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atlasanatolia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I had lots of complicated feelings reading this book. It took me a while to get it off the ground, but that was by no fault of the book, I just kept listening to it to fall asleep, so I ended up having to repeat the prologue a lot.
Some brief notes on the Three in this book:
Hollyleaf, who finally gets her warrior name, is just, relentlessly autistic-coded to me with how much she fixates on the Warrior Code. Girlie likes having a set of rules to live by, and she will not be happy if you mess that up for her! This is fun to read with Foresight(tm).
Lionblaze has also graduated, and he is getting... scary! I'd like to animate something with he and Heatherpaw's fallout. His blood-filled dream was as horrifying for me to read as it was for him to experience, I'm sure. I do wish that relationship had been given more buildup, but Warriors struggles with romance in general, so I'm not too disappointed.
Jaypaw experiences some character development that's really nice to see! There's a moment towards the end of the book that I found really nice, in which he lets himself feel jealous of his siblings for commencing ahead of him, then allows it to pass and openly congratulates them. That's healthy emotional regulation!! Good work little guy!!
As far as the other characters go, I'm liking Icepaw. This book has a sense of community that I know won't always be present going forward, and I really liked her earnestly offering to help Mousefur with her bedding when the other apprentices were made warriors. I also liked seeing Cinderheart's progression; the swimming approach to her physical therapy is really fun and different. Didn't love the amount of times the book dropped the "cr-" word in reference to her, though.
As for the man of the hour, Sol: his appearance made me crack up with how much everyone in ThunderClan just immediately hated his vibes. He also made me search up who worked on this book, because he absolutely smacked of Tui Sutherland villain to me. I was kind of shocked to find out that he is fully not even present for THE eclipse scene, given how much people animate him being there. Oh well! I like the fandom's artistic license. It takes a super long time for him to show up. It's also really funny to see Blackstar under his tboy hypnosis.
There's a brief moment with Graystripe that just about made my eyes pop out of my skull. When Millie is giving birth, he's understandably anxious; after all, his previous mate died horribly in childbirth. As the medicine cats are rushing in to help her, though, he delivers a line that I find very telling:
Some brief notes on the Three in this book:
Lionblaze has also graduated, and he is getting... scary! I'd like to animate something with he and Heatherpaw's fallout. His blood-filled dream was as horrifying for me to read as it was for him to experience, I'm sure. I do wish that relationship had been given more buildup, but Warriors struggles with romance in general, so I'm not too disappointed.
Jaypaw experiences some character development that's really nice to see! There's a moment towards the end of the book that I found really nice, in which he lets himself feel jealous of his siblings for commencing ahead of him, then allows it to pass and openly congratulates them. That's healthy emotional regulation!! Good work little guy!!
As far as the other characters go, I'm liking Icepaw. This book has a sense of community that I know won't always be present going forward, and I really liked her earnestly offering to help Mousefur with her bedding when the other apprentices were made warriors. I also liked seeing Cinderheart's progression; the swimming approach to her physical therapy is really fun and different. Didn't love the amount of times the book dropped the "cr-" word in reference to her, though.
As for the man of the hour, Sol: his appearance made me crack up with how much everyone in ThunderClan just immediately hated his vibes. He also made me search up who worked on this book, because he absolutely smacked of Tui Sutherland villain to me. I was kind of shocked to find out that he is fully not even present for THE eclipse scene, given how much people animate him being there. Oh well! I like the fandom's artistic license. It takes a super long time for him to show up. It's also really funny to see Blackstar under his tboy hypnosis.
There's a brief moment with Graystripe that just about made my eyes pop out of my skull. When Millie is giving birth, he's understandably anxious; after all, his previous mate died horribly in childbirth. As the medicine cats are rushing in to help her, though, he delivers a line that I find very telling:
Look after Millie. If you have to choose which life to save, save hers.
Here are some random little thoughts to wrap up this review.
! BRIEF MENTION OF ANIMAL DEATH !
! MENTION OVER !
2. They misgendered Briarkit like, three times after making a big point out of Millie having two daughters and a son. Come on LOL
3. There was this really hilarious moment in the audiobook where the narrator accidentally used his Hollyleaf voice for a Brambleclaw line, so it sounded like he just had a really bad voice crack.
All in all, this was some Good Warriors Fun Times. I'm just glad to be past Outcast.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Xenophobia, and War
Minor: Chronic illness and Abandonment
The "graphic" and "moderate" sections are all pretty typical to Warriors. Specifically, the ableism deals with a character with an injured leg. The ableist term starting with "cr" is used a couple of times, which is why I bumped it up to "graphic". Abandonment and chronic illness mentions are very brief, but worth mentioning so they don't jumpscare anybody. A character thinks about how he and his siblings have been abandoned by a figure they trusted to train them, and there is a cat in the afterlife who has a chronically runny nose, respectively. This book does contain a major battle and some freaky blood dreams, so be warned.