Yami

Honestly I really appreciate the book in of itself I just couldnt find myself reading any further because of the story being confusing and all over the place.

So this book was.. interesting to say the least. The only thing is (and Ill spoil this part) The whole Shard being the Summer King and the Prince of Valir came out of left field and Hallrs death was only talked about once after it happened and never spoke about again.

All in all this book really gave Warrior Cats vibes granted its with Gryphons instead of cats and theres no Clans to really speak of. Im not considering the Pride as a clan since theres no clear leader aside from when The Red King assigned Shard a group as a way of “trusting him”. I will be continuing this series though.

Im just going to get right into the review Im just gonna spoil the whole thing to save the trouble.

So the book overall was actually pretty decent with Galestar and Stripestar starting with meeting in Starclan after the events of Ivypools Heart then the following chapter as apprentices and after that skipping right to being leaders. The timeskip was a little jarring given the fact we didnt get to see them as warriors or deputies to see if we even gave a damn about them. But I guess that was the point cause there wasnt a point to see them before they were leaders.

Not to bore everyone with story stuff Ill just skip to the parts of the books I really like. Which was the traveling and seeing the Tribe again granted this was way before the Great Journey with the modern clans. Not gonna lie even the deaths and Galestar and Stripestar being stripped of their nine lives was also kinda neat cause Starclan actually did something. TLDR: Im a Starclan supporter for this book.

With some good theres some bad mainly the pacing cause as soon as something happens it starts to go at a snails pace before picking up again not a paragraph later which kinda threw me for a little bit. Also once Stripestar and the rest of Thunderclan got back to the forest territories I started not liking Stripestar cause how pitiful he got and even before that when they first lost Galestar and the kits he was already assuming they died in the storm. Like you hardly even looked at that point.

This is gonna be one of my favorite reads this year granted it took a hit in terms of star rating cause it felt werid towards the end with pacing.


Also to anyone who thinks kissing is sexual. Seek help they only do it twice and its towards the end of the book. (Mainly towards people who tag this book with sexual stuff)

So I throughly enjoyed this book even though it took me a good minute to get to the end even though it was only twelve chapters. Its not that the story was bad I just kept getting distracted and life got in the way. 

Lets start with the setting/worldbuilding. (Spoilers ahead Ill just mark everything out so if someone wants to actually read this book youve been warned.) If you want the short version: I really loved how open-world it seemed even though it was basically a straight shot from the village.


We start at the edge of the village where our main character, Oliver is being sent out to go get rain because of a drought. Now my first thoughts of this, mainly because his familiar is an armadillo, was are they in some sort of desert? but as it turns out no just regular farmland with some woods off to the west side of town where “no one's ventured before”. Within a couple days of walking the two come across a farm where all Oliver can think of is being able to sleep underneath a roof and have a decent meal. Which honestly is a mood. Anyway, the people living there just so happen to be Ghuls (basically Zombies) and they want to eat Oliver and Armadillo (the familiar has an actual name but I feel more comfortable calling him Armadillo ngl) so some hijinks insew involving pigs and a stow(?) Not sure what a stow is but Im guessing its a female pig? Im not gonna spoil the whole book but overall the setting was awesome for the story it wanted to tell.


Now the characters:

Oliver - The MC: At first I wasnt sure if I was going to like him given the fact Kingfisher drove home the fact he only knew three spells within the first two pages in. He eventually grew on me once he grew a pair and protected himself from an enemy that I wont say here. Did he act like a usual twelve year old boy? Kind of? Mainly being insecure about his magic or lack thereof. 

Armadillo - The Familiar (companion): God I love him so friggin much. Maybe its because of his sarcastic remarks and him telling Oliver to stop trying to learn a spell not even his mentor could do. Plus he was the main one to guide the group in the right direction.

Trebastion - Supporting Character(?): We dont meet him til closer to the middle of the book and like with Oliver I was skeptical that I would like him. Would I in real life? No because I feel like he would be too loud and clumsy for my liking. Now his power? That was pretty interesting to say the least.