Reviews with content warning for Violence - Forest of Secrets

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Forest of Secrets by Erin Hunter

9 reviews

bickleyhouse's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is book three of the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Yes, I'm still reading these juvenile fiction books because I like them. My autistic adult daughter is also enjoying them, alone with other series by the same author. At this point, I am only interested in the cats, but we will see if that progresses.

While this tale may have lulled just a bit for me, in the middle, the last quarter (maybe third) of the book kept me glued to the pages. In face, I was almost late returning from my lunch break at work, yesterday, because I didn't want to stop. I only had 22 pages left, but on Saturday, we only get a 45 minute lunch break instead of an hour (because we get to come to work 15 minutes later). So I had to stop. I finished it after dinner, last night.

There are moments when I definitely wanted to cheer (I can't say much else about that without spoiling the plot, and I don't want to do that). Let's just say it had to do with a certain cat finally getting what he deserved. Fireheart continues to be our "hero," in spite of being rejected by a few of the clan members who don't like him because he was a "kittypet." Things progress with his sister's (Princess) kit, who becomes an apprentice, finally, and changes from "Cloudkit" to "Cloudpaw."

The division between the four clans heats up as the clans start to team up against each other. But they still manage to maintain peace at the Gathering at Fourtrees, as there is a permanent (so far) truce that there will be no fighting at Gathering.

The ending of this particular tale left me very sad, though, and I hope that there is more about that in the next volume, Rising Storm. I refrained from reading the sample pages from that book at the end of this one. I'm actually not a fan of that practice.

These books are great for anyone (especially middle-grade) who loves animal fantasy.

Content Warnings

likeagilmoregirl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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vibingjaren's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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jasminawithab's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

my favourite thing is that outside of the whole brokentail thing, there's no reason why the clans hate each other; they're literally hostile just to be hostile. like they're civil (and kind of even friends) during the gatherings and they all follow the same rules so there's no point to the hatred lol

fireheart and graystripe are honestly unnecessarily mean to each other??? like yea graystripe probably shouldn't be sneaking off and leaving his apprentice, but fireheart is just straight up mean to him while also immediately forgiving him over everything?? like

when brackenpaw got promoted to a warrior, graystripe was right in saying fireheart should be the one to tell bluestar cause graystripe didn't do his job, but fireheart is like "oh no youre his mentor you should do it"??? brackenfur basically had fireheart as his mentor his whole apprenticeship and graystripe wasn't even at that battle

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a_wren_that_reads's review

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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samdalefox's review

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adventurous lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I enjoyed this installment more than the second one. I like that the book picks up exactly from where it was left previously. Forest of Secrets had lots more character development and side plots and it finally wrapped up the major ongoing storyline from the first book

of Tigerclaw being a traitor

. As usual the storyline is adventurous and moves quickly, there a useful recaps of what has happened previously in the saga (very useful for children and forgetful adults reading at a slower pace). Some new themes introduced or expanded upon in this book:

"There's more to being a warrior than killing", ideas of hierachy, respect for others, lenience, selflessness
Warning against blind loyalty to authority or a leader (shown via Tigerclaw and his favourite warriors)
Ideas of engaging in mutal aid during day-to-day (elders) and crises (the flooding of riverclan territory)
Teaching kids not to eat unknown berries outside - they could be poisonous!
Disability ethics and realities in the wild, e.g. Cinderpaw's usefulness to the clan with her physical disability, the perceived earned retirement of the elders through their usefulness as warriors or Queens [child rearing]
The arbitrariness, emotions, and reasons linked to blood relations vs chosen relations (shown through Cloudkit, Fireheart, Yellowfang, Bluestar and her children) - My only frustration at the book here is the lack of recognition that in the wild intermingling would be encouraged to diversify the gene pool.
Ideas of human interference and disturbance of nature, e.g. the pollution of the river, the danger to life the thunderpath (roads) are without animal-friendly infrastructure facilitating crossing, climate change caused by human activity impacting the wildlife.