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Warriors Super Edition #15
Onestar's Confession
In this Super Edition, follow the journey of WindClan's Onestar, destined to lead his Clan through battle, hardship, and the long journey to the lake territories--and pay the price of the checkered legacy he left behind.
As a young WindClan warrior, Onewhisker never thought he would one day become Clan leader. But when he is unexpectedly chosen by Tallstar as his successor, Onestar must learn to guide his Clanmates through the hardships of forging a new life in unknown territory--and face the deadly consequences of a mistake he tried to bury in the past.
As a young WindClan warrior, Onewhisker never thought he would one day become Clan leader. But when he is unexpectedly chosen by Tallstar as his successor, Onestar must learn to guide his Clanmates through the hardships of forging a new life in unknown territory--and face the deadly consequences of a mistake he tried to bury in the past.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published September 6, 2022
121 people are currently reading
1480 people want to read
About the author
Erin Hunter
278 books10.5k followersErin Hunter is the pseudonym of five people: Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui T. Sutherland, Gillian Philip, and Inbali Iserles, as well as editor Victoria Holmes. Together, they write the Warriors series as well as the Seekers and Survivors series. Erin Hunter is working on a new series now called Bravelands.
Erin Hunter is inspired by a love of cats and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having a great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior, shaped by her interest in astronomy and standing stones.
Erin Hunter is inspired by a love of cats and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having a great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior, shaped by her interest in astronomy and standing stones.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
January 2, 2023
"I know I've made mistakes, he thought miserably, his tail drooping. But I've made good choices, too. I've done my best all my life. . . haven't I?"
Warning: This is going to be a rant review, and will likely make next to no sense if you haven't read a Warriors book. 🚨Spoilers if you haven't read The Prophecies Begin through A Vision of Shadows.🚨
Whether or not you're reading this review because you want to know why I rated it two stars or you're a Warriors fan wondering if this is worth it, I can tell both of you that The Prophecies Begin through A Vision of Shadows is an extremely long time for one book (only 450 pages, mind you) to stretch. Into the Wild (the first book in The Prophecies Begin) was published in 2003. The Raging Storm (the last book in A Vision of Shadows) was published in 2018. If that isn't enough, that's also 30 books. This book covered (well, sort of) the events of thirty freaking books.
First of all: that shouldn't have been allowed. It's absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary. While I can't speak for every Warriors fan, I wanted this book because I wanted to see what justified Onestar's stupid decision to mate with a kittypet. And to make us ask that question, we have to have read A Vision of Shadows, where we discover that Darktail, the homicidal Clan-destroying monster is actually an idiot named Onestar's son.
I didn't want or ask for a retelling of the whole Vision of Shadows series through Onestar's eyes. I do not care. I simply wanted to know how Darktail came into existence.
This should have been a novella of Onestar's times in Twolegplace.
To create a book that spans over such a massive period of time, I'm sure you've figured out you're going to need some time jumps. I am not a fan of unmarked time jumps, which require you to rely on your memory of past accounts to find out just where in time we are. And with a series as big as Warriors, it's even more difficult to pinpoint who's the leader of what Clan, what kind of trouble the Clans have gotten themselves into now, and just what in StarClan is going on.
Just a little note that said "hey, fyi, we've skipped 5 books!" would've been nice.
I mean, at first, I was like, well, these time jumps aren't that confusing. I'm following.
That was at the beginning.
I no longer agree with that statement.
Another risky thing of writing a book that stretches over so much time is which details to skip and which to mention. It felt like some details were skipped that would've been helpful to know, and it also felt a tad rushed at times, as well, as if the author was just eager to move onto the next part.
As I have been reading Warriors for, well, years, I can say it's starting to get a bit predictable. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, yes, I've been reading this series for a loooooong time, I'm bound to pick up on their methods, but can they change their methods? Every time something happened in this book, like, a badger attack for example, I was like, Well, Stagleap's dead. Every time I was correct. So, I've picked up on the Erin's ways of writing the deaths of cats? Is that good??
So yes, cats die in this book. And I can safely say that I'm disappointed with the way Onestar's grief was portrayed, especially for Tallstar. Yeah, the leader you've known all your life is dead, whatever. It was kinda just like Onestar felt immense sadness for his leaders death blah blah blah. In elementary school, my teachers hammered this statement into my brain so much so that I can still remember it: show, not tell. I want more than Onestar felt immense grief. Well, of course he did. I need more than that.
I'm also annoyed with this book, because when I go into one of these super editions, I expect a story about something that happened before. The only part that I had never seen was Onestar sneaking into Twolegplace to boast to kittypets. The rest of the story was pretty much just a retelling of some key events through Onestar's eyes.
I think the intention of this book was to:
1) Show us how Onestar came to fall in love with a kittypet. (That would've been better off as a novella.)
2) Instill a sense of pity for him into us.
Well... that backfired and I hate him even more now. This book was so repetitive and by the end of this book, I was fed up with Onestar and his "I'm going to tell them I fell in love with a kittypet! Wait... no, that will hurt my pride!" Clan first. Pride second.
I'm going to be nit-picky now and point out all the little flaws I noticed now because I'm annoyed, starting with their own code being broken. Onestar considers making Crowfeather his deputy when he becomes leader. It states in Warriors: Enter the Clans, that to qualify for being a deputy, the cat must have had at least one apprentice.
Crowfeather.
Had.
None.
Also, when the Clans are traveling to the lake, Onestar receives what I guess you could call a prophecy, that comes from The Tribe of Endless Hunting. Why not StarClan? Why does the tribe care about the Clans? I mean, sure they saved them from Sharptooth, but the Clans have their own belief system, entirely separate from The Tribe's. It could've been this simple: a StarClan cat visits Onestar (Onewhisker at the time) in a dream and says what they want to say.
Easy.
Then there's the part where the twolegs are demolishing the Clans' camps. I have a few issues with that...
1) How sTrAnGe, that all the camps, which are in completely different locations, mind you, are destroyed at the sAmE tImE. hMmM...
2) I find it hard to believe that the twolegs just go into these camps with there big digger whatevers and just pay no mind to the Clan cats and proceed to just demolish the camps, cats and all. Especially the kits. If I was a construction worker whatever person, I would be like: NO STOP NOT THE KITTENS!
Not to be confused with: 😈🔪 DEATH TO THE CLAN CATS WHO DID NOTHING TO US!
So, unless these twolegs are blind, I guess it's safe to assume that all twolegs in the world of Warriors are murderous cat haters. . .?
I believe that is all I can remember to complain about this book for now (edit: it's been one day and I remembered more things to complain about), so the three questions:
Would I recommend this book?
I think it's safe to say you can skip this one. Basically, Onestar falls in love with a kittypet named Smoke and they had a bratty kit named Darktail. This definitely should've been a novella. But- just because I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't.
If this was a movie, what would I rate it?
PG.
Will I continue to stay caught up with this series?
Yes. Despite my dislike of this book, I still highly enjoy this series, and I'm excited to read Sky.
ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ-
Leopardstar’s Honor ★★★★★
Graystripe's Vow ★★★★
Squirrelflight's Hope ★★★★
Crowfeather’s Trial ★★★★
Tigerheart's Shadow ★★★★
Hawkwing's Journey ★★★★
Moth Flight's Vision ★★★★
Bramblestar's Storm ★★★★
Tallstar's Revenge ★★★★★
Yellowfang's Secret ★★★★
Crookedstar's Promise ★★★★
SkyClan's Destiny ★★★★
Bluestar's Prophecy ★★★★
Firestar's Quest ★★★★
Warning: This is going to be a rant review, and will likely make next to no sense if you haven't read a Warriors book. 🚨Spoilers if you haven't read The Prophecies Begin through A Vision of Shadows.🚨
Whether or not you're reading this review because you want to know why I rated it two stars or you're a Warriors fan wondering if this is worth it, I can tell both of you that The Prophecies Begin through A Vision of Shadows is an extremely long time for one book (only 450 pages, mind you) to stretch. Into the Wild (the first book in The Prophecies Begin) was published in 2003. The Raging Storm (the last book in A Vision of Shadows) was published in 2018. If that isn't enough, that's also 30 books. This book covered (well, sort of) the events of thirty freaking books.
First of all: that shouldn't have been allowed. It's absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary. While I can't speak for every Warriors fan, I wanted this book because I wanted to see what justified Onestar's stupid decision to mate with a kittypet. And to make us ask that question, we have to have read A Vision of Shadows, where we discover that Darktail, the homicidal Clan-destroying monster is actually an idiot named Onestar's son.
I didn't want or ask for a retelling of the whole Vision of Shadows series through Onestar's eyes. I do not care. I simply wanted to know how Darktail came into existence.
This should have been a novella of Onestar's times in Twolegplace.
To create a book that spans over such a massive period of time, I'm sure you've figured out you're going to need some time jumps. I am not a fan of unmarked time jumps, which require you to rely on your memory of past accounts to find out just where in time we are. And with a series as big as Warriors, it's even more difficult to pinpoint who's the leader of what Clan, what kind of trouble the Clans have gotten themselves into now, and just what in StarClan is going on.
Just a little note that said "hey, fyi, we've skipped 5 books!" would've been nice.
I mean, at first, I was like, well, these time jumps aren't that confusing. I'm following.
That was at the beginning.
I no longer agree with that statement.
Another risky thing of writing a book that stretches over so much time is which details to skip and which to mention. It felt like some details were skipped that would've been helpful to know, and it also felt a tad rushed at times, as well, as if the author was just eager to move onto the next part.
As I have been reading Warriors for, well, years, I can say it's starting to get a bit predictable. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, yes, I've been reading this series for a loooooong time, I'm bound to pick up on their methods, but can they change their methods? Every time something happened in this book, like, a badger attack for example, I was like, Well, Stagleap's dead. Every time I was correct. So, I've picked up on the Erin's ways of writing the deaths of cats? Is that good??
So yes, cats die in this book. And I can safely say that I'm disappointed with the way Onestar's grief was portrayed, especially for Tallstar. Yeah, the leader you've known all your life is dead, whatever. It was kinda just like Onestar felt immense sadness for his leaders death blah blah blah. In elementary school, my teachers hammered this statement into my brain so much so that I can still remember it: show, not tell. I want more than Onestar felt immense grief. Well, of course he did. I need more than that.
I'm also annoyed with this book, because when I go into one of these super editions, I expect a story about something that happened before. The only part that I had never seen was Onestar sneaking into Twolegplace to boast to kittypets. The rest of the story was pretty much just a retelling of some key events through Onestar's eyes.
I think the intention of this book was to:
1) Show us how Onestar came to fall in love with a kittypet. (That would've been better off as a novella.)
2) Instill a sense of pity for him into us.
Well... that backfired and I hate him even more now. This book was so repetitive and by the end of this book, I was fed up with Onestar and his "I'm going to tell them I fell in love with a kittypet! Wait... no, that will hurt my pride!" Clan first. Pride second.
