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A review by kaeldra
Secrets of the Clans by Erin Hunter
5.0
Reread July 30, 2020 - August 4, 2020.
Ahh, this was a fun one to reread. Though it was longer/more dense than I remembered. This is one I was absolutely obsessed with as a kid, and I actually still have the sticky note in my copy on the medicines and herbs page! I was determined to learn them all and be like a medicine cat, ahaha.
I thought the camp tours were pretty cute, if a little short. It gives some nice insight into what the other Clans' camps look like, since we've only really seen ThunderClan's up to this point. The writing reminded me of my own attempts at creative writing as a kid, when I'd get to the end and not know how to wrap it up neatly so I'd just go "Oh, I think I hear my mom calling me, I'd better go. Bye!" I wonder now if I got inspiration from these, lmao.
I also liked the snippets of stories we never really got to see since we were always watching from Fireheart's POV. Brightheart's fight with the dogs, Mistyfoot's kits being swept away... and the stories from Yellowfang and Bluestar make me very excited to read their Super Editions eventually. So many cat books, so little time.
One thing that was kind of neat was going through this knowing what comes later in the series, since it's clear they haven't added in some of the details that come to light later (SkyClan, in particular) and the foreshadowing they threw in there about Leafpool.
I haven't actually read the Field Guide, which I think is the most recent "guidebook" type volume from the series, so maybe it covers this, but I'd really like to see an updated version of this guide's "Significant Clan Leaders and Medicine Cats" section. The history of the Clans has been fleshed out so much more than it was when this was first published, and there's been a whole extra generation of cats born too. I remember poring over those pages in particular because you could really feel the sense of history and tradition, and I think it would be neat to see it expanded on.
But anyway, this has gone on for far longer than I thought it would considering it's not even a main entry in the series. So I'll stop here for now. Next up is a fun one: Firestar's Quest!
Ahh, this was a fun one to reread. Though it was longer/more dense than I remembered. This is one I was absolutely obsessed with as a kid, and I actually still have the sticky note in my copy on the medicines and herbs page! I was determined to learn them all and be like a medicine cat, ahaha.
I thought the camp tours were pretty cute, if a little short. It gives some nice insight into what the other Clans' camps look like, since we've only really seen ThunderClan's up to this point. The writing reminded me of my own attempts at creative writing as a kid, when I'd get to the end and not know how to wrap it up neatly so I'd just go "Oh, I think I hear my mom calling me, I'd better go. Bye!" I wonder now if I got inspiration from these, lmao.
I also liked the snippets of stories we never really got to see since we were always watching from Fireheart's POV. Brightheart's fight with the dogs, Mistyfoot's kits being swept away... and the stories from Yellowfang and Bluestar make me very excited to read their Super Editions eventually. So many cat books, so little time.
One thing that was kind of neat was going through this knowing what comes later in the series, since it's clear they haven't added in some of the details that come to light later (SkyClan, in particular) and the foreshadowing they threw in there about Leafpool.
I haven't actually read the Field Guide, which I think is the most recent "guidebook" type volume from the series, so maybe it covers this, but I'd really like to see an updated version of this guide's "Significant Clan Leaders and Medicine Cats" section. The history of the Clans has been fleshed out so much more than it was when this was first published, and there's been a whole extra generation of cats born too. I remember poring over those pages in particular because you could really feel the sense of history and tradition, and I think it would be neat to see it expanded on.
But anyway, this has gone on for far longer than I thought it would considering it's not even a main entry in the series. So I'll stop here for now. Next up is a fun one: Firestar's Quest!