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enter_the_phantom's review
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
wormegranate's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Blood
bookmousebekah'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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
theravenflight's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
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? Yes
5.0
yeedledeedle's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
rokinjaguar's review
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I liked that River Ripple felt unique as a character. I felt like it could have been done a lot better. Sometimes the themes felt a little half-baked and wishy-washy. Entertaining, though! I love that they were in a mall at one point lmao
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Animal death and Pregnancy
chamomiledaydreams's review against another edition
2.0
This book was honestly a slog to get through and, in my opinion, rather boring. The vast majority of chapters felt less like exciting material to experience and more like obstacles to endure before the book got good—and even then, it didn't stay good.
The first half of the book, excluding a few chapters at the beginning, are simply retelling Dawn of the Clans—only certain details are changed and River Ripple's mysterious entrances are explained away so that they're no longer quite as interesting. For example, in the main series, River Ripple describes the territory as it was several seasons ago, explaining what the rogues and loners did to battle illness. But in this super edition, River Ripple spends half a year in a Twoleg nest and doesn't make the territory his home for very long before the mountain cats show up. Similarly, in the main series, River Ripple mentions a vague history with One-Eye and other rogues he's dealt with in the past; but we barely see any of that in this super edition, and the lost potential is disappointing. Why doesn't this series explore and expand upon its own canon more?
I also wonder why the authors chose to rehash certain events in Dawn of Clans and not others. But mostly I wish that they spent less time reviewing what we as readers already know. This insistence on seemingly random recaps results in frustrating inconsistencies: scenes where River Ripple should know about Turtle Tail's death—because he had been present when her body was found—but only mentions it casually, like someone who had heard about it secondhand; moments where he meets certain mountain cats before they were made aware of him in the main series; and narration that recontextualizes his actions in the main series and makes it less interesting (in my opinion). As Sunnyfall so neatly points out in her YouTube video about this super edition, once we're in River Ripple's head, he's another cat entirely. We learn that he is incapable of making his own decisions, and his defining character traits in the series are reduced to, "StarClan/Gray Wing/Night told me to do this."
Personally, I hated River Ripple's newly established indecisiveness. It's frustrating to hear him lament about the cats from the park that we barely know (because we didn't see them on screen until they were lost to him), while simultaneously justifying why he won't go back to try and find them. When he treks back to the new park with Arc in the second half of the book, it hammers home how relatively short the journey would have been—and how he could have just followed the river to get there. I was similarly livid near the end, when he displayed the same indecisiveness and unwillingness to leave the park and return to his Clan. River Ripple is turned into a passive character with very few motivations of his own, and I found it incredibly hard to root for him most of the time.
Speaking of the journey to the park, I disliked those scenes in particular. A lot of the travel scenes felt boring and unnecessary, and the way that the cats describe human structures can be charming and quirky, but in this case felt excessive and disorienting. I couldn't picture what they were climbing or why when they were somehow trying to go above a Twoleg tunnel carved in the mountain. Not to mention, the mall and drive-through restaurant (if I understood those descriptions correctly) are out of place for the time period of Dawn of the Clans, which the authors have discussed outside of the books. Turtle Tail was supposedly run over by a Ford Model T, so we should still be in the 1920s. Why did the misadventures involving Twolegs feel so modern in this super edition, decades ahead of their time?
While I didn't like River Ripple in this book, I did enjoy his deputy Night. Knowing next to nothing about her in the main series, this super edition really does her character justice, if no one else's, expanding upon her backstory and making her a genuinely unique character. I like how she grows as a person but remains recognizably herself, going from a loner to a Clan deputy, and I love how her relationship with River Ripple is strictly platonic, even by the novel's end. That's a breath of fresh air in a series (and a super edition) that deals so poorly with romance.
Speaking of which, River Ripple's romantic relationships are completely unnecessary, in my opinion. Many fans loved River Ripple in the main series precisely because he wasn't bogged down by love affairs and misogynistic plotlines. But in "Riverstar's Home," he gets a girlfriend who is fridged on page one, who doesn't speak a single line until we see her in StarClan, and River Ripple laments her loss despite her lack of a single defining character trait.
His last-minute romance with Finch is no better. We see none of their chemistry until suddenly they're in love, and then, just as suddenly, Finch is pregnant, and shegives up her entire life and meager personality to be with him in RiverClan. My blood boiled, and I related heavily to Drizzle, when Riverstar seemed to not care about returning to his Clanmates, all because he had found a beautiful she-cat to fawn over. It genuinely felt like he was fabricating excuses with the river being too high to go home. Why couldn't he just walk, while keeping the river in sight? Why couldn't he take a random detour along the Thunderpath, like he did on the way there (for reasons I still don't understand)? The overarching theme of Riverstar finding a home could have just as easily have existed without these trite and unexceptional romances getting in the way—and it might have been better for a series aimed at middle schoolers (especially young girls) to emphasize elements that make up a home besides getting married and having children. RiverClan is home to Riverstar because of his friends and his Clanmates, because it's the place that he's chosen to be, not because he suddenly has a wife and children who live there, too.
