A review by atlasanatolia
Moonrise by Erin Hunter

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Leafpaw's friendships in this book are the main thing I remember. She and Sorreltail are a fun little duo, and her admiration for Mothwing just gets stronger. Granted, I wouldn't want this to be reciprocated while she's an apprentice. It's cute for her to have a little one-sided crush, even if it most likely wasn't intended as such. Her bond with her mentor, Cinderpelt, is also sweet. It was nice to have things actually occurring back in ThunderClan to beef up her POV a bit. All in all, this was a good Leafpaw book.

Speaking of crushes involving apprentices, I don't love Stormfur crushing on Squirrelpaw, nor Feathertail crushing on Crowpaw. The series at this point has a lot of this, unfortunately, which it will eventually age out of if memory serves. But for this period, the amount of warrior-towards-apprentice crushes is uncomfortable. I could understand it if they spent time together as apprentices and one graduated a little early, or if feelings were only reciprocated from the warrior's end once the apprentice becomes a warrior themself and has been one for a while. But as is it, doesn't sit well with me. I don't like the Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw slow burn that's been occurring over this arc so far either, but I gave more reasons for that in my Midnight review. That's... all of the cats on the journey involved in a romance type I don't like except for Tawnypelt. Stay winning, girlie.

I wish we got more of Feathertail before she died. Her sacrifice is one of the arc's most iconic moments, but I do get the yucky feeling that she died to further Crowpaw's development, which doesn't sit well with me. The underdevelopment of the characters and their bonds is something this arc struggles with in general. I'll return to that point later.

Feathertail's brother doesn't have it much better. The trope he undergoes is often referred to as "Going Native", as he is an outsider to an indigenous-coded group who falls in love with a member of said group and quickly adopts their customs. The fact that he is initially being kept against his will by the Tribe is also not great. You see this in other media, such as Surf's Up and Ice Age: The Meltdown. Although, to this book's credit, the Tribe cats speak in intelligible sentences, which cannot be said about other instances of this trope which I do not know the name of. The prophecy of the silver cat, which is initially believed to be about him, also falls under the White Savior trope. 

Aside from these yucky tropes, Stormfur also displays hypocrisy by being short towards Feathertail about her out-of-Clan crush while feeling exactly the same about Squirrelpaw, who is also from another Clan. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I think it's fun when characters are hypocrites, at least when the narrative acknowledges it. On the other hand, it's flavored a bit by the series' ongoing problem with misogyny, so I don't know if I can enjoy it as a fun character beat.

This book, like the ending of the last one, continues to insist that the traveling cats have become a cohesive unit. This is nice and wholesome in theory, but it's simply not what we are shown. Sunnyfall covers this point more eloquently than I could without just stealing her words in her Trip Through Time video on this book.


Overall, I found this book to be a bit more enjoyable than Midnight. This could have to do with its mountain setting, which I prefer over meandering about fields and suburbs. However, it happens to also have more things which I find frustrating, which brings it back down to about the same level as the previous book. This arc just was not my happy place, I'm sorry to say.
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