I'm going to be nit-picky now and point out all the little flaws I noticed now because I'm annoyed, starting with their own code being broken. Onestar considers making Crowfeather his deputy when he becomes leader. It states in Warriors: Enter the Clans, that to qualify for being a deputy, the cat must have had at least one apprentice.
Crowfeather.
Had.
None.
Also, when the Clans are traveling to the lake, Onestar receives what I guess you could call a prophecy, that comes from The Tribe of Endless Hunting. Why not StarClan? Why does the tribe care about the Clans? I mean, sure they saved them from Sharptooth, but the Clans have their own belief system, entirely separate from The Tribe's. It could've been this simple: a StarClan cat visits Onestar (Onewhisker at the time) in a dream and says what they want to say.
Easy.
Then there's the part where the twolegs are demolishing the Clans' camps. I have a few issues with that...
1) How sTrAnGe, that all the camps, which are in completely different locations, mind you, are destroyed at the sAmE tImE. hMmM...
2) I find it hard to believe that the twolegs just go into these camps with there big digger whatevers and just pay no mind to the Clan cats and proceed to just demolish the camps, cats and all. Especially the kits. If I was a construction worker whatever person, I would be like: NO STOP NOT THE KITTENS!
Not to be confused with: 😈🔪 DEATH TO THE CLAN CATS WHO DID NOTHING TO US!
So, unless these twolegs are blind, I guess it's safe to assume that all twolegs in the world of Warriors are murderous cat haters. . .?
I believe that is all I can remember to complain about this book for now (edit: it's been one day and I remembered more things to complain about), so the three questions:
Would I recommend this book?
I think it's safe to say you can skip this one. Basically, Onestar falls in love with a kittypet named Smoke and they had a bratty kit named Darktail. This definitely should've been a novella. But- just because I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't.
If this was a movie, what would I rate it?
PG.
Will I continue to stay caught up with this series?
Yes. Despite my dislike of this book, I still highly enjoy this series, and I'm excited to read Sky.
ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ-
Leopardstar’s Honor ★★★★★
Graystripe's Vow ★★★★
Squirrelflight's Hope ★★★★
Crowfeather’s Trial ★★★★
Tigerheart's Shadow ★★★★
Hawkwing's Journey ★★★★
Moth Flight's Vision ★★★★
Bramblestar's Storm ★★★★
Tallstar's Revenge ★★★★★
Yellowfang's Secret ★★★★
Crookedstar's Promise ★★★★
SkyClan's Destiny ★★★★
Bluestar's Prophecy ★★★★
Firestar's Quest ★★★★
November 17, 2022
What can I say, the book rated itself.
September 23, 2022
Onestar should've gone to the Dark Forest.
September 20, 2022
Where do I begin?
It took me around 10 days of on-and-off reading to trawl through the harsh disappointment of this book: even despite anticipating the disaster that any-book starring our ‘beloved’ Onestar, I was yet taken aback to find how awfully written and bogglingly boring this novella was!
Lets start with the premise of this book; Onestar’s confession is an apparent retelling of life from Onestar’s point-of-view, where in StarClan he is asked by Tallstar to simply recall the events of his life, and ask the question of whether he is worthy for StarClan, unlike his son, Darktail, who had fizzled out from the heavenly plains upon immediate arrival.
It seems that the Erin’s did one with right with StarClan continuity, and kept the idea that there is a council of Ancestors that review the more controversial lives, and decide upon their place in the afterlife.
However, once again, we as a reader as simply told that Onestar is good and worthy of a place in StarClan, rather than abolished to kitty-hell. This story serves to convince the audience that, even despite his terrible attitude as a leader, Onestar was victim to the Ashfur mindset (‘he loved too much’) - that he was, overall, a good and determined figure throughout his life.
But the book does nothing to redeem Onestar. It does little to change the idea that he is infact a terrible cat! The events we have already read in great detail, from the first, second, third and fifth series’, are retold to us in a fast, skimming fashion. The crime of this book is adding absolutely nothing new to these plot-points!
There are a total of (maybe) three new slithers of information we are introduced to, hence the two stars this book somehow scrapes to claim.
1. Whitetail - disgusting, and more on this later.
2. Harespring - a tiny, tiny detail.
3. The kittypets..
Starting with Whitetail: we are introduced to Onestar’s mate, who is super-imposed as previously being his APPRENTICE. Yes my friends, we have yet another Thistleclaw on our hands. However, Onestar actually ACKNOWLEDGES the fact that it is strange he is mates with his apprentice!
It doesn’t stop him, it doesn’t make any-other cat think at how odd the situation is, and yet again the Erin’s enforce something far worse than ‘bad habits’ into their young reader’s minds.
If the Erin’s want to evolve into an older audience, they need to do more than spew boring retellings of previous stories, and stop assuming that their audience (no matter the young age) has the brain capacity of a babbling toddler.
Second off, lets discuss Harespring.
I, personally, LOVE Harespring. Onestar acknowledges why Harespring is made deputy (to redeem the Dark Forest Warriors), and equally shows us their mal-mistreatment of their sensible and wise deputy.
Though this does little to actively redeem Onestar, it does work to expand on Harestar’s later character; their nervousness and anxiety can easily be explained by their treatment as the deputy, and works to make them a much more likeable character. I would’ve preferred this book to be about Harespring!
More on their life, maybe major events, including more of their reasoning for training in the Dark Forest (beyond parental issues) - that would’ve made for a far more engaging story.
Lastly, the kittypet apprentices..
Melody and Leo, also Tansypaw and.. Brushpaw (I can’t remember, and I don’t care to). Their existence was solely to prove that Firestar was an strange phenomenon in the Warriors world - maybe what had triggered both Tallstar’s and Onewhisker’s fondness of him. However, any of the later opportunities to express HOW and WHY Firestar and Onewhisker became so close were simply time-skipped over!
It was as if all of the important, new details that could be written in-post of the actual story were left out, for only the scenes that were prewritten to be copy-pasted into the story!
Moreover, this book suffers massively from the most-recent ‘yesman’ issue Warriors as a series has been facing..
When Onewhisker petitions for the kittypets to have another chance at their trial, the Clan rejects this, until he campaigns for them. This scolding and closed-off mindset is not one that we know of Tallstar, who has historically been an advocate for kittypets - do you remember Jake? Yeah!
Well the Erin’s don’t!
Tallstar seems against the kittypets from the getgo, and any semblance of his character is spoiled; as long as he opposes Onewhisker, then Onewhisker can have his development.
But it would’ve been a much more interesting take to see Onewhisker begin as a kittypet hater, scorn the apprentices and later learn his lesson through Firestar’s achievements! THAT’S how to redeem a previously unredeemable and unlikeable character.
But, throughout this book, Onestar remains easily hated, and the Erin’s continue to spoil this beloved series with the same, overdone tropes and misused plots.
It took me around 10 days of on-and-off reading to trawl through the harsh disappointment of this book: even despite anticipating the disaster that any-book starring our ‘beloved’ Onestar, I was yet taken aback to find how awfully written and bogglingly boring this novella was!
Lets start with the premise of this book; Onestar’s confession is an apparent retelling of life from Onestar’s point-of-view, where in StarClan he is asked by Tallstar to simply recall the events of his life, and ask the question of whether he is worthy for StarClan, unlike his son, Darktail, who had fizzled out from the heavenly plains upon immediate arrival.
It seems that the Erin’s did one with right with StarClan continuity, and kept the idea that there is a council of Ancestors that review the more controversial lives, and decide upon their place in the afterlife.
However, once again, we as a reader as simply told that Onestar is good and worthy of a place in StarClan, rather than abolished to kitty-hell. This story serves to convince the audience that, even despite his terrible attitude as a leader, Onestar was victim to the Ashfur mindset (‘he loved too much’) - that he was, overall, a good and determined figure throughout his life.
But the book does nothing to redeem Onestar. It does little to change the idea that he is infact a terrible cat! The events we have already read in great detail, from the first, second, third and fifth series’, are retold to us in a fast, skimming fashion. The crime of this book is adding absolutely nothing new to these plot-points!
There are a total of (maybe) three new slithers of information we are introduced to, hence the two stars this book somehow scrapes to claim.
1. Whitetail - disgusting, and more on this later.
2. Harespring - a tiny, tiny detail.
3. The kittypets..
Starting with Whitetail: we are introduced to Onestar’s mate, who is super-imposed as previously being his APPRENTICE. Yes my friends, we have yet another Thistleclaw on our hands. However, Onestar actually ACKNOWLEDGES the fact that it is strange he is mates with his apprentice!
It doesn’t stop him, it doesn’t make any-other cat think at how odd the situation is, and yet again the Erin’s enforce something far worse than ‘bad habits’ into their young reader’s minds.
If the Erin’s want to evolve into an older audience, they need to do more than spew boring retellings of previous stories, and stop assuming that their audience (no matter the young age) has the brain capacity of a babbling toddler.
Second off, lets discuss Harespring.
I, personally, LOVE Harespring. Onestar acknowledges why Harespring is made deputy (to redeem the Dark Forest Warriors), and equally shows us their mal-mistreatment of their sensible and wise deputy.
Though this does little to actively redeem Onestar, it does work to expand on Harestar’s later character; their nervousness and anxiety can easily be explained by their treatment as the deputy, and works to make them a much more likeable character. I would’ve preferred this book to be about Harespring!
More on their life, maybe major events, including more of their reasoning for training in the Dark Forest (beyond parental issues) - that would’ve made for a far more engaging story.
Lastly, the kittypet apprentices..
Melody and Leo, also Tansypaw and.. Brushpaw (I can’t remember, and I don’t care to). Their existence was solely to prove that Firestar was an strange phenomenon in the Warriors world - maybe what had triggered both Tallstar’s and Onewhisker’s fondness of him. However, any of the later opportunities to express HOW and WHY Firestar and Onewhisker became so close were simply time-skipped over!
It was as if all of the important, new details that could be written in-post of the actual story were left out, for only the scenes that were prewritten to be copy-pasted into the story!
Moreover, this book suffers massively from the most-recent ‘yesman’ issue Warriors as a series has been facing..
When Onewhisker petitions for the kittypets to have another chance at their trial, the Clan rejects this, until he campaigns for them. This scolding and closed-off mindset is not one that we know of Tallstar, who has historically been an advocate for kittypets - do you remember Jake? Yeah!
Well the Erin’s don’t!
Tallstar seems against the kittypets from the getgo, and any semblance of his character is spoiled; as long as he opposes Onewhisker, then Onewhisker can have his development.
But it would’ve been a much more interesting take to see Onewhisker begin as a kittypet hater, scorn the apprentices and later learn his lesson through Firestar’s achievements! THAT’S how to redeem a previously unredeemable and unlikeable character.
