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thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Death
rinku's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
2.0
Compared to the surprise Moth Flight's Vision was, Hawkwing’s Journey was a big disappointment. It was mostly a filler and had barely an interesting plot to tell. I still gave two stars because I like SkyClan and it had some epic moments.
The story had many of the elements that I don’t like about Warriors: many deaths that serve no other purpose than to shock the reader and fulfil the a cat dies after arguing with another cat before the other cat could apologize -cliché, arbitrary animals attacking the Clans (racoons???, dogs, birds), no one telling anyone anything which creates unnecessary conflicts, an unrealistic love story between Pebbleshine and Hawkwing after they talked to each other two times, and a travel. The travel sequences were one of the most boring and filler ones in the whole series and the cats never find what they searched for; they go looking for ThunderClan three times.
Besides those elements, there was simply nothing new to the plot; all those story elements can be found in previous Warriors books. For example, Darktail feeding the racoons so that they will raid SkyClan’s camp is literally the same thing that Tigerstar did. Also, the main villain from SkyClan’s Destiny is recycled as well, just as the above-mentioned animal attacks.
The only interesting story parts were those where the cats are not travelling, like the attack of the rogue which was so dramatic and a true massacre . There was also some interesting conflict potential between Hawkwing and Sharpclaw, but this one conflict was repeated over and over and became exhausting quickly.
One of the problems that I had with this book are a bit my own fault because I read the whole A Vision of Shadows arc beforehand. Because of this, I already knew many turns of the story, for example the fact that Darktail’s a traitor. But even if I hadn’t read AVoS before, I would have guessed it since it’s really obvious that something’s not right with him. He’s blatant manipulative and no one notices this. I also knew that something bad would happen to Pebbleshine . But on the other side, I also had the feeling that some pieces of information were missing because I haven’t read every single Warriors book released before this. A good example is Ravenpaw’s Farewell (that just got published in Germany this year lol) because I didn’t understand anything around Ravenpaw and Barley that was mentioned in the book: Do they live at another farm now than before because they’re suddenly so close to SkyClan? And I wish Ravenpaw was still alive, man . Normally, Warriors tells the events that happened in the past, but not this time; I think Sol wasn’t even mentioned one time.
The characters were as well not interesting to me. Many characters that had something going for them died, like Billystorm or Sharpclaw . I once was a fan of Leafstar but after reading arc 6, I don’t like her anymore. The protagonist Hawkwing was just very generic, and he annoyed me. Not one of the other characters stood out for me and they were quite stereotypical (e.g., the serious leader, the naïve and curious apprentice, the stupid kittypet).
Besides for fans that want to read every Warriors books once (like me lmao), Hawkwing’s Journey has not much to offer. It does give an explanation for events happening in A Vision of Shadows but those events are told in this arc just fine.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death of parent
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