A review by cassidylynnereads
Thunder and Shadow by Erin Hunter

3.0

While I thought this addition to the series was better than the first installment, it still could have used some improvement. I can say that despite the three star rating, I really enjoyed this book and I'm eager to see what happens in the next release. I felt that the plot in this one was just too rushed. The rapid transition between scenes and point of view shifts felt like the result of trying to cram too much action into one book. Maybe if the plot had been spaced out over more pages I would have enjoyed the book more, but as it stands many crucial events felt rushed to me. The rest of this review will be hidden for spoilers as I rant about a few things I felt could have been handeled better.

Spoiler I know that Jayfeather redeemed himself at the end of the book, but overall he seemed too grouchy for my liking. I never really held an appreciation for his attitude in the first place, but he moved down to one of my least favorite ThunderClan cats after this book. My all time most hated cat, however, remains Needletail. I never liked her, and while I thought she might have been redeemed by a forbidden romance with Alderheart, it became clearer as the book went on that the only romance in her future would be with Rain, another hated character. I don't hate him as much as Darktail, but really I hate every cat who turned against ShadowClan without hesitation (note that this does not include the sick cats, Dawnpelt, or Puddleshine). I don't know what is going to happen with the them in the future but it better be something dramatic to make me change my opinion about them. I also hate how manipulative Needletail is, and while I understand that Violetpaw and Twigpaw feel isolated from Clan born members, their attitudes throughout the book bothered me. How many times do you need to be reassured before you realize, no, not everybody hates you? Especially you Violetpaw. I feel like Katy Perry's Hot and Cold was written for you. I just don't get why no one said "hey, I know you don't feel like you fit in because you aren't clanborn, but guess what? Firestar, one of the greatest leaders ever, wasn't clanborn either! Neither was Cloudtail, one of our very own warriors! I will say I loved the snarky bit where Graystripe mentions that Sparkpelt should have been named Sparkfire since Harper Collins rejected that beautiful name for an overused, bland one. I also despise Onestar in this book, and again, I never was fond of him, but I especially hate him now. I get that he's on his last life (seriously it bugged me how many times a cat thought "why did losing a life change him so much?" when it's obviously because it's his last life) but he was just unreasonable and annoying. It also angered me when the ShadowClan cats kept saying to Rowanstar "well where were you when Crowfrost let our hostage go?" or calling him weak for being sick. He was literally deathly ill, I don't think he can help that. Let's just say this book would've been a four star book had the pacing been better and the cats less stupid. Seriously, I feel like something changed in this series (I also noticed it in the Dawn of the Clans series) and now all the cats are suddenly annoying and unreasonable. Maybe I just matured too much for these books and started noticing things I didn't before, but I somehow doubt it.