But, throughout this book, Onestar remains easily hated, and the Erin’s continue to spoil this beloved series with the same, overdone tropes and misused plots.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2023
I have officially finished all of the super editions. This one was really good, and I was glad to see more on the transformation of a really nice friendly cat, which into a selfish leader who turned against his friends. I wish that it had more on Windclans journey home, because it has only ever been shown from Firestars perspective and would have been cool to see them as younger cats interacting. I feel so bad that Heathertail will never get to have her kits meet their grandfather, but he had a good life, even if his ending was pretty horrible. I do hope that they do a book on Riverstar for the next super edition, then maybe even one on Heathertail, but for now this one was fantastic.
October 7, 2022
This book is written through the eyes of Onestar as he reflects his life through his memories. If you keep that in mind then book is very entertaining. It jumps around a lot, with horrible transitioning in the beginning, just like skipping from one memory to the next. As the memories get closer to Onestars death they are longer with better transitioning. I think this method is a great idea but it could have been executed better.
October 6, 2022
Was a little sad, but a great book overall. I liked all the events and it really got me hooked.
November 7, 2022
This book was clearly sloppily written to cultivate sympathy for Onestar’s character. It had a lot left to be desired. The pacing was horrendous and as many other people have mentioned, this book lacked a lot of key elements that would have pivoted the plot towards a more impressive direction.
There was no need to regurgitate the Great Migration and the events that precipitated it. We, (the readers), have already read through all of that. It would have been a great deal more satisfying had we have been given an insight towards Smoke’s character and her role in the story. With the events just being presented from a different perspective, this book failed to redeem Onestar’s selfish and misguided actions.
However, this book did a good job of exemplifying Onestar’s paranoia about Darktail and his obsession with protecting his Clan. The theme, “old sins cast long shadows” played heavily throughout the novel and eventually struck home leading to an ending that might not be deserved.
There was no need to regurgitate the Great Migration and the events that precipitated it. We, (the readers), have already read through all of that. It would have been a great deal more satisfying had we have been given an insight towards Smoke’s character and her role in the story. With the events just being presented from a different perspective, this book failed to redeem Onestar’s selfish and misguided actions.
However, this book did a good job of exemplifying Onestar’s paranoia about Darktail and his obsession with protecting his Clan. The theme, “old sins cast long shadows” played heavily throughout the novel and eventually struck home leading to an ending that might not be deserved.
January 8, 2024
Onewhisker was one of the best young cats in the original warrior series... And watching his character decline and morph into a such a hateable character throughout the following series is hard. It would have been interesting to have a more personal recounting of why he changed the way he did... unfortunately this wasn't that. 😅
May 18, 2024
The most “this could have been an email” Warriors book I have ever read.
And while I don’t think he should have gone to the Dark Forest, we need an in between place for characters who make absolutely infuriating, selfish, cowardly decisions again and again… and again, and AGAIN. And then LEARN NOTHING FROM IT.
Onestar: first resident of Cat Purgatory. Please? Ugh.
And while I don’t think he should have gone to the Dark Forest, we need an in between place for characters who make absolutely infuriating, selfish, cowardly decisions again and again… and again, and AGAIN. And then LEARN NOTHING FROM IT.
Onestar: first resident of Cat Purgatory. Please? Ugh.
September 27, 2022
3 stars for this one. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. This Super Edition is about Onestar, one of the least liked characters in the entire series (for good reason).
Contrary to what I've seen from other comments, I really don't think this book makes him sympathetic, if anything it made me dislike him more. Onestar is selfish, narcissistic, and cowardly. He chooses not to be honest time and time again because he is so afraid of what others will think of him. He tries to justify his poor choices again and again, but they are no excuse.
I enjoyed that even though Onestar is the protagonist, he's still incredibly unlikable. I'm glad that the Erins didn't shy away from Onestar's critical flaws. It was entertaining to read from such a skewed perspective.
My major gripes with this book is the pacing. The front half, which I was honestly more interested in, felt too fast. Major events, like courting Smoke and the Eclipse battle, were skipped entirely. Then, the last two hundred or so pages were very focused on Vision of Shadows events, where Onestar is at his absolute worst. I think a better balance could've been struck. This book also struggles with a lot of the same problems the more recent publications face (retcons, homogenizing clans, inventing family trees, etc.). I enjoyed this in a brain dead sort of way, but a lot of it falls apart when stacked against previous works.
I also have mixed feelings about Onestar's redemption, it was incredibly poor.
Contrary to what I've seen from other comments, I really don't think this book makes him sympathetic, if anything it made me dislike him more. Onestar is selfish, narcissistic, and cowardly. He chooses not to be honest time and time again because he is so afraid of what others will think of him. He tries to justify his poor choices again and again, but they are no excuse.
I enjoyed that even though Onestar is the protagonist, he's still incredibly unlikable. I'm glad that the Erins didn't shy away from Onestar's critical flaws. It was entertaining to read from such a skewed perspective.
My major gripes with this book is the pacing. The front half, which I was honestly more interested in, felt too fast. Major events, like courting Smoke and the Eclipse battle, were skipped entirely. Then, the last two hundred or so pages were very focused on Vision of Shadows events, where Onestar is at his absolute worst. I think a better balance could've been struck. This book also struggles with a lot of the same problems the more recent publications face (retcons, homogenizing clans, inventing family trees, etc.). I enjoyed this in a brain dead sort of way, but a lot of it falls apart when stacked against previous works.
I also have mixed feelings about Onestar's redemption, it was incredibly poor.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2022
Oh, Onestar. I wondered about Onestar's story after the AVoS arc, and this book did not disappoint. I love how it built up the Warriors world and made Onestar a more understandable character; he lived almost his whole life keeping a secret just because he was ashamed and afraid no one would love him anymore if they knew the truth. Poor guy. I'm glad StarClan understood that he's not a bad cat. He made huge mistakes, but he was good, too. I liked reading from his perspective.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2022
This book could've been so good
November 12, 2023
4/5
This book isn’t as bad as everyone claims. It covers Onestar’s entire life, but the timeskips make the book a manageable length. This book is meant for people who have read at least the first four arcs, so I was able to keep up. And even for events after Firestar’s death, I was able to keep up because this book repeats some of that information.
The most interesting parts of this book are where Onestar struggles with his imposter syndrome — I never realized the extent to his feelings, and that’s what Super Editions are supposed to do. The guilt and shame of keeping Smoke and Darktail a secret are also well-written.
I can tell that this book is trying to recreate the structure of Bluestar’s Prophecy, with Onestar’s death scene at the beginning, but this was not done as well. The Epilogue was underwhelming — it would have been nice if there was an actual council deciding Onestar’s fate (like there was for Leafpool) because there was suspense in the book that just wasn’t fulfilled.
This book isn’t as bad as everyone claims. It covers Onestar’s entire life, but the timeskips make the book a manageable length. This book is meant for people who have read at least the first four arcs, so I was able to keep up. And even for events after Firestar’s death, I was able to keep up because this book repeats some of that information.
The most interesting parts of this book are where Onestar struggles with his imposter syndrome — I never realized the extent to his feelings, and that’s what Super Editions are supposed to do. The guilt and shame of keeping Smoke and Darktail a secret are also well-written.
I can tell that this book is trying to recreate the structure of Bluestar’s Prophecy, with Onestar’s death scene at the beginning, but this was not done as well. The Epilogue was underwhelming — it would have been nice if there was an actual council deciding Onestar’s fate (like there was for Leafpool) because there was suspense in the book that just wasn’t fulfilled.
August 6, 2023
If you haven't read warriors for some time (like me) and need a good recap before starting the newest season, this is your book. A little repetitive at times and I grew a little frustrated with Onestar's whining every now and then. Still solid enough to spark a new warriors hyperfixation phase for me, so I'll grant 3/5 stars
February 3, 2023
Good lord, was this book a journey. Way too many time jumps, with you just guessing where we go next. Also, no one needed this book. This book was not needed, and we would have been happy having a novella of this story. But a full on super edition? It was not needed.
April 10, 2023
i understand why Onestar did what he did, but it was infuriating seeing him make the same mistakes over and over. overall, the book seemed super rushed in some areas and lacking important details which should have been included
February 24, 2024
6.86 on CAWPILE
I really enjoyed this. I don't think any of these Warrior books will get above a three star unless they really impress me. However, the growth and inner turmoil and characters in this book was insane.
I really enjoyed this. I don't think any of these Warrior books will get above a three star unless they really impress me. However, the growth and inner turmoil and characters in this book was insane.
September 8, 2022
A book that answered so many questions - and gave insight to a cat I always loved. Thank you for writing this one!
October 5, 2022
I really hate Onestar now. I feel like this book was supposed to make my sympathize with him? Because it had the opposite effect....
September 18, 2024
Darktail did what we all wanted
September 10, 2022
It's not often that a children's series constructs such an elaborate world, and uses it to tackle such serious concepts. And yet Warrior Cats does it, time and time again, and so brilliantly well. I'm continuously amazed by the immense cast of characters, each so well fleshed out and full of viable flaws. Onestar, one of the most hated characters in the Warriors universe, is a prime example of this.
He started in the series as a fan favourite, forming a strong connection with the original protagonist, Firestar. I, myself, loved him. As an 8 year old reading these books for the first time, I couldn’t wrap my head around where it had all gone wrong. Why had he decided to abandon such an old friend for seemingly no reason, and turn into a cold hearted tyrant? Why did he keep accusing my beloved ThunderClan of being nosy when they were only ever trying to help? Why couldn’t he see that? Why did he have to go and mess everything up? I began to resent him deeply for it. Things only went further downhill when his long forgotten half-kittypet lovechild showed up, hellbent (or should I say ‘Place of No Stars bent’?) on destroying the clans. I HATED Darktail for brutally torturing Needletail and Dawnpelt to death. I hated him for everything he did. The Erin’s made one thing clear. It was all Onestar’s fault. Even after his ultimate sacrifice, drowning himself in the lake to take his estranged son down with him, he continued to be widely despised. But can we really write off this cat for a collection of idiotic misjudgements which concentrated to cause his downfall? Does he deserve his place in StarClan after all that he did?
The Mudclaw arc of this book bored me to death, but I understand they couldn't just skip it, given they needed to cover Onestar’s struggle in his rise to leadership. It did clear up his motives for icing Firestar and all of ThunderClan out, and it made me understand where the behaviour that turned me against him had stemmed from. It was his stubbornness and unwillingness to look weak that pushed him to continue making the wrong decisions. I believe he suffered a bit from imposter syndrome, being chosen as leader completely out of the blue just minutes before the death of one of his mentors and father figures. As he states many times in this book, he never wanted to be leader and felt he wasn’t up to the job. Most deputies have moons of co-leadership to get used to the idea they may one day have to take their nine lives and lead their clan. Onewhisker never got this, and this lack of preparation for the role could’ve easily made him feel like he didn’t belong with the other leaders. His leadership got off to a rocky start, with Mudclaw there to voice the doubts that he himself was having. That he wasn’t fit to lead a clan, that this had never been his destiny, and WindClan would simply be safer in Mudclaw’s paws. Everything was a constant battle to prove his own doubts and those of the others around him wrong. His desperation not to disappoint the great Tallstar was his own undoing.
