linabees's review against another edition
4.0
omg i didn't know i needed an entire book consisting of crowfeather fixing every last one of his fucked up relationships but i'm so down for this!
anevinwey's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
nevnev_57's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
aarony_22's review against another edition
4.0
I think that's the most meaningful book of the whole warriors series with its topics including family problems and forgiving instead of solely focusing it on suspense
cassidylynnereads's review against another edition
2.0
This review is now live on my Tumblr blog! Go check out the likable/rebloggable version of this review here: https://cassidylynnewrites.tumblr.com/post/186635456241/reader-review-of-crowfeathers-trial-by-erin
Don’t take the two star rating the wrong way; I didn’t think this book was horrible. If anything, it was mediocre. The whole plot just felt so unnecessary to me. I read on the Wiki that the Erins considered writing a novella based on Crowfeather, but in the end they couldn’t think of a story about them that hadn’t already been told. I’m not sure how they went from that assessment to deciding he needed an entire Super Edition with a contrived plot, but I feel like it would’ve been better had they stuck to the novella idea.
I think the reason the Erins likely expanded Crowfeather’s story from a novella to a Super Edition was because a novella might be too short for a new, strong bond of love to be formed between father and son. But at the pace the bond formed in this book, I’d say a novella would’ve done just fine. All it would’ve taken for Crowfeather to learn to accept Breezepelt was the message from Ashfoot and his defense of Lionblaze in the battle with the stoats, all of which could’ve been explored in a shorter format without dragging the plot out so long. Even his reunion and new friendship with Nightcloud took about a page or two to develop once the Erins decided to stop dragging it out.
Really, that’s mostly what this book’s plot was. Dragged out and forced. It’s supposed to be set after the Great Battle, but I think the book came too late for that to be an effective timeline. How are we supposed to believe that the entire battle with the stoats and Onestar’s new respect for Bramblestar actually happened when they were never even mentioned in the main series? Or has it been so long that I forgot these details being mentioned in the main plot? Because I don’t remember any of this seeming to have happened except in this book, when it was necessary to make up a plot out of thin air. The other major facet of this book was Nightcloud being lost, but it was pretty quickly decided that she’d died, only for Crowfeather to realize she hadn’t chapters later. Even though her supposed death was believed for so long, it only took a few short pages for her to be rescued. It really felt like nothing was at stake because of how long she was believed dead and how quickly she was rescued after the truth came out.
Aside from the pacing being all over the place, a lot of the cats in this book were also extremely irritating. Onestar was a total dunce, and yeah he was always a jerk in the main series (at least after he’d been made leader), but he was even more infuriating in this book. He’s rash, impulsive, and repeatedly put his Clan in danger for the sake of his pride, all the while yelling at Crowfeather to put his Clan first. Crowfeather is whiny, indecisive, and as I saw another reviewer mention, repeated the phrase “bees in their brain” at least fifty times. Harespring was too passive to be a proper deputy. Nightcloud was made out to be an amazingly brave, strong, loyal warrior, but her only role in the book was as a damsel in distress that Crowfeather needed to rescue. Breezepelt was reckless, albeit not as annoying as he was in the main series. Bumblestripe seemed uncharacteristically hostile. And Berrynose was just typical annoying Berrynose.
The one thing I did like about this book was the new side of Breezepelt that we got to see. It’s hard to judge a WindClan cat when the books usually only give us the perspective of ThunderClan warriors. Even though this was Crowfeather’s Super Edition, I feel the real Star was Breezepelt. He was a grieving son, a loyal warrior trying to prove himself to hostile Clanmates, and a gentle soul with love interest Heathertail. Even though he was reckless and did stupid things that could’ve easily been avoided, I understood Breezepelt’s anger for the first time and saw him as something more than an annoyance. Yeah he may be a bit emo, but no wonder he was so bitter with a father who acted like he hated him and a Clan who wished he was dead.
Maybe my criticism that this should’ve been a novella is inaccurate. Maybe instead I would’ve liked this book more had it been told through the perspective of Breezepelt. And I never thought the day would come when I’d say that about a character I was never fond of.
