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Post by Whispering Willow on Sept 26, 2024 14:47:22 GMT -5
(Sorry if this has been posted already, I haven't kept up so well with new threads) So I've tended to see a lot of conflicting opinions about this book, so I was curious about the general consensus here. Did you enjoy Ivypool's Heart? Why or why not? I personally really enjoyed this book and thought it was one of the best SEs in recent years. I loved the character arc that Ivypool went through in this book, learning how to deal with her grief and coming to terms with losing Bristlefrost and never seeing her again. The book kept my interest the entire way through, and I enjoyed the side characters, especially Slate and Beach. I appreciated the bonding that Ivypool, Dovewing, and Icewing had due to being mothers who have all lost at least one kit, and it was nice to see Ivypool and Dovewing caring for one another. The concept of StormClan intrigued me and I didn't feel it was super fanfiction-y at all, and I adored the wildcats. One of the better journey books, in my opinion.
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Post by asrise on Sept 26, 2024 15:29:35 GMT -5
I've said my own opinions already, but I thought it was quite good in terms of characterization and the worldbuilding mostly made sense and added new and interesting concepts. However some of the plot with the Wildcats and the way Galestar's story was just dumped was not great, and the extremely boring journeying segments pushed it much further down that it would have been otherwise. Kind of a sour aftertaste to an otherwise great book. Still worth reading.
It's possible that part of my problem was that I read it extremely quickly (In about an afternoon) so I didn't really digest it. Maybe I will have a changed opinion when I get to it again, I see that a lot of people were able to look over the faults I had with it, after all.
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Post by wygolvillage on Sept 26, 2024 16:31:52 GMT -5
I like it! Good but not great, enjoyed the worldbuilding
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Post by deerspirit on Sept 26, 2024 16:50:08 GMT -5
My personal favorite super edition alongside Graystripe’s Vow.
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Post by tumblepaw on Sept 26, 2024 21:16:56 GMT -5
It was okay. I already did a similar storyline for another character in regards to loss a year or so ago, and it was neat seeing the authors tackle the issue themselves.
Some of the new lore is interesting, but others I don’t like. For instance, I don’t get why the authors keep insisting all the feral cat groups be connected to the clans. They don’t all need to be related.
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Post by pepperflake on Sept 27, 2024 8:43:41 GMT -5
I enjoyed the fellowship seen between Icewing and Dovewing with Ivypool over the topic of grief. It was refreshing to see a deep dive into those emotions as well as see more lore!
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Post by Known Troll Account on Sept 27, 2024 19:07:36 GMT -5
Wow, an extremely boring and overhyped book, people just like it because it's about their fan favorite character, I truly do not care for this one. Only liked the moments of Dovewing and Ivypool bonding over their dead kits. That was literally all I cared about!
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Post by Sphinxwhisker on Sept 28, 2024 19:43:17 GMT -5
Ambivalent. bordering on not particularly. the prose was very repetitious. and the reuse of the constant need for food, running from twolegs etc schtick grew tiresome to read. Ivypool's grief and trauma were depicted impressively, accurately portraying the response to losing a cherished loved one. however, it didn't resonate with me. Largely because the book heavily emphasizes the deep relationship between Ivypool and Bristlefrost through expository dialogue, but there is minimal interaction between them throughout TBC to establish an actual relationship. This lack of development shattered my emotional connection to Ivypool's loss because it was all show and no substance. Instead of their relationship being naturally developed throughout The Broken Code arc, with a strong emotional bond organically established between the characters and the reader as a basis. Ivypool's Heart has it constantly being forced on the reader to ensure they don't forget about it.
And all the new lore and worldbuilding felt overly contrived, unnecessarily complicated, leaving me with more questions than answers. So, all the afterlives are connected by the River of Spirits, allowing passage between them. However, I find it puzzling that Starclan seems to be unaware of its existence? especially considering that Feathertail has presumably been using it to travel between the Tribe of Endless Hunting and Starclan for a while. Additionally, I imagine that Ravenpaw used it to reach Starclan from whichever afterlife he normally resides in, in order to give Bramblestar a life. This suggests that Starclan must have some access to the River of Spirits as well, since they were able to invite him. It's all a bit confusing to me!
And the changes to the Spirits Fading felt like a loophole to avoid explaining how Starclan forgot the history of Stormclan. It also seems like it would remove the fear of being forgotten and fading out of existence since a Starclan Spirit could preserve their memory by connecting with a living cat. With medicine cats having moonpool meetings each moon, it should be easy for a spirit to keep themselves from fading. Additionally, since the Wildcats group had kept the memory of StormClan' story alive, how come Stripestar and rest of his groups spirits never made it to their afterlife?
Alternatively, even if they originally transcended to StarClan or some other afterlife before fading, how did they become lost to StarClan's memory when another group that they were spiritually connected to through the Tree/River of Spirits had actively preserved their memory among their living? They remembered SkyClan after intentionally erasing their memory from the living clans, and SkyClan's ancestors had all left to walk different skies, thus leaving no one to keep their memory alive with the four remaining clans.Only Skywatcher kept them alive in memory, even though he had no connection to StarClan. Still, he kept StarClan from losing their memories of them. Also, there are the cats of StormClan that returned to rebuild WindClan, and ThunderClan undoubtedly kept the story of StormClan alive, even if StarClan decided to suppress their history as they did with SkyClan. This still doesn't provide a sensible explanation as to how StarClan themselves forgot.
I don't know, my head hurts the more I think about it."
I thought the dynamics of the traveling group were solid, and they meshed together very well. The writers managed to make me care and feel some sympathy towards Dovewing for the first time since her novella, even if it was only for a moment. I thought the Wildcats were an okay group, but I believe it took too long into the book to get to know them, so their development was kind of lacking. Snow giving Rootspring romance advice when the Sisters' definition of romance is equivalent to a Tinder hookup was farcical, to say the least.
However, the plot and story overall didn't quite come together in a way that resonated with me.
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Post by minnowfur on Sept 28, 2024 21:21:50 GMT -5
I liked the part where Ivypool,Dovewing and Rootspring had a good laugh after escapeing from the dogs lol
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Post by User33 on Sept 28, 2024 23:34:49 GMT -5
I liked the part where Brokenstar showed up
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