While unlikeable due to his unwarranted snappiness and hostility towards ThunderClan, he plummeted to all new depths after we all found out about his lovechild with kittypet Smoke, whom he cruelly abandoned while pregnant, leaving her to give birth alone on the moors, and leading the to death of all their kits except one, Darktail. Or at least, that was how Darktail told it. In this book, we saw that maybe that wasn’t quite exactly how it had gone down. Onewhisker had been a young tom cat, already with ties to the Twolegplace through deceased childhood friend Brushpaw, when he met pretty she-cat Smoke. She hung onto his every word about his adventures as a brave and strong warrior of the moor. He continued to visit her to fuel his ego, until one day he decided it was time to cut ties with the Twolegplace and take a mate within his own clan instead, Whitetail. Whitetail was the reason for most of his reluctance towards admitting what had happened with Smoke, and taking responsibility for his son.Once he had very much moved on, it was a nasty shock to find out his old sweetheart was pregnant with his kits. Knowing that there was no chance Smoke and her prospective kits could join the clan after what had happened with Brushpaw and Tansypaw, Onewhisker sent her away, and on the way back to her house, she went into labour. Although Darktail portrayed the death of his littermates as all Onestar’s fault, personally, I’m not sure what else he could’ve done about this. Smoke then approached him again, pleading for him to take her and the surviving kit with him to the clans new territory. He denied her request, partly for his own selfish reasons of not wanting to jeopardise his relationship with Whitetail, and partly because the clans couldn’t afford to deal with it while they had just been driven from their home of many moons. However, he ALWAYS intended to come back for Smoke and his son, but the surprise of the leadership he never wanted meant this was impossible. He genuinly believed that for the time being, they would be safer with the twolegs (people), and I'd say he was right. And eventually, he did return, far too late to redeem the situation though.
I greatly question the fundamentals of the system that decides who gets to go to StarClan, and who is condemned to rot in The Place of No Stars (Heaven and Hell). I still want justice for Juniperclaw. Sure, he tried to poison the SkyClan fresh kill pile, but he believed it was the only way to save his clan. And he gave his life to rescue Shadowkit. He deserves better than being stuck for a literal eternity guarding the tunnel between heaven and hell. They let ASHFUR into StarClan after he tried to burn his ex’s kits to death out of jealousy! And I’m OUTRAGED that Leafpool had to go on trial before her acceptance into StarClan. So what, she ran away with someone from another clan and ended up pregnant? She was kind and pure of heart and acted selflessly time and time again, who gives a rats crap about the warrior code! (Also, two of the cats on her jury were Bluestar and Yellowfang, who made the EXACT same mistakes she did!). Despite his annoying personality and constant frostiness towards the other clans, which made me hate him, Onestar himself never acted out of pure evil. He never should’ve been put on trial either.
In conclusion, Onestar fell into the trap of running from his mistakes. As someone who struggles with taking accountability, I found myself relating to this cat instead of hating him. Yes, he was selfish. Yes, he was stubborn. But aren’t we all? Although boring in places, this book helped me understand Onestar as a whole, and forgive him for everything he did. It hammered home the importance of perspective in every situation. He took StarClans will in his paws, accepting the role of leader and constantly acting in what he thought was WindClan’s best interest, we should stop judging him for moments of weakness as a young and egotistical tom.
These books feel like my second home. I know all the lore to such an extent that the fundamentals of their world feel like the fundamentals of mine And here I am again weeping just at how accomplished these books are. I bloody love this book series, even at 15, and will forever defend it with my life. I would reccommend it to literally everyone. May StarClan light your path.
If you know me irl; yes I did write this essay instead of working on my circles theorems report. So what. Daniel Moore is just a concept himself.
He started in the series as a fan favourite, forming a strong connection with the original protagonist, Firestar. I, myself, loved him. As an 8 year old reading these books for the first time, I couldn’t wrap my head around where it had all gone wrong. Why had he decided to abandon such an old friend for seemingly no reason, and turn into a cold hearted tyrant? Why did he keep accusing my beloved ThunderClan of being nosy when they were only ever trying to help? Why couldn’t he see that? Why did he have to go and mess everything up? I began to resent him deeply for it. Things only went further downhill when his long forgotten half-kittypet lovechild showed up, hellbent (or should I say ‘Place of No Stars bent’?) on destroying the clans. I HATED Darktail for brutally torturing Needletail and Dawnpelt to death. I hated him for everything he did. The Erin’s made one thing clear. It was all Onestar’s fault. Even after his ultimate sacrifice, drowning himself in the lake to take his estranged son down with him, he continued to be widely despised. But can we really write off this cat for a collection of idiotic misjudgements which concentrated to cause his downfall? Does he deserve his place in StarClan after all that he did?
The Mudclaw arc of this book bored me to death, but I understand they couldn't just skip it, given they needed to cover Onestar’s struggle in his rise to leadership. It did clear up his motives for icing Firestar and all of ThunderClan out, and it made me understand where the behaviour that turned me against him had stemmed from. It was his stubbornness and unwillingness to look weak that pushed him to continue making the wrong decisions. I believe he suffered a bit from imposter syndrome, being chosen as leader completely out of the blue just minutes before the death of one of his mentors and father figures. As he states many times in this book, he never wanted to be leader and felt he wasn’t up to the job. Most deputies have moons of co-leadership to get used to the idea they may one day have to take their nine lives and lead their clan. Onewhisker never got this, and this lack of preparation for the role could’ve easily made him feel like he didn’t belong with the other leaders. His leadership got off to a rocky start, with Mudclaw there to voice the doubts that he himself was having. That he wasn’t fit to lead a clan, that this had never been his destiny, and WindClan would simply be safer in Mudclaw’s paws. Everything was a constant battle to prove his own doubts and those of the others around him wrong. His desperation not to disappoint the great Tallstar was his own undoing.
While unlikeable due to his unwarranted snappiness and hostility towards ThunderClan, he plummeted to all new depths after we all found out about his lovechild with kittypet Smoke, whom he cruelly abandoned while pregnant, leaving her to give birth alone on the moors, and leading the to death of all their kits except one, Darktail. Or at least, that was how Darktail told it. In this book, we saw that maybe that wasn’t quite exactly how it had gone down. Onewhisker had been a young tom cat, already with ties to the Twolegplace through deceased childhood friend Brushpaw, when he met pretty she-cat Smoke. She hung onto his every word about his adventures as a brave and strong warrior of the moor. He continued to visit her to fuel his ego, until one day he decided it was time to cut ties with the Twolegplace and take a mate within his own clan instead, Whitetail. Whitetail was the reason for most of his reluctance towards admitting what had happened with Smoke, and taking responsibility for his son.Once he had very much moved on, it was a nasty shock to find out his old sweetheart was pregnant with his kits. Knowing that there was no chance Smoke and her prospective kits could join the clan after what had happened with Brushpaw and Tansypaw, Onewhisker sent her away, and on the way back to her house, she went into labour. Although Darktail portrayed the death of his littermates as all Onestar’s fault, personally, I’m not sure what else he could’ve done about this. Smoke then approached him again, pleading for him to take her and the surviving kit with him to the clans new territory. He denied her request, partly for his own selfish reasons of not wanting to jeopardise his relationship with Whitetail, and partly because the clans couldn’t afford to deal with it while they had just been driven from their home of many moons. However, he ALWAYS intended to come back for Smoke and his son, but the surprise of the leadership he never wanted meant this was impossible. He genuinly believed that for the time being, they would be safer with the twolegs (people), and I'd say he was right. And eventually, he did return, far too late to redeem the situation though.
I greatly question the fundamentals of the system that decides who gets to go to StarClan, and who is condemned to rot in The Place of No Stars (Heaven and Hell). I still want justice for Juniperclaw. Sure, he tried to poison the SkyClan fresh kill pile, but he believed it was the only way to save his clan. And he gave his life to rescue Shadowkit. He deserves better than being stuck for a literal eternity guarding the tunnel between heaven and hell. They let ASHFUR into StarClan after he tried to burn his ex’s kits to death out of jealousy! And I’m OUTRAGED that Leafpool had to go on trial before her acceptance into StarClan. So what, she ran away with someone from another clan and ended up pregnant? She was kind and pure of heart and acted selflessly time and time again, who gives a rats crap about the warrior code! (Also, two of the cats on her jury were Bluestar and Yellowfang, who made the EXACT same mistakes she did!). Despite his annoying personality and constant frostiness towards the other clans, which made me hate him, Onestar himself never acted out of pure evil. He never should’ve been put on trial either.
In conclusion, Onestar fell into the trap of running from his mistakes. As someone who struggles with taking accountability, I found myself relating to this cat instead of hating him. Yes, he was selfish. Yes, he was stubborn. But aren’t we all? Although boring in places, this book helped me understand Onestar as a whole, and forgive him for everything he did. It hammered home the importance of perspective in every situation. He took StarClans will in his paws, accepting the role of leader and constantly acting in what he thought was WindClan’s best interest, we should stop judging him for moments of weakness as a young and egotistical tom.
These books feel like my second home. I know all the lore to such an extent that the fundamentals of their world feel like the fundamentals of mine And here I am again weeping just at how accomplished these books are. I bloody love this book series, even at 15, and will forever defend it with my life. I would reccommend it to literally everyone. May StarClan light your path.
If you know me irl; yes I did write this essay instead of working on my circles theorems report. So what. Daniel Moore is just a concept himself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2022
I would’ve given this two stars if It didn’t have sentimental value attached to it. There were many inconsistencies that were overlooked by the Erin’s and editors that drove me crazy. A simple reread of the first series would’ve helped them a lot.
And as for Onestar - I went into this book despising him and finished it still disliking him, although I’ll admit, a lot less than before.
This drawn out, overdone superedition would’ve been a four or five star if it were a novella instead.
And as for Onestar - I went into this book despising him and finished it still disliking him, although I’ll admit, a lot less than before.
This drawn out, overdone superedition would’ve been a four or five star if it were a novella instead.
May 7, 2024
Well this is definitely the worst Warrior Cats Super Edition ever.
It deserves one star. (Ha ha.) If you have not read a Warrior Cats book before don't read this, start with 'Into the Wild' which is actually decent.
So what is wrong with this book? It starts off okay, there is some new content right at the beginning which is actually interesting, but you can in fact read most of this in the free preview. What do you miss past this point? Not much. This book should have been a novella with the new content at the start but is instead stretched out to an unnecessary Super Edition, which might well be the most sexist Warrior Cats book ever (and DOTC was already pretty bad). I would also not give this book to kids under a certain age (don't know what that is, but parental guidance and all that).
