Loang's Reviews > River

** spoiler alert ** Rating: 7 out of 10

Lame title, good book!

Now, before anything else: huge spoiler warning. I mean, the book isn’t officially out yet! If you just want a quick overview without going into spoilers: yes, it was pretty good! Not spectacular, but enjoyable enough (at least in my opinion).

This was, I believe, really close to being the perfect Warriors first book of an arc. It mostly deals with introducing the protagonists, the main conflicts, and a couple of interesting side characters and plotlines. All of these things are generally well thought out and executed, creating an overall balanced introduction for the arc.

Now, here is where the spoilers really begin! Just as with The Broken Code, this arc is told in three different perspectives, each from a different Clan. Here goes my opinion on each:

Nightheart (though referred to as Flamepaw for like, almost the entire book) was the most surprising of the three! I wasn’t expecting to like him that much, assuming he’d just be Alderheart all over again, but truly I was wrong! He was a really fun character with a lot of personality and charm, as well as with very interesting relationships (especially with Sparkpelt, I loved how they wrote their complicated dynamic).

He is also the ThunderClan protagonist. To be honest, ThunderClan doesn’t really do much in this book that isn’t related to dealing with the aftermath of the events of the last arc. However, I really liked how they acknowledged Bramblestar’s lasting trauma and how it affected not only him but also the rest of the Clan. I have a feeling he’ll retire not too far from now, and that’s something I’d definitely enjoy seeing play out!

Sunbeam is the ShadowClan protagonist. She was probably the least interesting POV out of the three, but personally, I did like seeing her internal struggles and Clan life. What can I say, I just love ShadowClan! No way for me not to enjoy her perspective. Blazefire and Lightleap (especially the latter) were surprisingly well written characters whose relationships with Sunbeam made her POV and the book in general a lot better!

Frostpaw was the new protagonist I was excited about the most. After reading this book, though, I don’t think she was as great of a character as I thought she’d be. There’s just so much going on in RiverClan throughout the entire book, she ended up lagging behind in terms of character development. It’s still the first book, though, and I have hopes she’ll eventually catch up.

Despite Frostpaw not being the most engaging character, RiverClan sure is by far the most interesting Clan! I really wasn’t expecting Mistystar to die so early in the story, but I have to agree it was for the best: the plot took off fast! This is one of the most fun mysteries we’ve had in this series in a good while, and I have lots of theories for who might be the cat (or the cats, most likely) involved in the multiple deaths RiverClan faces.

And talking about theories, there are just so many mysterious things about this book! This was definitely my favorite part of it, it’s just so full of intrigue and potential. There are two things I think I can say with some surety: that more than one RiverClan cat was involved in the murders, which is clearly what they were (Curlfeather was awfully suspicious for the entirety of the book), and perhaps even one or more than one StarClan cat!; and that they’re setting Berryheart up to be one of the villains of the arc, as well as setting Nightheart and Sunbeam up for a romance (which I usually wouldn’t be excited about at all, but the new changes to the warrior code and the fact that Berryheart is Sunbeam’s mother could make it very interesting). There’s just so much to talk about!

That’s enough for this review, I believe. Overall, this was a book that was a lot more about what could be than what it actually was: though it was fun as is, the main hook was trying to figure the story out. I’m obviously excited for the next installments and if they’re as good as this one was, then this will be a great arc!