Reviews

The Broken Path by Erin Hunter

vercasouckova's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

3.0

hannah_the_home_librarian's review against another edition

5.0

There were so many conflicting emotions in me as well as in the characters as I was reading this. I felt a surge of pride when Beetle and Thorn chose these names as well as when Lick was able to protect Lucky, Moon, Bella, and Martha before choosing the name Storm for herself. Conversely, I was utterly horrified and deeply upset when Fiery was tortured by the "longpaws" aka humans. and then subsequently died next to Moon's side. Tension between Alpha and Lucky continue to rise, and I sense a change in leadership on the horizon since Fiery challenged Alpha prior to the massive dog's gruesome death. Lick's, now Storm's future intrigues and worries me as she shows conflicting loyalty between her Pack and the Fierce Dogs. Also, with the revelation that Grunt (now Fang) is alive and sharing dreams with his sister, is the feared Storm of Dogs brewing?

leonajasmin's review against another edition

4.0

This book had a lot of dark elements going on, but written in a way that the age demographic should be fine with understanding it as long as they are emotionally mature. Definitely increases the stakes for the finale.

hannah_the_home_librarian's review against another edition

5.0

There were so many conflicting emotions in me as well as in the characters as I was reading this. I felt a surge of pride when Beetle and Thorn chose these names as well as when Lick was able to protect Lucky, Moon, Bella, and Martha before choosing the name Storm for herself. Conversely, I was utterly horrified and deeply upset when Fiery was tortured by the "longpaws" aka humans. and then subsequently died next to Moon's side. Tension between Alpha and Lucky continue to rise, and I sense a change in leadership on the horizon since Fiery challenged Alpha prior to the massive dog's gruesome death. Lick's, now Storm's future intrigues and worries me as she shows conflicting loyalty between her Pack and the Fierce Dogs. Also, with the revelation that Grunt (now Fang) is alive and sharing dreams with his sister, is the feared Storm of Dogs brewing?

plumquin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

critter's review against another edition

1.0

I had many issues with this book. Lick’s character had massive changes that have come out of nowhere. I understand that the treatment that she receives from some of the dogs may cause some of her changes, but not the massive changes that were present here. The treatment that she receives in this book is only truly shown to be received from Alpha and none of the other dogs are shown to treat her awfully like Alpha does. While I thought that the authors may have been trying to challenge the idea that Fierce dogs, which are dogs like Dobermans, are only vicious killers in the previous book, they took that away here. It severely disappoints me that they would show a group of dogs acting like this. I have work with dogs that they describe as Fierce dogs, and they are the sweetest and most gentle dogs I have ever been around. These authors have also had issues with ableism in their books and this book has had some of the biggest displays of ableism that I have ever read in one of their books. There is also a scene that involves another dog’s jaw being torn off that may be disturbing to younger readers.

_michelle_'s review against another edition

3.0

Rating: 4.8*.

I wrote a good review (I thought), but when I clicked 'save' in the word processor, it just disappeared and no amount of searching or restarting could make it reappear again. Anyway, two major points to make.

1) During a fight scene, a dog has its lower jaw torn off. A bit of a shock in a middle-grade book. You've been warned.

2) Hunter seems to perpetrate the stereotype that certain dogs are natural killers. As an owner of blue-nose pitbulls (a dog often used in fights where cruel, degenerate, stupid people make them fight (often to the death) so they can bet on them), I can tell you these dogs are as docile as you raise them to be. Accidents do happen (among all dog breeds!) but a dog who is consistently viscious has been raised that way by PEOPLE.

shinyfox's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this book much more than the others. Probably because Lick started taking a bigger role in the books. Her personality seemed a bit strange though, she seems to act aggressive at seemingly random times when the rest of the time she is a level headed pup. I still am not a fan of Alpha's new personality, it's still fractured and unusual - he doesn't seem to be at all what he was portrayed as in the first books. In fact in this book he has really embraced that sense of paranoia, distrust and the inability to make decisions for his pack on his own; all while being bundled up in a blanket of anger and frustration.

Also the book description: "When they encounter another group of dogs who survived the Big Growl, Lucky hopes that they can work together as allies—but this new Pack may be their most dangerous enemy yet." Is incredibly misleading! This pack has hardly anything to do in the book other than posing a threat. Never, not once did any of the dogs think they could work together with this new pack. Almost from the first meeting everyone knew that this pack would tear them to shreds because of their mad, crazy Alpha and that there would be no way to talk things out!

lilytiger94's review against another edition

5.0

Great 4th book with a cliffhanger. Will definitely read book 5!

skylacine's review against another edition

3.5

Now THAT'S what I call a memorable villain death.

A bit of an improvement over the last books, which weren't great. I like Lucky more as a protagonist here, and Lick really gets to shine as a character here. The conflict with Terror and his Pack is nicely self-contained and rounded up within the same book, while the threat of the Fierce Dogs and yellow-coated humans still looms in the background.

The book also ends with a particularly sad character death (not gonna spoil who) and it just hurts to think about what could've been

had he lived and won the challenge against Alpha

. The Wild Pack certainly would've been better for it. Perhaps even a little pleasant.

Speaking of him, I do appreciate how this book really does bring up Alpha's incompetency as a leader at times, with him struggling to adjust to the dangerous circumstances, but this subplot (at least in this book) isn't really completed or anything. He's called out for it,

Fiery challenges him

, but then he and the Wild Pack aren't in the book anymore for the rest of it, except the ones who go on the quest to find their lost Packmember. 

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/2020/05/book-review-survivors-original-arc-by.html