In many ways this book shares the issues of the earlier "Leopardstar's Honour" but is far, far worse. When Leopardstar and Onestar were written in previous arcs, they were AND WERE SUPPOSED TO BE, ambiguously grey characters. They did things that were not good, arguably due to cowardice more than evil, but were certainly grey characters. Yet in these recent unnecessary Super Editions, a ret-con is done where these grey characters are turned into Good Characters by blaming all earlier lacks on something else, a pre-determined prophecy in Leopardstar's case, and an even more ridiculous and questionable reason for Onestar. At least Leopardstar showed retrospective remorse. Meanwhile, Onestar is not seen to ever NEED remorse, nothing is his fault or even wrong to start with!
The book itself will spoil many previous arcs of Warriors including the Vision of Shadows Arc. My review will also spoil part of Vision of Shadows (the big reveal in book 3). Vision of Shadows itself had the sense to leave Onestar as a grey character instead of immediately forgiving him for this incident, and also did not describe it in detail. Instead this book gives him a backstory that makes the details of this incident EVEN WORSE, but instead of validating how awful Onestar was, immediately gives him unnecessary ONE-SIDED forgiveness and redemption he did not deserve, by the characters he betrayed and hurt, FOR NO JUSTIFIABLE REASON! Onestar wasn't even sorry for betraying or hurting these characters ever and goes to his grave or rather Perfect Cat Heaven, as unrepentant as ever that he did anything wrong, since according to the authors, he didn't.
SPOILERS FOR VISION OF SHADOWS BOOK 3 HERE
The main villain in Vision of Shadows Darktail was revealed to be Onestar's secret child. This implied Onestar had cheated on his cat wife in the Clans at some past point, having secret offspring with an unspecified kittypet called Smoke, but did not go into further details.
Now we are told the details of these events, Onestar turns out to be even worse, having selfishly betrayed both partners WITH NO CONSEQUENCES.
Onestar repeatedly showed up at a kittypet Smoke's house for months on end to show off and conduct a relationship, one that the kittypet was deliberately led to believe was serious and that Onestar was committed and was even going to quit being a clan cat and move in with her. In this situation she unsurprisingly became pregnant with Onestar's kits, and Onestar then just spitefully abandoned her. Onestar then started a relationship with the first clan cat he laid eyes on, his former apprentice Whitetail, that seemed to just literally be the first single female clan cat he laid eyes in, she's free so she is the new Clan Wifey. The dumped pregnant kittypet then made repeated attempts to make the dangerous journey out to clan territory to meet with Onestar in the hope that either she or later her kits can join the clans (which is very brave for a kittypet showing a very large commitment), and Onestar refused to meet with her and disowned her, and deliberately stopped any other Clan cat helping her in case his 'secret' was discovered, so she intentionally came to harm since none of the other Clan cats could help her either. Since Kittypet is wandering around trying to find Onestar and is nowhere near her human owners or humans in general and the clan cats are deliberately prevented from helping her by Onestar as well, first 2/3 of her kits die and then she herself is killed on a road. "A clan cat should always help a kit in need'. As if! Onestar deliberately didn't help the kits, EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE HIS OWN THREE KITS! He'd much rather they all die off so his secret can stay hidden and the way the story is written reframes as him just being such a good moral boy for not helping them, his only crime being that he didn't manage to kill off the surviving kit Darktail as well.
The new backstory even gives Darktail a legitimate explanation to have a vendetta against Onestar and the Clans for how badly he misled and then betrayed his kittypet partner and their kits, which eventually leads to both mother and 2/3 kits dying too. Yet at no point is Onestar's actions or attitudes narratively framed as wrong.
But it gets worse. The morality or ethics in the Warriors universe by the newer writing team consists of this sort of ridiculous black and white thinking: cats are either born good or born 100% evil. Since Darktail was born 100% evil and it was his pre-determined destiny to be 100% evil, this conveniently absolves Onestar of any fault or responsibility! Poor Onestar, imagine having such an 100% evil born evil offspring! Feel sorry for Onestar, it's not his fault.
This makes it confusing who the target audience of this awful book is. It seems the real target audience of this awful book is in fact ageing parents of adult children who hate their kids and want some sort of escapist fantasy to tell them don't worry parent, none of it is your fault, your kid was just deterministically born that way, not your influence or responsibility ever! Oh and that secret affair with your second lot of kids? Good boy! Wifey loves you for it! I love you for cheating on me! You never did anything wrong, but your nasty kid was born deterministically 100% evil poor you. I love you for cheating on me and spawning a mass murderer! I LOVE YOU AND FORGIVE YOU! LET ME SERVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Therefore, Onestar's relationship with Clan Wifey is completely one-sided. Wifey is so forgettable I had trouble even recalling her name (Whitetail), but she has no personality or aspirations apart from being the perfect, pathetic forgiving wifey of Onestar to love him unconditionally for no reason, and just immediately announce her pathetic forgiveness of his cheating with a kittypet and demon-spawning the mass-murderer vengeance seeking Darktail almost immediately after she hears about it. It's DISGUSTING! I can't believe these books are for kids, who don't have the critical thinking to question such a BAD role model. This is all some disturbed ageing adult's self-insert fantasy, who wants their (female) partner to pathetically love and forgive them when their secret affair and criminal illegitimate offspring is revealed instead of divorcing them.
And then of course, the book ends by Onestar being congratulated for another disgusting event: murdering his own son. In the original Vision of Shadows arc this was a grey area, but with the new backstory we have been given that reframes Onestar as not a grey, weak, irresponsible or cowardly character but instead a 100% perfect hero who has no responsibility whatsoever, the scene is repugnant. Two wrongs don't make a right and all that... except in Warrior Cats! I hate this book.
As for the other content earlier in the book, the scenes that are chosen to describe in detail are seemingly random. One of these was a specific scene with Firestar that I found ridiculous fact that this disconnected scene was practically the only scene from this time period spanning YEARS where all more important events were skipped over.
The series is called WARRIOR Cats for a reason, and at no point elsewhere in the canon are the separate clans or cats in different clans shown to be best friends, the Clans are rivals. Even if the clans are not currently at war, the leaders and other cats of each clan only inform the clans of their internal happenings in a sort of marketing that makes them look good. If something bad happens, other clans do not even know about it until it is officially announced at a Gathering, if ever. If the other clans know about it, the original clan would be outraged and suspect spying and act hostile for another clan betraying their 'weakness' to all the other clans without their permission. Since they live out in the wild, a lot of kits must be born dead or die quickly, and the other clans WOULD NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM until they are announced at a Gathering. If a kit died almost immediately, let alone was born dead they have no reason to reveal this news to the other clans and will just report the surviving kits. I'm sure someone can even check this and see that at every 'birth announcement' ever at any gathering, the leaders just report that x kits are born and 'healthy', NEVER that one was still born, that is clearly not even mentioned to other Clans if or when it occurs.
However in this awful book, it is revealed that after Onestar's Clan Wifey gave birth, one of the kits was born ALREADY dead even though the other is fine. If the Clans operated like they do in all the other books, there is no way a rival clan would or should know such information. But instead the enemy leader Firestar shows up only a few days after the birth and already knows about the sad still-born kit WHICH FIRESTAR EVEN KNOWS BY NAME EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BORN DEAD, and commiserates with Onestar. Instead of ripping Firestar to shreds for spying on these sort of private internal WindClan affairs THAT FIRESTAR SHOULD NOT KNOW OR MENTION, Onestar acts like this is a completely normal interaction and is grateful to Firestar. Who exactly is writing this book, have they never read the previous books or something? I can't comprehend why Onestar was allowed to stay leader, if WindClan is re-conned as really just an extension of ThunderClan with Firestar permitted to know every private and tactless detail without any backlash.
The scene is also sickening for another reason. I have a feeling that whatever person came up with the outline for this book had the resulting actual writing of it by a different person butchered where they didn't understand the intention, since the writer are too dumb to know that Onestar is a grey character rather than to be re-framed as a perfect hero.
So the scene was clearly supposed to be a contrast to Onestar's earlier lack of concern where his previous 3 kits with Kittypet were left to die on the road due to his lack of concern. But instead of making Onestar look bad like such a contrast should, instead the way the author reframed the scene just shows Onestar being such a 'good father' now his REAL KITS are here or something and being sad one is born dead. Vomit. Oh and it gets worse. As is revealed later, it's not seen as a bad thing that Onestar's original kits died. It's sad that ALL THREE didn't die, since that nasty Darktail survived. So Onestar isn't framed as being a bad irresponsible parent for 2/3 of his kits dying since he refused to help the mother. Onestar's only mistake was that he didn't finish the job and ensure all three of his kits were murdered properly at birth!
MORALITY/ETHICS IN WARRIORS
Onestar's Confession is additionally disturbing based on more supposedly canon content that has come out the official Warriors writing team/brand recently. As part of their new even more extreme black and white 'morality' they have made official proclamations about which cats get to go to Cat Heaven which is StarClan, and which ones get to go to Cat Hell, which is the Dark Forest. It is unsurprising that some evil characters such as Tigerstar or Hawkfrost ended up in the Dark Forest, but now the Warriors website has started assigning rather minor characters to Cat Hell whose 'sins' were arguably minor and far less bad than cats that get to go to Heaven such as Ashfur or of course, Onestar. Controversy occurred when a rather minor character, Frecklewish (female of course), was retrospectively sent to Cat Hell. Provoked by complaints in the Warriors fandom that this was unfair the official Warriors website doubled down and told off the fans that Frecklewish deserved to go to Cat Hell because she broke one of the Warrior code that said 'always help a kit in need' since she didn't run over from a great distance jump in and probably drown herself as well when some kits started drowning when crossing the river, and wrongly assumed some RiverClan cats on the other side would help them instead ('the bystander effect'). Well remember what I said how Onestar refused to help the 3 kits AND deliberately and repeatedly tried to stop others from being able to help them EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE HIS OWN KITS! Why is Onestar not in Cat Hell then? Why the double standard? Oh because he was Firestar's Friend or something so he gets some sort of ridiculous book to claim a grey and cowardly character must be given a ret-con where the authors claim that no matter what happens he is good and nothing was his fault, in straightforward victim blaming scapegoating it is Darktail's fault instead and the only crime of Onestar was not killing Darktail earlier! How much he hurt his other two dead kits and his two betrayed wives doesn't matter! This is I believe the worst Warriors book ever.
In summary, one star. If you are a parent don't let your kid read this book, it's a bad example (unless you hate them and want to tactlessly tell them so).
It deserves one star. (Ha ha.) If you have not read a Warrior Cats book before don't read this, start with 'Into the Wild' which is actually decent.
So what is wrong with this book? It starts off okay, there is some new content right at the beginning which is actually interesting, but you can in fact read most of this in the free preview. What do you miss past this point? Not much. This book should have been a novella with the new content at the start but is instead stretched out to an unnecessary Super Edition, which might well be the most sexist Warrior Cats book ever (and DOTC was already pretty bad). I would also not give this book to kids under a certain age (don't know what that is, but parental guidance and all that).