If I were to tweak this story, I would probably turn it into two novellas: one for Night, which covers the first half of the book (how Riverstar arrives in the territories and how Night gradually opens up to living with other cats, plus more information about her backstory and how she's dealt with loss and grief), and one for Riverstar, which covers the second half of the book (when Arc arrives in RiverClan asking for help, through to the battle with SkyClan after he returns home). I would probably write out Finch and Flutter completely, to be honest, or else give their characters more depth and defining qualities. I would definitely skip as much retelling of Dawn of the Clans as possible—and isn't that about 43% of this novel?
Overall, I really did not enjoy this super edition. There were moments that stood out to me (Riverstar intimidating Slash by coming back from the dead and Skystar being a jerk by using StarClan to justify his own greed) and characters that I grew to love almost instantly (Night and Drizzle, in particular). But the vast majority of the novel was a trial to get through, and I mostly kept going because I wanted to get to actual fun material (still holding out hope for the story improving) or because I wanted to be done with the book entirely so that I could read something more interesting—and so I could watch analysis videos on YouTube to see what other people disliked and to compare that to my own set of grievances.
So much of this book happens off-screen, in paragraph-long summaries at the beginning of each chapter, and I don't think that it does justice to River Ripple's character at all, especially considering how beloved he was in the main Dawn of the Clans series. You can see how little time and attention went into this book—how little care—when you notice all of the messy typos and canonical errors: Drizzle being referred to as Drizzled; River Ripple being called Ripple in the narration soon after he'd changed his name; random quotation marks hanging off the page; missing prepositions such as the "on" in "crouched on." It honestly makes me feel disillusioned about this series, because if not even the authors care about this particular story (besides the money it will make them), then why should I?
The first half of the book, excluding a few chapters at the beginning, are simply retelling Dawn of the Clans—only certain details are changed and River Ripple's mysterious entrances are explained away so that they're no longer quite as interesting. For example, in the main series, River Ripple describes the territory as it was several seasons ago, explaining what the rogues and loners did to battle illness. But in this super edition, River Ripple spends half a year in a Twoleg nest and doesn't make the territory his home for very long before the mountain cats show up. Similarly, in the main series, River Ripple mentions a vague history with One-Eye and other rogues he's dealt with in the past; but we barely see any of that in this super edition, and the lost potential is disappointing. Why doesn't this series explore and expand upon its own canon more?
I also wonder why the authors chose to rehash certain events in Dawn of Clans and not others. But mostly I wish that they spent less time reviewing what we as readers already know. This insistence on seemingly random recaps results in frustrating inconsistencies: scenes where River Ripple should know about Turtle Tail's death—because he had been present when her body was found—but only mentions it casually, like someone who had heard about it secondhand; moments where he meets certain mountain cats before they were made aware of him in the main series; and narration that recontextualizes his actions in the main series and makes it less interesting (in my opinion). As Sunnyfall so neatly points out in her YouTube video about this super edition, once we're in River Ripple's head, he's another cat entirely. We learn that he is incapable of making his own decisions, and his defining character traits in the series are reduced to, "StarClan/Gray Wing/Night told me to do this."
Personally, I hated River Ripple's newly established indecisiveness. It's frustrating to hear him lament about the cats from the park that we barely know (because we didn't see them on screen until they were lost to him), while simultaneously justifying why he won't go back to try and find them. When he treks back to the new park with Arc in the second half of the book, it hammers home how relatively short the journey would have been—and how he could have just followed the river to get there. I was similarly livid near the end, when he displayed the same indecisiveness and unwillingness to leave the park and return to his Clan. River Ripple is turned into a passive character with very few motivations of his own, and I found it incredibly hard to root for him most of the time.
Speaking of the journey to the park, I disliked those scenes in particular. A lot of the travel scenes felt boring and unnecessary, and the way that the cats describe human structures can be charming and quirky, but in this case felt excessive and disorienting. I couldn't picture what they were climbing or why when they were somehow trying to go above a Twoleg tunnel carved in the mountain. Not to mention, the mall and drive-through restaurant (if I understood those descriptions correctly) are out of place for the time period of Dawn of the Clans, which the authors have discussed outside of the books. Turtle Tail was supposedly run over by a Ford Model T, so we should still be in the 1920s. Why did the misadventures involving Twolegs feel so modern in this super edition, decades ahead of their time?
