Just my overall thoughts on River of Fire (spoilers duh)
Apr 10, 2018 18:29:29 GMT -5
Lightflame, ✲ριкαƒυєу✲, and 7 more like this
Post by Fernstep on Apr 10, 2018 18:29:29 GMT -5
Pros:
* Yarrowleaf's redemption is well done and believable.
* Sleekwhisker and the other former Kin cats get their rear ends kicked (and Nettle dies!) and it's really great.
* Rowanclaw's death scene is excellent. It neither hides his flaws nor dumps on his character, and he sacrifices himself in a memorable way to protect the future of his Clan as well as the cat he loves.
* Leafstar is a very well done character throughout the book. She's not overly harsh or untrusting, but she's also really fed up with the way that ShadowClan can't freaking decide what it's doing, and she doesn't let her Clan get pushed around.
* Freaking EVERYTHING FUZZBALL DOES. I cannot express how much I love this comic relief character. He's amazing, and pairing him with Jayfeather in most scenes was a great decision.
* Speaking of Jayfeather, his role as a mentor to Alderheart is expressed very well in this book and he's great.
* It gets two points because it honestly is that good: FUZZBALL. God, I love this guy.
* AlderVelvet gets resolved pretty well. I like that Alderheart doesn't actually end up with her, and it's not teased that he might: He firmly decides that he is going to follow the code, unlike every freaking ThunderClan medicine cat before him.
* Twigbranch and Finleap's characters are handled pretty nicely: It's believable that ThunderClan accepts both of them and that they both want to stay, and I'm super glad they're still a couple.
* Tigerstar's return as a leader is handled far better than in Tigerheart's Shadow and Bramblestar acknowledges that there is some baggage attached to the name Tigerstar.
Cons:
* VioletTree gets pushed really hard in this book and it's definitely going to happen. I think it's really forced and I hate it.
* Tree is another non-Clan cat who joins a Clan, gets a special role, and gets to keep his non-Clan name. This is stupid.
* For over half the freaking book we have nearly a dozen sick cats in ThunderClan. None of them die except Briarlight. The sickness does more to harm the plot flow than to aid it.
* Being a Cherith book following a Kate book, this book ignores a lot of small plot or character elements from the last book, most annoyingly the fact that Sandynose was glad Twigpaw realized that she truly belonged in ThunderClan.
* The book tends to retread a lot of plot points as if it doesn't know what to do with all its pages. VioletTree gets brought up over and over. So does AlderVelvet. So does the Shadow-SkyClan situation. They're all repeatedly brought up just for characters to say "yeah we're not sure how that's going to end".
* The RiverClan plot is... freaking pointless! Oh my god! No one in RiverClan dies and even though they're supposed to have a big role in a book called freaking River of Fire, they barely do anything! They're put in danger but not really and the plot would honestly be the same if they had never closed their borders!
* AlderVelvet has a good ending, but the fact that it's included at all is kinda dumb. Alderheart already had a romantic-but-not-serious interest in the form of Needletail, and honestly giving him a girlfriend then killing her was already a fine way to handle the subject of his potential romance! Velvet doesn't need to exist!
* TWIGBRANCH
* The book screws up which cats are supposed to be with Tigerheart. Suddenly Slatefur is there instead of Rippletail. This is not okay. This is not okay at all oh my god.
* Violetshine does freaking nothing in this book besides act as a window into what's going on with ShadowSkyClan.
Overall thoughts:
Plot flow is possibly the worst thing about this book. Basically all the characters do for 80% of it is sit around waiting for Tigerheart to return, only they don't know that he's going to do that, so they just mutter a lot about "The dark sky must not herald a storm!!!" without really finding solutions to the ShadowSkyClan problem. RiverClan's crisis was sold as the big event of this book but it lasts for all of three chapters (rough estimation) and freaking no one in RiverClan dies and freaking no one in RiverClan has character besides Mistystar. There are a lot of little plot moments in the book that are fantastic, especially Rowanclaw's death, but it really feels like there's no cohesion to what's happening with the plot. You've got Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf's shit, which is nice, and you've got the overall ShadowSkyClan situation, and then you have a bunch of chapters of... I don't know. It's not filler. There is honestly very little filler in this book, but there's a lot of... I don't really know what to call it. Events that are interesting in how they relate to plot points or character development, but which don't really serve to advance the overall story.
Characters. Sigh. The side characters are fantastic in this book. Jayfeather is great! Leafstar is great! Rowanclaw is great! Yarrowleaf is great! In general, minor or supporting characters do excellently in this book, with special emphasis on those four. On the other hand, the main characters... Urf. Violetshine didn't need to be a POV in this book. Lmao. I love her but her character had already finished growing at the end of the last book. She only exists in this book to give us a POV window into ShadowSkyClan. Now, that's where all the important stuff was happening, so that was necessary, but it doesn't change the fact that Violetshine specifically does not grow as a character, does not make the reader feel for anything she does, and does not advance the plot in any way. Heck, neither does Hawkwing. The entire ShadowSkyClan plot is carried by Leafstar, Rowanclaw, Yarrowleaf, and Sleekwhisker, with occasional aid from Tree.
Alderheart and Twigbranch (ugh, I'm gonna have to get used to saying that...) don't really matter very much to the plot either, but that's more because there is no plot in this book. Twigbranch's character develops very nicely and I'm pretty satisfied with the way she was used here. Alderheart actually does matter ever so slightly to the plot, but not enough to really count for anything. His character doesn't shine quite as much in this book as Twigbranch's, but he does get enough moments for me to say that he's better in this one than in either Darkest Night or Shattered Sky, in which he may as well have not existed.
One last time: Freaking Fuzzball. This guy is great.