In many ways this book shares the issues of the earlier "Leopardstar's Honour" but is far, far worse. When Leopardstar and Onestar were written in previous arcs, they were AND WERE SUPPOSED TO BE, ambiguously grey characters. They did things that were not good, arguably due to cowardice more than evil, but were certainly grey characters. Yet in these recent unnecessary Super Editions, a ret-con is done where these grey characters are turned into Good Characters by blaming all earlier lacks on something else, a pre-determined prophecy in Leopardstar's case, and an even more ridiculous and questionable reason for Onestar. At least Leopardstar showed retrospective remorse. Meanwhile, Onestar is not seen to ever NEED remorse, nothing is his fault or even wrong to start with!
The book itself will spoil many previous arcs of Warriors including the Vision of Shadows Arc. My review will also spoil part of Vision of Shadows (the big reveal in book 3). Vision of Shadows itself had the sense to leave Onestar as a grey character instead of immediately forgiving him for this incident, and also did not describe it in detail. Instead this book gives him a backstory that makes the details of this incident EVEN WORSE, but instead of validating how awful Onestar was, immediately gives him unnecessary ONE-SIDED forgiveness and redemption he did not deserve, by the characters he betrayed and hurt, FOR NO JUSTIFIABLE REASON! Onestar wasn't even sorry for betraying or hurting these characters ever and goes to his grave or rather Perfect Cat Heaven, as unrepentant as ever that he did anything wrong, since according to the authors, he didn't.
SPOILERS FOR VISION OF SHADOWS BOOK 3 HERE
The main villain in Vision of Shadows Darktail was revealed to be Onestar's secret child. This implied Onestar had cheated on his cat wife in the Clans at some past point, having secret offspring with an unspecified kittypet called Smoke, but did not go into further details.
Now we are told the details of these events, Onestar turns out to be even worse, having selfishly betrayed both partners WITH NO CONSEQUENCES.
Onestar repeatedly showed up at a kittypet Smoke's house for months on end to show off and conduct a relationship, one that the kittypet was deliberately led to believe was serious and that Onestar was committed and was even going to quit being a clan cat and move in with her. In this situation she unsurprisingly became pregnant with Onestar's kits, and Onestar then just spitefully abandoned her. Onestar then started a relationship with the first clan cat he laid eyes on, his former apprentice Whitetail, that seemed to just literally be the first single female clan cat he laid eyes in, she's free so she is the new Clan Wifey. The dumped pregnant kittypet then made repeated attempts to make the dangerous journey out to clan territory to meet with Onestar in the hope that either she or later her kits can join the clans (which is very brave for a kittypet showing a very large commitment), and Onestar refused to meet with her and disowned her, and deliberately stopped any other Clan cat helping her in case his 'secret' was discovered, so she intentionally came to harm since none of the other Clan cats could help her either. Since Kittypet is wandering around trying to find Onestar and is nowhere near her human owners or humans in general and the clan cats are deliberately prevented from helping her by Onestar as well, first 2/3 of her kits die and then she herself is killed on a road. "A clan cat should always help a kit in need'. As if! Onestar deliberately didn't help the kits, EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE HIS OWN THREE KITS! He'd much rather they all die off so his secret can stay hidden and the way the story is written reframes as him just being such a good moral boy for not helping them, his only crime being that he didn't manage to kill off the surviving kit Darktail as well.
The new backstory even gives Darktail a legitimate explanation to have a vendetta against Onestar and the Clans for how badly he misled and then betrayed his kittypet partner and their kits, which eventually leads to both mother and 2/3 kits dying too. Yet at no point is Onestar's actions or attitudes narratively framed as wrong.
But it gets worse. The morality or ethics in the Warriors universe by the newer writing team consists of this sort of ridiculous black and white thinking: cats are either born good or born 100% evil. Since Darktail was born 100% evil and it was his pre-determined destiny to be 100% evil, this conveniently absolves Onestar of any fault or responsibility! Poor Onestar, imagine having such an 100% evil born evil offspring! Feel sorry for Onestar, it's not his fault.
This makes it confusing who the target audience of this awful book is. It seems the real target audience of this awful book is in fact ageing parents of adult children who hate their kids and want some sort of escapist fantasy to tell them don't worry parent, none of it is your fault, your kid was just deterministically born that way, not your influence or responsibility ever! Oh and that secret affair with your second lot of kids? Good boy! Wifey loves you for it! I love you for cheating on me! You never did anything wrong, but your nasty kid was born deterministically 100% evil poor you. I love you for cheating on me and spawning a mass murderer! I LOVE YOU AND FORGIVE YOU! LET ME SERVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Therefore, Onestar's relationship with Clan Wifey is completely one-sided. Wifey is so forgettable I had trouble even recalling her name (Whitetail), but she has no personality or aspirations apart from being the perfect, pathetic forgiving wifey of Onestar to love him unconditionally for no reason, and just immediately announce her pathetic forgiveness of his cheating with a kittypet and demon-spawning the mass-murderer vengeance seeking Darktail almost immediately after she hears about it. It's DISGUSTING! I can't believe these books are for kids, who don't have the critical thinking to question such a BAD role model. This is all some disturbed ageing adult's self-insert fantasy, who wants their (female) partner to pathetically love and forgive them when their secret affair and criminal illegitimate offspring is revealed instead of divorcing them.
And then of course, the book ends by Onestar being congratulated for another disgusting event: murdering his own son. In the original Vision of Shadows arc this was a grey area, but with the new backstory we have been given that reframes Onestar as not a grey, weak, irresponsible or cowardly character but instead a 100% perfect hero who has no responsibility whatsoever, the scene is repugnant. Two wrongs don't make a right and all that... except in Warrior Cats! I hate this book.
As for the other content earlier in the book, the scenes that are chosen to describe in detail are seemingly random. One of these was a specific scene with Firestar that I found ridiculous fact that this disconnected scene was practically the only scene from this time period spanning YEARS where all more important events were skipped over.
The series is called WARRIOR Cats for a reason, and at no point elsewhere in the canon are the separate clans or cats in different clans shown to be best friends, the Clans are rivals. Even if the clans are not currently at war, the leaders and other cats of each clan only inform the clans of their internal happenings in a sort of marketing that makes them look good. If something bad happens, other clans do not even know about it until it is officially announced at a Gathering, if ever. If the other clans know about it, the original clan would be outraged and suspect spying and act hostile for another clan betraying their 'weakness' to all the other clans without their permission. Since they live out in the wild, a lot of kits must be born dead or die quickly, and the other clans WOULD NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM until they are announced at a Gathering. If a kit died almost immediately, let alone was born dead they have no reason to reveal this news to the other clans and will just report the surviving kits. I'm sure someone can even check this and see that at every 'birth announcement' ever at any gathering, the leaders just report that x kits are born and 'healthy', NEVER that one was still born, that is clearly not even mentioned to other Clans if or when it occurs.
However in this awful book, it is revealed that after Onestar's Clan Wifey gave birth, one of the kits was born ALREADY dead even though the other is fine. If the Clans operated like they do in all the other books, there is no way a rival clan would or should know such information. But instead the enemy leader Firestar shows up only a few days after the birth and already knows about the sad still-born kit WHICH FIRESTAR EVEN KNOWS BY NAME EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BORN DEAD, and commiserates with Onestar. Instead of ripping Firestar to shreds for spying on these sort of private internal WindClan affairs THAT FIRESTAR SHOULD NOT KNOW OR MENTION, Onestar acts like this is a completely normal interaction and is grateful to Firestar. Who exactly is writing this book, have they never read the previous books or something? I can't comprehend why Onestar was allowed to stay leader, if WindClan is re-conned as really just an extension of ThunderClan with Firestar permitted to know every private and tactless detail without any backlash.
The scene is also sickening for another reason. I have a feeling that whatever person came up with the outline for this book had the resulting actual writing of it by a different person butchered where they didn't understand the intention, since the writer are too dumb to know that Onestar is a grey character rather than to be re-framed as a perfect hero.
So the scene was clearly supposed to be a contrast to Onestar's earlier lack of concern where his previous 3 kits with Kittypet were left to die on the road due to his lack of concern. But instead of making Onestar look bad like such a contrast should, instead the way the author reframed the scene just shows Onestar being such a 'good father' now his REAL KITS are here or something and being sad one is born dead. Vomit. Oh and it gets worse. As is revealed later, it's not seen as a bad thing that Onestar's original kits died. It's sad that ALL THREE didn't die, since that nasty Darktail survived. So Onestar isn't framed as being a bad irresponsible parent for 2/3 of his kits dying since he refused to help the mother. Onestar's only mistake was that he didn't finish the job and ensure all three of his kits were murdered properly at birth!
MORALITY/ETHICS IN WARRIORS
Onestar's Confession is additionally disturbing based on more supposedly canon content that has come out the official Warriors writing team/brand recently. As part of their new even more extreme black and white 'morality' they have made official proclamations about which cats get to go to Cat Heaven which is StarClan, and which ones get to go to Cat Hell, which is the Dark Forest. It is unsurprising that some evil characters such as Tigerstar or Hawkfrost ended up in the Dark Forest, but now the Warriors website has started assigning rather minor characters to Cat Hell whose 'sins' were arguably minor and far less bad than cats that get to go to Heaven such as Ashfur or of course, Onestar. Controversy occurred when a rather minor character, Frecklewish (female of course), was retrospectively sent to Cat Hell. Provoked by complaints in the Warriors fandom that this was unfair the official Warriors website doubled down and told off the fans that Frecklewish deserved to go to Cat Hell because she broke one of the Warrior code that said 'always help a kit in need' since she didn't run over from a great distance jump in and probably drown herself as well when some kits started drowning when crossing the river, and wrongly assumed some RiverClan cats on the other side would help them instead ('the bystander effect'). Well remember what I said how Onestar refused to help the 3 kits AND deliberately and repeatedly tried to stop others from being able to help them EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE HIS OWN KITS! Why is Onestar not in Cat Hell then? Why the double standard? Oh because he was Firestar's Friend or something so he gets some sort of ridiculous book to claim a grey and cowardly character must be given a ret-con where the authors claim that no matter what happens he is good and nothing was his fault, in straightforward victim blaming scapegoating it is Darktail's fault instead and the only crime of Onestar was not killing Darktail earlier! How much he hurt his other two dead kits and his two betrayed wives doesn't matter! This is I believe the worst Warriors book ever.
In summary, one star. If you are a parent don't let your kid read this book, it's a bad example (unless you hate them and want to tactlessly tell them so).
July 28, 2024
I enjoyed reading this special edition, but I wouldn't call it a good book. It's just mediocre, in my opinion. I'll admit that I was expecting worse based on the reactions I saw from online communities after the initial release. For one thing, I heard that Firestar's relationship with Onestar wasn't included, making the entire plot illogical. While the authors certainly could've delved into it more deeply, Firestar was still present in this book, and I thought it was sweet that Onestar implies that he will renew his friendship with the former ThunderClan leader now that they're both in StarClan.