While I didn't like River Ripple in this book, I did enjoy his deputy Night. Knowing next to nothing about her in the main series, this super edition really does her character justice, if no one else's, expanding upon her backstory and making her a genuinely unique character. I like how she grows as a person but remains recognizably herself, going from a loner to a Clan deputy, and I love how her relationship with River Ripple is strictly platonic, even by the novel's end. That's a breath of fresh air in a series (and a super edition) that deals so poorly with romance.
Speaking of which, River Ripple's romantic relationships are completely unnecessary, in my opinion. Many fans loved River Ripple in the main series precisely because he wasn't bogged down by love affairs and misogynistic plotlines. But in "Riverstar's Home," he gets a girlfriend who is fridged on page one, who doesn't speak a single line until we see her in StarClan, and River Ripple laments her loss despite her lack of a single defining character trait.
His last-minute romance with Finch is no better. We see none of their chemistry until suddenly they're in love, and then, just as suddenly, Finch is pregnant, and shegives up her entire life and meager personality to be with him in RiverClan. My blood boiled, and I related heavily to Drizzle, when Riverstar seemed to not care about returning to his Clanmates, all because he had found a beautiful she-cat to fawn over. It genuinely felt like he was fabricating excuses with the river being too high to go home. Why couldn't he just walk, while keeping the river in sight? Why couldn't he take a random detour along the Thunderpath, like he did on the way there (for reasons I still don't understand)? The overarching theme of Riverstar finding a home could have just as easily have existed without these trite and unexceptional romances getting in the way—and it might have been better for a series aimed at middle schoolers (especially young girls) to emphasize elements that make up a home besides getting married and having children. RiverClan is home to Riverstar because of his friends and his Clanmates, because it's the place that he's chosen to be, not because he suddenly has a wife and children who live there, too.
If I were to tweak this story, I would probably turn it into two novellas: one for Night, which covers the first half of the book (how Riverstar arrives in the territories and how Night gradually opens up to living with other cats, plus more information about her backstory and how she's dealt with loss and grief), and one for Riverstar, which covers the second half of the book (when Arc arrives in RiverClan asking for help, through to the battle with SkyClan after he returns home). I would probably write out Finch and Flutter completely, to be honest, or else give their characters more depth and defining qualities. I would definitely skip as much retelling of Dawn of the Clans as possible—and isn't that about 43% of this novel?
Overall, I really did not enjoy this super edition. There were moments that stood out to me (Riverstar intimidating Slash by coming back from the dead and Skystar being a jerk by using StarClan to justify his own greed) and characters that I grew to love almost instantly (Night and Drizzle, in particular). But the vast majority of the novel was a trial to get through, and I mostly kept going because I wanted to get to actual fun material (still holding out hope for the story improving) or because I wanted to be done with the book entirely so that I could read something more interesting—and so I could watch analysis videos on YouTube to see what other people disliked and to compare that to my own set of grievances.
So much of this book happens off-screen, in paragraph-long summaries at the beginning of each chapter, and I don't think that it does justice to River Ripple's character at all, especially considering how beloved he was in the main Dawn of the Clans series. You can see how little time and attention went into this book—how little care—when you notice all of the messy typos and canonical errors: Drizzle being referred to as Drizzled; River Ripple being called Ripple in the narration soon after he'd changed his name; random quotation marks hanging off the page; missing prepositions such as the "on" in "crouched on." It honestly makes me feel disillusioned about this series, because if not even the authors care about this particular story (besides the money it will make them), then why should I?
littleflowerly's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
maloniponi's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
for me riverstars home wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t bad. I did like the way his past helped him
become a better leader and how long RiverClan was a loner group. I enjoy the peaceful thinking of Riverstar. Gray Wing making fun of him loosing lives was really funny tbh. However I didn’t like when he basically gaslit Night with her dead mate and kits, not cool. also I loved their friendship, why couldn’t this book just keep cool friendship without adding a love interest. Like…Finch and Riverstars relationship came barreling outta nowhere! Anyways, it was ok! I think I just like Riverstar lol.
become a better leader and how long RiverClan was a loner group. I enjoy the peaceful thinking of Riverstar. Gray Wing making fun of him loosing lives was really funny tbh. However I didn’t like when he basically gaslit Night with her dead mate and kits, not cool. also I loved their friendship, why couldn’t this book just keep cool friendship without adding a love interest. Like…Finch and Riverstars relationship came barreling outta nowhere! Anyways, it was ok! I think I just like Riverstar lol.