Star excerpt is out!

So Harelight is the arrogant one Splashtail!? That's a bit like a carp calling the pike a fish isn't it?

At least she noticed something was amiss. She has some deep intuition.

First off, love the description for Curlfeather, to me, she will always be the better villain here, and I think her character writing is fantastic. I do like that they gave Splashtail another pov chapter, because this is much better than the last one, explaining his behavior more, and his downward spiral. Also, there's more explaining as to why RiverClan is behaving the way they are because of him (but still doesn't excuse some of the other leaders and their inactions).

Hats off to Nightheart for doing something brave, like facing twolegs and dogs so blatantly, despite this arc hammering in just how much more dangerous they are lately. But he did it to distract them and help get the others away, risking his own safety.

I have a sense of pride for Sunbeam being able to talk about how happy she is about joining ThunderClan, I'm glad she doesn't regret her choice. I'm happy that her clanmates still care about her, even if they're stubborn, and how Cloverfoot and the others didn't even hesitate to help.

I will say I cringed a bit at Frostpaw's parts though. I understand she is angry, and considering what she's been through, it makes sense. But every time she went after Duskfur for unnecessary things it made me grimace. She literally is her grandmother and the mother of Curlfeather. If anyone knows what she's going through, it's her. So it felt jarring to see her intentionally get pointed at her. And blame her own former clanmates over Splashtail himself. And this isn't something she was doing unconsciously, Icewing quite blatantly tells her several times that the only one at fault here is Splashtail.

So again, I understand why she's the way she is in these scenes, but it doesn't mean I'm a fan of it. She's just pretty much taking her anger out on others, and that's not healthy. But this isn't enough for me to dislike her as a character, not even close, I'm hoping that she does develop past this eventually. I also liked how they emphasized that RiverClan needs to work on its own problems at the end of the day, and that's true.

On the other hand, I am absolutely fascinated by Icewing's character, and I love her relationship with Frostpaw. She's such a firm and sensible figure.

Berryheart and Gorseclaw were a real piece of work in this, but I'm enjoying them nonetheless. I do see how this will work out though, most likely Frostpaw will have to sneak off the island by swimming, at least that's my theory. On the other hand, poor Puddleshine, he's definitely going to be kept as a prisoner, yikes. And ShadowClan Camp will definitely be targeted, I just hope Cloverfoot can hold her own if that happens. I also hope that this FINALLY makes Squirrelflight do something. Her passiveness all arc has been irritating.

Interesting that Splashtail got two prologues in this arc, the one for Wind and now this one for Star. While it does make sense considering his prominent role in the story, I still kinda wish it would've been Curlfeather in the Dark Forest who got this one instead but oh well.

Him being glad to not work unlike his Clanmates and getting to sleep in unlike them because of his new (and stolen) leadership status is peak spoiled brat. Just like him getting upset at Harelight for daring to wink at him lol. Hilarious. Chill out, my dude. Maybe Harelight was just flirting /j.

Loved the convo between him and Curlfeather in the DF. I don't think it was just a dream though like some on here have speculated. Since she told him about what Duskfur, Mothwing and Icewing were up to as well as Harelight not really trusting his bs. Sis is literally haunting him for murdering her and I'm here for it lmao. “I will never let you go. I’ll always be beside you, because I want to watch you fail. I want to be there when your Clanmates turn on you. I want to see the other Clans drive you out.” Love that for you, queen <3

As already said multiple times, that scene of Splashtail murdering Harelight in front of RiverClan really was reminiscent of the bonehill scene and Stonefur's death back in TDH. As is the fact that almost everyone in RiverClan is too scared to fight back against tyranny. But at least this time around, there are a few more who question what is going on.

I'm glad Nightheart is so supportive of Sunbeam and looking out for her, even though I still don't like NightSun as a ship and probably never will at this point like with RootBristle (and the only other protag x protag ship that is BrambleSquirrel).

Duskfur, Mothwing and Icewing hiding under one of the halfbridges when Nightheart finds them was neat. Those territory marks aren't really used that often as props, after all. Poor Mothwing, getting used as a battle practise target for her punishment by Gorseclaw. Even if they become Clanmates again, I don't think that's something she'll just forget even if she seemingly already forgave him. Splashtail is a pos for doing that to her but what else is new.

I love that all three protagonists are now still working together in this book again instead being mostly on their own or in pairs like it was in the previous books for the most part (and even the previous arc with Shadowsight, Bristlefrost and Rootspring). First, Nightheart had his little quest of finding the three (former?) RiverClan she-cats, now Sunbeam has her mission of convincing Tigerstar II to take them and Frostpaw still has her overall goal of yeeting Splashtail out of his position of power.