Don’t take the two star rating the wrong way; I didn’t think this book was horrible. If anything, it was mediocre. The whole plot just felt so unnecessary to me. I read on the Wiki that the Erins considered writing a novella based on Crowfeather, but in the end they couldn’t think of a story about them that hadn’t already been told. I’m not sure how they went from that assessment to deciding he needed an entire Super Edition with a contrived plot, but I feel like it would’ve been better had they stuck to the novella idea.
I think the reason the Erins likely expanded Crowfeather’s story from a novella to a Super Edition was because a novella might be too short for a new, strong bond of love to be formed between father and son. But at the pace the bond formed in this book, I’d say a novella would’ve done just fine. All it would’ve taken for Crowfeather to learn to accept Breezepelt was the message from Ashfoot and his defense of Lionblaze in the battle with the stoats, all of which could’ve been explored in a shorter format without dragging the plot out so long. Even his reunion and new friendship with Nightcloud took about a page or two to develop once the Erins decided to stop dragging it out.
Really, that’s mostly what this book’s plot was. Dragged out and forced. It’s supposed to be set after the Great Battle, but I think the book came too late for that to be an effective timeline. How are we supposed to believe that the entire battle with the stoats and Onestar’s new respect for Bramblestar actually happened when they were never even mentioned in the main series? Or has it been so long that I forgot these details being mentioned in the main plot? Because I don’t remember any of this seeming to have happened except in this book, when it was necessary to make up a plot out of thin air. The other major facet of this book was Nightcloud being lost, but it was pretty quickly decided that she’d died, only for Crowfeather to realize she hadn’t chapters later. Even though her supposed death was believed for so long, it only took a few short pages for her to be rescued. It really felt like nothing was at stake because of how long she was believed dead and how quickly she was rescued after the truth came out.
Aside from the pacing being all over the place, a lot of the cats in this book were also extremely irritating. Onestar was a total dunce, and yeah he was always a jerk in the main series (at least after he’d been made leader), but he was even more infuriating in this book. He’s rash, impulsive, and repeatedly put his Clan in danger for the sake of his pride, all the while yelling at Crowfeather to put his Clan first. Crowfeather is whiny, indecisive, and as I saw another reviewer mention, repeated the phrase “bees in their brain” at least fifty times. Harespring was too passive to be a proper deputy. Nightcloud was made out to be an amazingly brave, strong, loyal warrior, but her only role in the book was as a damsel in distress that Crowfeather needed to rescue. Breezepelt was reckless, albeit not as annoying as he was in the main series. Bumblestripe seemed uncharacteristically hostile. And Berrynose was just typical annoying Berrynose.
The one thing I did like about this book was the new side of Breezepelt that we got to see. It’s hard to judge a WindClan cat when the books usually only give us the perspective of ThunderClan warriors. Even though this was Crowfeather’s Super Edition, I feel the real Star was Breezepelt. He was a grieving son, a loyal warrior trying to prove himself to hostile Clanmates, and a gentle soul with love interest Heathertail. Even though he was reckless and did stupid things that could’ve easily been avoided, I understood Breezepelt’s anger for the first time and saw him as something more than an annoyance. Yeah he may be a bit emo, but no wonder he was so bitter with a father who acted like he hated him and a Clan who wished he was dead.
Maybe my criticism that this should’ve been a novella is inaccurate. Maybe instead I would’ve liked this book more had it been told through the perspective of Breezepelt. And I never thought the day would come when I’d say that about a character I was never fond of.
aotora's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
2023: I still liked this book and it's still one of my favourite SEs to this day because it made me love Breezepelt and Nnightcloud, two cats I hated before and it made me love Crowfeather.
That being said- WindClan is my second favourite clan right behind SkyClan and I hated the way they acted in this book. Everybody is still mistrustful of Breezepelt and that just fizzles out by the end of the book, don't get me started on Onestar - I almost hate him more in this book than I hated him in his own SE and I just hated most of the characters so much. I also hated how everyone treated Crowfeather after Featherpaw was injured. They are acting like she is a moon old cat that just left the nursery, he was encouraging as every other mentor yet they all treat him like he told her to go fight the stoats and get injured. She said herself that she knew better but still let herself be talked into joining the attack.