Still, this ties into my main complaint with the book. I was most entertained by the new content. I liked the manga adventure at the end, which added some lore to StarClan, with Firestar explaining to Onestar a prophecy that he's seen in his dreams. This raises a fascinating question: If StarClan cats send prophetic dreams to living Clan cats, then who sends prophetic dreams to StarClan? Is it simply the nature of the heavenly realm they inhabit, like Prospit dreamers looking up into the clouds of Skaia during an eclipse? Pardon the Homestuck reference.
At any rate, I enjoyed seeing new characters, such as Brushpaw, and learning about Onestar's apprenticeship, which before this book was not well-documented. Unfortunately, because of Onestar's timeline, the vast majority of his life is already covered in the main series, and most of his super edition is spent recapping that.
I suppose you could argue that this is all new material because it's framed from Onestar's perspective. But I don't think the writing is insightful enough for that perspective to be worth it. In fact, I often felt as though Onestar's internal monologue failed to explain or justify the pre-established dialogue we've seen in other novels. It wasn't as bad as, say, Riverstar's super edition, where Riverstar felt like a completely different cat in his head versus outside of it—and a much less charismatic one at that. Regardless, there remains a gap between the author's attempt to portray Onestar as good-intentioned and his violent, vitriolic actions that have to be included because we already saw them in "A Vision of Shadows."
I enjoyed reading this book, because I like the familiarity of the Warrior cats universe and its writing style. I even enjoyed some of the recap bits, because I've always loved the WindClan succession drama in "The New Prophecy," and it's fun to revisit "A Vision of Shadows" with newfound knowledge about characters such as Berryheart and Curlfeather. But I can't help but wonder, "Why does this book exist? What are the authors trying to do, besides sell another book?" It doesn't feel to me like it has any in-universe significance—and the typos only magnify my impression that the authors didn't care enough about their story to make it truly great. (Tigerheart became Tigerstar and then went back to being Tigerheart all in the same paragraph, and later in the same chapter, Onestar insulted ThunderClan instead of ShadowClan, although it was clear from the context that he meant to accuse ShadowClan, Tigerheart's home.)
My other pet peeve with this super edition is how little attention it pays to what is arguably its "newest" material: Onestar's relationship with Smoke. It was barely on the page and felt incredibly underwhelming—not to mention, we only find out about her dramatic and disastrous birth after the fact. Why was this told to us and not shown? It was already told to us in the main series. Isn't the point of this super edition to show rather than tell events we've already learned about it in more detail?
I suppose this could be intentional: Onestar's relationship with Smoke is glossed over, because that's how Onestar thinks of her; their romance didn't mean to him enough to warrant proper scenes and character development. But then, that complicates the issue of Onestar's morality. I don't think he should have gone to the Dark Forest, but it frustrates me that he never seems to understand where he went wrong. He didn't make just one mistake: Every day that he continued to shun Smoke and ignore the consequences of his actions was another mistake intentionally inflicted upon her and Darkkit.
In the novel, this is described as Onestar telling lies to cover up his initial lie, but I would argue that this isn't the true root of Onestar's problem. He's not a pathological liar; he's a cat who treated someone badly and who can't admit that to himself, because it would disrupt his image of himself as a good person.
Then, there's the whole business of Darktail to get into. Just before he dies, Onestar reassures himself that Darktail might have been evil even if Onestar hadn't shunned him. Hadn't he seen malice in his eyes back when he was a kit, after all? In the world of Warrior cats, this is probably true. We've seen both Brokenstar and Tigerclaw characterized as doomed to be evil from the moment they were born, but that explanation has never sat well with me.
I wish that Darktail had been given more nuance than those two, and I'm not satisfied with Onestar dismissing the consequences of his actions so easily. Yes, it was Darktail's decision and Darktail's decision alone to wreak havoc on the Clans in the way that he did. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't harmful for Onestar to have abandoned him and Smoke like that.
I wish that Onestar had come to a realization more along the lines of, "I hurt Darktail, and that is not okay. But Darktail is wrong to involve other people in our conflict," and I wish that Onestar didn't think he had solved everything by killing his child. The way to redeem yourself as a bad father is to start being a good father, and Onestar never did that for Darktail. He messed up his child so badly that he had to destroy both of them to limit the damage that would be done to the rest of the Clans if they kept on going. Damage control is not the same as righting a wrong—and to imply it that is is to suggest that the "wrong" here was Darktail having ever been born, which I don't think any kitten deserves to hear.
Speaking of Brokenstar and Tigerclaw, I think one of the reasons why Onestar's story doesn't move me as much as it could is because it's so similar to Yellowfang's. Both Yellowfang and Onestar fail to raise their lone sons, and they witness that child grow up to pose a threat to the entire forest, until they are forced to take direct action and kill him. However, it makes more sense to me why Yellowfang couldn't raise Brokenstar than why Onestar couldn't raise Darktail. It feels like Onestar is trying to have a similar tragic backstory to Yellowfang, but the facts aren't there to endorse him. No one stopped Onestar from raising Darktail; in fact, Smoke practically begged him to do so. In my opinion, Darktail is more the result of Onestar's decisions than Brokenstar is of Yellowfang's.
Plus, when it comes to revealing their secrets, I think that Yellowfang strikes the reader's heart more truly. Her line about being unable to raise a son as good as Firestar still makes me emotional over a decade after I first read it. Meanwhile, Onestar's confession to Whitetail falls flat, in part because it's not given to her in private, and it's frustrating that we spend so much of this novel hearing Onestar think, "Oh, I can never tell Whitetail, or she'll hate me!" It's even worse, because Onestar manages to hold two opposing thoughts in his head at once without seeing the conflict: that he did nothing wrong and that Whitetail would never forgive him if she knew.
And this is without getting into the family tree nonsense of the Erins canonizing Heathertail as Onestar's daughter and making Breezepelt (Heathertail's mate) her first cousin once removed. It's one thing to say that they didn't realize the consequences of this choice, but Onestar explicitly notes that Heathertail's daughters are Crowfeather's kin as well as his own—and we know that Ashfoot is Crowfeather's mother as well as Onestar's sister, so why don't the authors make the same leap? It's all there in this book.
All this to say, "Onestar's Confession" is not a good book. It's an entertaining book, at times, and I enjoyed reading it. But there's so much more to complain about than to compliment—and honestly, that's part of the fun for me. I hope that "Ivypool's Heart" (which will release later this year) is better, and I'm guessing that it will be, since it sounds like it will contain a purely original story, set between Arcs 8 and 9.
Still, this ties into my main complaint with the book. I was most entertained by the new content. I liked the manga adventure at the end, which added some lore to StarClan, with Firestar explaining to Onestar a prophecy that he's seen in his dreams. This raises a fascinating question: If StarClan cats send prophetic dreams to living Clan cats, then who sends prophetic dreams to StarClan? Is it simply the nature of the heavenly realm they inhabit, like Prospit dreamers looking up into the clouds of Skaia during an eclipse? Pardon the Homestuck reference.
At any rate, I enjoyed seeing new characters, such as Brushpaw, and learning about Onestar's apprenticeship, which before this book was not well-documented. Unfortunately, because of Onestar's timeline, the vast majority of his life is already covered in the main series, and most of his super edition is spent recapping that.
I suppose you could argue that this is all new material because it's framed from Onestar's perspective. But I don't think the writing is insightful enough for that perspective to be worth it. In fact, I often felt as though Onestar's internal monologue failed to explain or justify the pre-established dialogue we've seen in other novels. It wasn't as bad as, say, Riverstar's super edition, where Riverstar felt like a completely different cat in his head versus outside of it—and a much less charismatic one at that. Regardless, there remains a gap between the author's attempt to portray Onestar as good-intentioned and his violent, vitriolic actions that have to be included because we already saw them in "A Vision of Shadows."
I enjoyed reading this book, because I like the familiarity of the Warrior cats universe and its writing style. I even enjoyed some of the recap bits, because I've always loved the WindClan succession drama in "The New Prophecy," and it's fun to revisit "A Vision of Shadows" with newfound knowledge about characters such as Berryheart and Curlfeather. But I can't help but wonder, "Why does this book exist? What are the authors trying to do, besides sell another book?" It doesn't feel to me like it has any in-universe significance—and the typos only magnify my impression that the authors didn't care enough about their story to make it truly great. (Tigerheart became Tigerstar and then went back to being Tigerheart all in the same paragraph, and later in the same chapter, Onestar insulted ThunderClan instead of ShadowClan, although it was clear from the context that he meant to accuse ShadowClan, Tigerheart's home.)
My other pet peeve with this super edition is how little attention it pays to what is arguably its "newest" material: Onestar's relationship with Smoke. It was barely on the page and felt incredibly underwhelming—not to mention, we only find out about her dramatic and disastrous birth after the fact. Why was this told to us and not shown? It was already told to us in the main series. Isn't the point of this super edition to show rather than tell events we've already learned about it in more detail?
I suppose this could be intentional: Onestar's relationship with Smoke is glossed over, because that's how Onestar thinks of her; their romance didn't mean to him enough to warrant proper scenes and character development. But then, that complicates the issue of Onestar's morality. I don't think he should have gone to the Dark Forest, but it frustrates me that he never seems to understand where he went wrong. He didn't make just one mistake: Every day that he continued to shun Smoke and ignore the consequences of his actions was another mistake intentionally inflicted upon her and Darkkit.
In the novel, this is described as Onestar telling lies to cover up his initial lie, but I would argue that this isn't the true root of Onestar's problem. He's not a pathological liar; he's a cat who treated someone badly and who can't admit that to himself, because it would disrupt his image of himself as a good person.
Then, there's the whole business of Darktail to get into. Just before he dies, Onestar reassures himself that Darktail might have been evil even if Onestar hadn't shunned him. Hadn't he seen malice in his eyes back when he was a kit, after all? In the world of Warrior cats, this is probably true. We've seen both Brokenstar and Tigerclaw characterized as doomed to be evil from the moment they were born, but that explanation has never sat well with me.
I wish that Darktail had been given more nuance than those two, and I'm not satisfied with Onestar dismissing the consequences of his actions so easily. Yes, it was Darktail's decision and Darktail's decision alone to wreak havoc on the Clans in the way that he did. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't harmful for Onestar to have abandoned him and Smoke like that.
I wish that Onestar had come to a realization more along the lines of, "I hurt Darktail, and that is not okay. But Darktail is wrong to involve other people in our conflict," and I wish that Onestar didn't think he had solved everything by killing his child. The way to redeem yourself as a bad father is to start being a good father, and Onestar never did that for Darktail. He messed up his child so badly that he had to destroy both of them to limit the damage that would be done to the rest of the Clans if they kept on going. Damage control is not the same as righting a wrong—and to imply it that is is to suggest that the "wrong" here was Darktail having ever been born, which I don't think any kitten deserves to hear.