It was nice to see Pouncestep get a scene with Sunbeam. She deserves to have some more pagetime imo. I get that her littermates are getting more scenes because of them being relevant to the plot (with Shadowsight being a former protagonist and Lightleap being Sunbeam's former bestie) but still want to see more of her (and Birchpaw) as well.

Loved seeing Sunbeam interact with her old Clanmates. Of course there was some tension there but they ultimately listened to her, believed her and then helped her.

Seeing Frostpaw blaming herself for how things went so wrong in RiverClan and in turn blaming the others for not listening to her breaks my heart. None of them are at fault for what lead to the downfall of RiverClan's leadership. It was a combination of many things, and that includes Curlfeather even though I understand why Frostpaw can't bear to think too much about her mother's betrayal (or her mother in general, after the reveal).

I completely get Frostpaw's growing frustration with the lack of proper action against Splashtail. She's been telling everyone the truth since the previous book and even though a lot have listened and do believe her, there still is a lack of action in fear of war.

Although let's be real, if ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan and SkyClan (that is, if Frostpaw manages to convince Leafstar in this book, which I'm sure she will) come together to stand against Splashtail, there really isn't much he could do except if he somehow still reveals his super secret power of maybe talking to dogs (the ones that mauled Curlfeather). But I doubt it at this point. And if/when Ivypool pulls up with her apparent new wildcat friends it's so over for him anyway. Maybe add the Sisters too so they can sit on him until he just gives up lmao.

Bye Icewing, I'll see you again soon when I get IH in the mail and can finally read it!

My first thought upon reading Berryheart's sudden entrance into the ShadowClan camp was: It's a damn trap! And of course it was like c'mon...

It's pretty sad that RiverClan is still on Splashtail's side though even after he killed Harelight in front of them. Then again, the old RiverClan in TDH was also on Tigerstar's side until after his death despite him ordering the execution of Stonefur, so there's that. 

I sure hope someone saves the first patrol that went to help Berryheart before more cats get trapped on the island or someone actually drowns in the lake (poor Stonewing and Whorlpelt got pretty close to it).

Needless to say, Berryheart's not getting a redemption and I'm very happy about that. Can't wait to see her and Splashtail either die or get exiled. Preferably together so they can turn on each other. Problem solved. I do feel bad for Sunbeam again though. She was genuinely worried about her mother.

Although now I wonder how/if Frostpaw will ever trust any of her former Clanmates ever again (apart from her siblings and those who were on her side). Speaking of which, I lowkey hope that Graypaw and Mistpaw are the ones who help save the ShadowClan cats. Maybe they sneak out of camp during the night and start a rescue mission or something like that. Just spitballing ideas here.

I mean Tigerstar did something impulsive and it made everything worse. It is absolutely correct that change needs to come from RiverClan at this point rather than from an outside force. If she gets wind of ShadowClan being under attack from RiverClan then I would hope/imagine she would help ShadowClan. I just really think this is a scenario where she can’t win, if she doesn’t interfere with RiverClan (like Tigerstar already did) then she gets criticised, but I absolutely know that if she did start attacking Splashtail (and likely catapult the clans into war given how SkyClan have aligned themselves with Splashtail) she would get criticised too. Surely this is the better solution here? She can be impulsive for sure but not stupid. Why pursue a path that has already been proven to be ineffective and could lead to war? It would be political s**cide and she’s only just got her position. I can see her rushing to aid ShadowClan though, I would be surprised if she doesn’t do that.

even though there are 4 cats that support Splashtail there are still 19 (if you exclude the little babies) that are still in the clan and accepting his orders. If a more significant portion of the clan managed to express that they weren’t happy then sure things would be different, like how Brokenstar exiled about half the clan . And also those 3 of those 4 have literally only just become exiled, Squirrelstar is not aware of them being exiled yet, she’s not even aware Harelight is dead, not to mention that there is currently attacks being launched in ShadowClan (that Squirrelstar is also not aware of), the RiverClan cats aren’t rebelling and fighting alongside the ShadowClan cats or anything as far as we know. If Squirrelstar or anyone went to depose Splashtail at this moment in time they would meet fierce resistance, these cats want a leader more than anything and Splashtail has stepped up is currently letting them get their revenge on ShadowClan. When the satisfaction of getting revenge has worn off and Splashtail starts going even further I can see things being different. But RiverClan as a whole would not be grateful for another clan coming in and deposing their leader now. Especially with Podlight backing him up.

Exactly. That character trait is something that makes up Squirrelflight(star)’s character. Her being leader should enhance it, it’s one of the things that makes her interesting to read about.