River

This made me pretty sad, and the fantasy element got cranked up a bit more than I was expecting, in a way that made it more distracting and unbelievable rather than fascinating. It was an ok read, but probably one of my least favorite of all the previous books. 

Ya, know. Actually, this one wasn't so bad. I read it, I finished it. Didn't tear my eyes out, either.

It felt really odd to read, as the style differs greatly from Warriors books I have previously read.

The language feels really...I dunno, YA? Teenagery? Kinda un-warrior-like. For example:

Her unwanted sympathy shattered the last of Sunbeam's patience. “Keep your tail to yourself!” she snapped.
“Sor-reeeee.” Gullyswoop sprang backward, sounding not sorry at all. “I was only trying to help.”

“Okay, a WindClan patrol strayed into our territory when they were chasing prey,” Bramblestar meowed. “But it was Crowfeather who was leading it, so what's the big deal?”

“I couldn't believe my eyes when Hootwhisker leaped the stream,” she meowed. “Like, what are borders for?”

To be honest, Warriors has often annoyed me with the stiffness of their dialogue. But with this book, sometimes the more informal, slangy dialogue felt fresh; at other times, it really, really bothered me. I get it if the authors want to give newer characters a unique speaking style. But, when old characters like Mothwing and Bramblestar start speaking in a slangy way, I sorta cringe a bit. It's not always super slangy, but the change in style is really obvious.

So, that's one observation.

Anyway, moving on. I expected to hate this book. I was thoroughly convinced that all modern warriors books (those after the 6th arc with Darktail) are trash. Whatever arc A Silent Thaw is in (there are so many books, I'm losing track of arcs), the first book of that was terrible. Or I think it is. Couldn't get past chapter 3 with the stale writing and terrible 3-page prologue that was probably useless. The beginning of Squirrelflight's Hope sucked and the prologue spoiled the ending (like c'mon, it was so obvious how this book would end). I had given up on these ‘modern' books.

And I was about to give up on this one with the enormous plot dumping in the beginning (why do authors do that? They're either spoiling books I probably would have read otherwise, or they're over-explaining what I already know).

But, despite its lesd than perfect beginning, this book actually wasn't bad. The plot wasn't good. The characters weren't good. But the book wasn't bad! The author kept things moving forward. It wasn't that cheesy. The dialogue wasn't stiff in this one. The prose wasn't stiff. The book described things better than some other books (older books were annoying in that they would say, “there was gorse” instead of describing the gorse so that I can actually see the gorse [what is gorse, anyway?]).

So, it wasn't bad.

But it was also kinda stupid. I mean, this isn't a bad thing. I often like stupid books. Warriors: Into the Wild is pretty stupid, and I love that book.

First, the characters. Ugh. I don't feel like I really got to know the characters. Did they even have personalities, really? I mean, not gonna lie, Warriors isn't known for having deep, well-developed characters. But the ones in this book felt extra bland. Like plain, white bread. No seeds, no butter, no crust. Just bland bread, all of them.

Like, how can I describe them all in one word? Um, Flamepaw: whiney. Sunbeam: naive. Frostpaw: naive.

To be honest, Flamepaw's story made me cringe. First, it is very hard to believe he got held back such silly reasons. It is so weird to me that the other cats purposefully did that—shouldn't they be eager to get new warriors? Why hold one of them—agh, doesn't make sense, the more I think of it. Plus, Flamepaw didn't even handle it gracefully, he just whined. Which is a realistic reaction, not gonna lie, but it also did not do a great job of making me like him. His defining characteristic is his whining. Plus, FIRESTAR. AGHGHGH, cringe. Stop framing Firestar as the greatest cat ever, ergghghg. I can't place why I hate it, but I really hate it when they refer to Firestar as this great, legendary cat. So, Flamepaw is struggling under all the pressure, oh—I'm supposed to be the next Firestar, I need to live up to my family's name...Oh my whiskers, it's not a big deal! We don't actually see anyone pester him about Firestar until Flamepaw rejects his warrior name. I just–—arghghghghg. Cringey character.

Frostpaw was boring. She...does everything perfectly, I guess? She gets more visions and stuff than I remember other medicine cats getting? Aaaand, her mom is weird. Yeah, her relationship with her mom weirded me out. Aaaand, Frostpaw does barely anything. Her arc is either super stale or non-existent. She's boring. She also jumps to conclusions, which gives me the impression that she is naive.

And then Sunbeam is just—ARGHH. She's a warrior, but she acts like an apprentice. I mean, I've always been confused about the aging in Warriors. Like, technically apprentices are pretty close to being adults when they start, anyway. But throughout the series, warriors have always been portrayed as fully matured adults. In this book, young warriors like Sunbeam act like teenagers. Maybe this is more accurate? Maybe it is more realistic? I dunno, but it was a weird change.
Anyway, Sunbeam annoyed me sooo much. She is super naive, super clingy, has no life apart from her friends, and...what is her personality? The book keeps citing that she sticks to the rules, but I didn't really get that vibe from her. In fact, I can't think of any example of her “being a stickler to the rules” around her peers. She tells on her friend, but I don't think that counts. That's something anyone in her clan would do in that circumstance. Plus, she doesn't even have an arc. She sucks. Plus, why is her name Sunbeam? Sunkit, Sunpaw...Sunbeam? But that's a real compound word already? That's a noun. I guess, yeah, it's a valid Warriors name, but...it feels weird and uncreative that its an existing noun. Also, why would a ShadowClan cat be named Sunbeam? Kinda weird. Anywaaaaay...

The plot. Eh. What was the plot even? Um, RiverClan loses its leaders. That's the plot?
How about, RiverClan loses its leaders, then loses its candidate leader. Hm. RiverClan never really gets super chaotic, or anything. They struggle a little bit, but the struggle is always mental. There are no physical consequences to the absence of a leader, no clan takes advantage of their weakness, Mistystar's absence barely affects them aside from bringing them grief, sooooo...was kinda lame.

Then we have some useless subplots. Subplot 1: apprentice fails assessment twice and struggles to ‘live up to his ancestor's name'. Subplot 2: medicine cat apprentice must take a leading role because she is the only RiverClan cat who can speak to StarClan. Subplot 3: she-cat has drama with friends.

Um, how do these subplots tie into the main plot? To be honest, except for subplot 2, I seriously have no idea. The subplots felt kinda random.

Okay, summary: the book was random, predictable, uneventful, and bland, but not so much as to be bad. It is a neutral book, and it was interesting enough.

But seriously, I could have skipped this book and I wouldn't have missed anything. The authors probably info dump in chapter 1 of the next book, anyway.

Really good opener for the series. Sensible to make it quite short coz often these books can just go on and on and on (for reference, the last Warriors book I read was Leopardstar's Honour).
I thought what they did with RiverClan was very bold. I didn't really like the ending but it was very exciting and does make me look forward to reading the next book. Apart from that, Frostpaw isn't a particularly interesting protagonist but she works.
Sunbeam's conflict is a bit boring but I like her as a character.
Flamepaw is actually really interesting to me though. His conflict with being Firestar's descendent was really compelling and felt quite self-aware given how much Warriors has previously prioritised Firestar and his kin. I also find his scepticism at the rules of clan life to be really refreshing and found his naming ceremony really interesting.
Really good start for the series! I'm excited to see where it goes from here.