So while I do enjoy the book and I think it is a good book, I'm going to rate it the lowest out of any of the AVOS books. It just doesn't know what the heck it's doing. 1 > 4 > 3 > 2 > 5.
* Yarrowleaf's redemption is well done and believable.
* Sleekwhisker and the other former Kin cats get their rear ends kicked (and Nettle dies!) and it's really great.
* Rowanclaw's death scene is excellent. It neither hides his flaws nor dumps on his character, and he sacrifices himself in a memorable way to protect the future of his Clan as well as the cat he loves.
* Leafstar is a very well done character throughout the book. She's not overly harsh or untrusting, but she's also really fed up with the way that ShadowClan can't freaking decide what it's doing, and she doesn't let her Clan get pushed around.
* Freaking EVERYTHING FUZZBALL DOES. I cannot express how much I love this comic relief character. He's amazing, and pairing him with Jayfeather in most scenes was a great decision.
* Speaking of Jayfeather, his role as a mentor to Alderheart is expressed very well in this book and he's great.
* It gets two points because it honestly is that good: FUZZBALL. God, I love this guy.
* AlderVelvet gets resolved pretty well. I like that Alderheart doesn't actually end up with her, and it's not teased that he might: He firmly decides that he is going to follow the code, unlike every freaking ThunderClan medicine cat before him.
* Twigbranch and Finleap's characters are handled pretty nicely: It's believable that ThunderClan accepts both of them and that they both want to stay, and I'm super glad they're still a couple.
* Tigerstar's return as a leader is handled far better than in Tigerheart's Shadow and Bramblestar acknowledges that there is some baggage attached to the name Tigerstar.
Cons:
* VioletTree gets pushed really hard in this book and it's definitely going to happen. I think it's really forced and I hate it.
* Tree is another non-Clan cat who joins a Clan, gets a special role, and gets to keep his non-Clan name. This is stupid.
* For over half the freaking book we have nearly a dozen sick cats in ThunderClan. None of them die except Briarlight. The sickness does more to harm the plot flow than to aid it.
* Being a Cherith book following a Kate book, this book ignores a lot of small plot or character elements from the last book, most annoyingly the fact that Sandynose was glad Twigpaw realized that she truly belonged in ThunderClan.
* The book tends to retread a lot of plot points as if it doesn't know what to do with all its pages. VioletTree gets brought up over and over. So does AlderVelvet. So does the Shadow-SkyClan situation. They're all repeatedly brought up just for characters to say "yeah we're not sure how that's going to end".
* The RiverClan plot is... freaking pointless! Oh my god! No one in RiverClan dies and even though they're supposed to have a big role in a book called freaking River of Fire, they barely do anything! They're put in danger but not really and the plot would honestly be the same if they had never closed their borders!
* AlderVelvet has a good ending, but the fact that it's included at all is kinda dumb. Alderheart already had a romantic-but-not-serious interest in the form of Needletail, and honestly giving him a girlfriend then killing her was already a fine way to handle the subject of his potential romance! Velvet doesn't need to exist!
* TWIGBRANCH
* The book screws up which cats are supposed to be with Tigerheart. Suddenly Slatefur is there instead of Rippletail. This is not okay. This is not okay at all oh my god.
* Violetshine does freaking nothing in this book besides act as a window into what's going on with ShadowSkyClan.
Overall thoughts:
Plot flow is possibly the worst thing about this book. Basically all the characters do for 80% of it is sit around waiting for Tigerheart to return, only they don't know that he's going to do that, so they just mutter a lot about "The dark sky must not herald a storm!!!" without really finding solutions to the ShadowSkyClan problem. RiverClan's crisis was sold as the big event of this book but it lasts for all of three chapters (rough estimation) and freaking no one in RiverClan dies and freaking no one in RiverClan has character besides Mistystar. There are a lot of little plot moments in the book that are fantastic, especially Rowanclaw's death, but it really feels like there's no cohesion to what's happening with the plot. You've got Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf's shit, which is nice, and you've got the overall ShadowSkyClan situation, and then you have a bunch of chapters of... I don't know. It's not filler. There is honestly very little filler in this book, but there's a lot of... I don't really know what to call it. Events that are interesting in how they relate to plot points or character development, but which don't really serve to advance the overall story.
Characters. Sigh. The side characters are fantastic in this book. Jayfeather is great! Leafstar is great! Rowanclaw is great! Yarrowleaf is great! In general, minor or supporting characters do excellently in this book, with special emphasis on those four. On the other hand, the main characters... Urf. Violetshine didn't need to be a POV in this book. Lmao. I love her but her character had already finished growing at the end of the last book. She only exists in this book to give us a POV window into ShadowSkyClan. Now, that's where all the important stuff was happening, so that was necessary, but it doesn't change the fact that Violetshine specifically does not grow as a character, does not make the reader feel for anything she does, and does not advance the plot in any way. Heck, neither does Hawkwing. The entire ShadowSkyClan plot is carried by Leafstar, Rowanclaw, Yarrowleaf, and Sleekwhisker, with occasional aid from Tree.
Alderheart and Twigbranch (ugh, I'm gonna have to get used to saying that...) don't really matter very much to the plot either, but that's more because there is no plot in this book. Twigbranch's character develops very nicely and I'm pretty satisfied with the way she was used here. Alderheart actually does matter ever so slightly to the plot, but not enough to really count for anything. His character doesn't shine quite as much in this book as Twigbranch's, but he does get enough moments for me to say that he's better in this one than in either Darkest Night or Shattered Sky, in which he may as well have not existed.
One last time: Freaking Fuzzball. This guy is great.
So while I do enjoy the book and I think it is a good book, I'm going to rate it the lowest out of any of the AVOS books. It just doesn't know what the heck it's doing. 1 > 4 > 3 > 2 > 5.
