuff with the monkeys also could've had more impact to it with more clear consequences.
Rating: 4/5
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