Other than that I love his relationship with his apprentice, I love that he finally mends things with Lionblaze, Breezepelt and Nightcloud even though Jayfeather is still harsh on him and doesn't want to mend things and I am glad that he is finally the deputy by the end of the book, thought I really doubt that we will ever see Crowstar.
2020:Okay so I really loved this book- I really, really did - I loved Breezepelt, I loved Crowfeather, heck I even managed to feel a little bit of affection for Nightcloud - but the one thing that soured this book for me was Onestar or Onetrash from this point on.
He is a horrible leader, he has always been a horrible leader. But he attacks Bramblestar and uses his father against him - he is basically like: "well your father was Tigerstar, the worst cat in the forest, did you two plot to kill Firestar?" and he never apologizes for it or gets called out for that - Crowfeather is constantly thinking that that was a horrible thing to say and that he shouldn't have said it but he never calls him out for it, and Onetrash never apologizes either - he and Bramblestar are suddenly on good terms and that's that.
Not to mention a ton of other decisions he accepted due to his own stupidity and pride- he nearly killed off half of his clan by trying to block the entrances to the tunnel and driving the stoats to Thunderclan, which again - Crowfeather mentions over and over again was a bad choice and he shouldn't have done that, but is promptly never brought up again and he is never called out for it.
Also the entire clan being like: "oh you shouldn't question our leader, he makes stupid decisions but he is the clan leader so we should always listen to him." - No, no you shouldn't - if the leader does something insanely stupid and wrong you should call him out for it - it was so stupid and annoying and I hated him through this entire book- and even though there is a brief attempt at the redemption in the end when he apologizes to Crowfeather and acknowledges his mistakes it just didn't do anything for me and I just ... didn't care.
That being said- WindClan is my second favourite clan right behind SkyClan and I hated the way they acted in this book. Everybody is still mistrustful of Breezepelt and that just fizzles out by the end of the book, don't get me started on Onestar - I almost hate him more in this book than I hated him in his own SE and I just hated most of the characters so much. I also hated how everyone treated Crowfeather after Featherpaw was injured. They are acting like she is a moon old cat that just left the nursery, he was encouraging as every other mentor yet they all treat him like he told her to go fight the stoats and get injured. She said herself that she knew better but still let herself be talked into joining the attack.
Other than that I love his relationship with his apprentice, I love that he finally mends things with Lionblaze, Breezepelt and Nightcloud even though Jayfeather is still harsh on him and doesn't want to mend things and I am glad that he is finally the deputy by the end of the book, thought I really doubt that we will ever see Crowstar.
2020:Okay so I really loved this book- I really, really did - I loved Breezepelt, I loved Crowfeather, heck I even managed to feel a little bit of affection for Nightcloud - but the one thing that soured this book for me was Onestar or Onetrash from this point on.
He is a horrible leader, he has always been a horrible leader. But he attacks Bramblestar and uses his father against him - he is basically like: "well your father was Tigerstar, the worst cat in the forest, did you two plot to kill Firestar?" and he never apologizes for it or gets called out for that - Crowfeather is constantly thinking that that was a horrible thing to say and that he shouldn't have said it but he never calls him out for it, and Onetrash never apologizes either - he and Bramblestar are suddenly on good terms and that's that.
Not to mention a ton of other decisions he accepted due to his own stupidity and pride- he nearly killed off half of his clan by trying to block the entrances to the tunnel and driving the stoats to Thunderclan, which again - Crowfeather mentions over and over again was a bad choice and he shouldn't have done that, but is promptly never brought up again and he is never called out for it.
Also the entire clan being like: "oh you shouldn't question our leader, he makes stupid decisions but he is the clan leader so we should always listen to him." - No, no you shouldn't - if the leader does something insanely stupid and wrong you should call him out for it - it was so stupid and annoying and I hated him through this entire book- and even though there is a brief attempt at the redemption in the end when he apologizes to Crowfeather and acknowledges his mistakes it just didn't do anything for me and I just ... didn't care.
arrr's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
5.0
My 10yo wouldn't enjoy the amount of internal and social conflict in this story, but I loved the grumpy frustrated cats.
fonika's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
4.5