Speaking of Brokenstar and Tigerclaw, I think one of the reasons why Onestar's story doesn't move me as much as it could is because it's so similar to Yellowfang's. Both Yellowfang and Onestar fail to raise their lone sons, and they witness that child grow up to pose a threat to the entire forest, until they are forced to take direct action and kill him. However, it makes more sense to me why Yellowfang couldn't raise Brokenstar than why Onestar couldn't raise Darktail. It feels like Onestar is trying to have a similar tragic backstory to Yellowfang, but the facts aren't there to endorse him. No one stopped Onestar from raising Darktail; in fact, Smoke practically begged him to do so. In my opinion, Darktail is more the result of Onestar's decisions than Brokenstar is of Yellowfang's.
Plus, when it comes to revealing their secrets, I think that Yellowfang strikes the reader's heart more truly. Her line about being unable to raise a son as good as Firestar still makes me emotional over a decade after I first read it. Meanwhile, Onestar's confession to Whitetail falls flat, in part because it's not given to her in private, and it's frustrating that we spend so much of this novel hearing Onestar think, "Oh, I can never tell Whitetail, or she'll hate me!" It's even worse, because Onestar manages to hold two opposing thoughts in his head at once without seeing the conflict: that he did nothing wrong and that Whitetail would never forgive him if she knew.
And this is without getting into the family tree nonsense of the Erins canonizing Heathertail as Onestar's daughter and making Breezepelt (Heathertail's mate) her first cousin once removed. It's one thing to say that they didn't realize the consequences of this choice, but Onestar explicitly notes that Heathertail's daughters are Crowfeather's kin as well as his own—and we know that Ashfoot is Crowfeather's mother as well as Onestar's sister, so why don't the authors make the same leap? It's all there in this book.
All this to say, "Onestar's Confession" is not a good book. It's an entertaining book, at times, and I enjoyed reading it. But there's so much more to complain about than to compliment—and honestly, that's part of the fun for me. I hope that "Ivypool's Heart" (which will release later this year) is better, and I'm guessing that it will be, since it sounds like it will contain a purely original story, set between Arcs 8 and 9.
November 17, 2023
It's one of my favorite Super Editions.
Yes, the book is about Onestar, but it's also a retelling of the events that span from the 1st Arc to the half of the 6th Arc. I desperately needed a summary like this one. I've been reading warrior books for 5 years and it's kinda hard to remember everything and this book is great at summarizing all the key events, I'm not going to deny that. I know that some of the reviews say that the authors could have done a better job by focusing on the important events (like Tallstar's death) more by not adding so many time skips, but in my view that's not true. It's hard to explore and mention every single event that has happened in a span of 4 Arcs so I dont blame the authors for that. This book does a great job at retelling the whole story from Onestar's POV.
I found myself relating to Onestar, to his hypocrisy, to his need to victimize himself by lying, to his loneliness. I don't want to deny how I feel. I would have isolated myself too if I was in his place, if I was scared for my life.
I won't however excuse the way he treated Smoke. He could have helped her instead of deciding "I don't care, I'm going with my clan and my new mate now." What better moment to invite Smoke into his clan than after the twolegs destroyed everything and the clans decided to start the journey? They were all united, nobody would have noticed or judged him. I'm pretty sure Tallstar would have been okay with it even after what happened with Brushpaw, knowing his friendliness towards kittypets like Jake. And he wasn't a leader yet, not even a deputy so why would he care so much about his reputation getting ruined? But no, Onestar was too focused on keeping his secret and feeling guilty instead of acting to fix his mistakes.
By the end of the book I started despising his character. I thought that he would give in and tell the truth but he never did. He should have gone to the dark forest. He never told the full truth, never told the clan leaders that before Darktail's official attack the rougues were well within his territory and were tormenting him and his cats. He died without telling the truth and he didn't feel pity once he entered Starclan. He didn't reflect on his actions. He was like "Oh well, I'm in Starclan now."
Onestar is a horrible character and that's why I love this book. I love the prospect of him being a villain, an abuser, an awful cat, because that's just what he is. I know that the intention of this book was to redeem him, but it never did. It made me hate him more. It made me hate him so much that I ended loving him and hating him again in the end. This is why I will rate this book with 5 stars.
Yes, the book is about Onestar, but it's also a retelling of the events that span from the 1st Arc to the half of the 6th Arc. I desperately needed a summary like this one. I've been reading warrior books for 5 years and it's kinda hard to remember everything and this book is great at summarizing all the key events, I'm not going to deny that. I know that some of the reviews say that the authors could have done a better job by focusing on the important events (like Tallstar's death) more by not adding so many time skips, but in my view that's not true. It's hard to explore and mention every single event that has happened in a span of 4 Arcs so I dont blame the authors for that. This book does a great job at retelling the whole story from Onestar's POV.
I found myself relating to Onestar, to his hypocrisy, to his need to victimize himself by lying, to his loneliness. I don't want to deny how I feel. I would have isolated myself too if I was in his place, if I was scared for my life.
I won't however excuse the way he treated Smoke. He could have helped her instead of deciding "I don't care, I'm going with my clan and my new mate now." What better moment to invite Smoke into his clan than after the twolegs destroyed everything and the clans decided to start the journey? They were all united, nobody would have noticed or judged him. I'm pretty sure Tallstar would have been okay with it even after what happened with Brushpaw, knowing his friendliness towards kittypets like Jake. And he wasn't a leader yet, not even a deputy so why would he care so much about his reputation getting ruined? But no, Onestar was too focused on keeping his secret and feeling guilty instead of acting to fix his mistakes.
By the end of the book I started despising his character. I thought that he would give in and tell the truth but he never did. He should have gone to the dark forest. He never told the full truth, never told the clan leaders that before Darktail's official attack the rougues were well within his territory and were tormenting him and his cats. He died without telling the truth and he didn't feel pity once he entered Starclan. He didn't reflect on his actions. He was like "Oh well, I'm in Starclan now."
Onestar is a horrible character and that's why I love this book. I love the prospect of him being a villain, an abuser, an awful cat, because that's just what he is. I know that the intention of this book was to redeem him, but it never did. It made me hate him more. It made me hate him so much that I ended loving him and hating him again in the end. This is why I will rate this book with 5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2023
I really love this special edition! I think a lot of fantasy books make us forget that being brave is actually a very rare trait. Most people are not brave and even act like cowards in high stress situations. Which isn't bad cause most of us are just trying to live life without hurting others. Sometimes we forget that by not being honest we, hurt the people we love more because hard conversations are easier to put off. If you love Warriors Cats this was an amazing edition to read! I will also say the audiobook for this one was really good at first I wasn't sure since it was a different narrator than normal but I think they made an amazing choice. I feel that Lillie really brought the story to life with her performance.
January 27, 2025
2.5 stars.
This should’ve been called Onestar’s Guilt because jfc.
This book was… ambitious. It wanted to cover the span of like 30+ books in about 35 chapters and that’s just an insane task to take on. So I realize that things would be cut out, there would be huge time jumps, we would kind of be expected to fill in the holes along the way since we’ve already read all this before. But the pacing just felt off, especially in the beginning.
The book starts when he’s an apprentice, and I know they had a lot of ground to cover but how is that any different from any other Super Edition that spans a cat’s life? I feel like this part is both drawn out and not long enough At the same time. Less Bailey and apprentice nonsense and more Smoke characterization maybe? She is, after all, a huge part in the conflict of this whole book. It spends way too much time recapping TNP events that we’ve already read before. Some of it I understand; it shows why Tallstar began considering him for leadership later, but some of it dragged on, or I felt like it should have been focused on scenes we haven’t already read before. Like more Whitetail scenes? I know romance has never been their strong suit but ugh this was one of the worst cases of “oh this person is good for me, I guess I love them now” in warriors yet imo.
I feel like the plot about Bailey and her kits coming to live in WindClan was kind of forced. We know Tallstar is one of the most progressive leaders from TPB and pretty much all of the Clan leaders at the time were letting outsiders join up with them (Bluestar with Firestar, ShadowClan had a ton of rogues join like Russetfur and Boulder) so it’s not that I don’t buy him letting them try Clan life, I just don’t think it was needed.
“Clan life is too harsh for a kittypet” has been an almost unquestioned maxim among all the Warriors books. There have been cats who have proven that wrong like Firestar and the SkyClan daylight warriors, and there have been cats that have proved it wrong like Sol, the cat Darktail got killed in the RiverClan battle, and Minty. The only thing I think that made it kind of worth it was the fact that Rushpaw died, while as most of the other examples simply went home to their humans. However, I think Onestar’s reasoning for why he chose to leave Smoke and Darktail was fine. He was a Clan cat who had an illicit romance that resulted in a kit, he had a new mate by this point, WindClan was doing very badly because of the forest being destroyed around them, and he had no idea what they were going to do or if they’d even survive. Sometimes people make mistakes, and they don’t do the absolute most to try to fix them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad people, but that’s a take a little too nuanced I guess.
They wasted a lot of time trying to make Onestar look better. By having Rushpaw die, it gave him this nagging fear that kittypets couldn’t survive in the wild (despite Firestar still being right there) which makes sense sure but could have been scrapped entirely for the sake of literally anything else. We could have given Smoke better character development. She’s the mother of Darktail, a huge villain in the series, and she gets like zero characterization. Even looking back on her, Onestar only ever really remembers that she was pretty and she thought he was amazing. While I understand that might be part of the point, it just feels weird.
They go so out of their way to try to insist that Onestar is a decent person just haunted by one mistake. They waste pages on showing him going back to the old territories to try to find Smoke and Darktail YEARS later. And yeah it was kinda cool to see what happened to the old territories but like none of that was needed. The only insight we got was that Darktail was a menace from the beginning and was the reason Smoke made them leave the humans that had adopted them. It’s like they’re shoving it in our face going “but see??? He does care! He went back, he’s not that bad!” But in all actuality, every move Onestar makes is driven by selfishness. Including going back.
I won’t sit here and write that Onestar didn’t feel guilt because he definitely did, but his selfishness cost so many lives. His actions had disastrous consequences on all 5 Clans. The only Clan that got out without losing a single cat to Darktail was ThunderClan. He even felt guilt over causing his friendship with Firestar to end, which that was a whole reach of a section.
It would have made so much more sense to have young Onestar have an anger problem or something. I have absolutely been in the position where I’ve said something and as I’m saying it, I internally cringe. And they use this as a way to explain what he’s thinking whenever he flies off the handle at Gatherings for drama’s sake. Like he’s super aggressive and accusatory to Firestar but his internal monologue is “oh being a leader is so lonely wah, wah, I have to behave this way for my clan boohoo” when he doesn’t need to. WindClan becomes the “problem” Clan the moment he becomes leader, and I know he feels like he has to show his Clan mates he’s independent and that’s why he’s so harsh but it’s over the top sometimes. Which is why if they had established he had an anger problem, it would make sense why he’d crash out at a Gathering. And THEN he can feel bad and guilty LATER when he has time to think about his actions. Instead we get a walking contradiction of a character who says the exact opposite of what he thinks 90% of the time. Because they don’t want him to be BAD, but they didn’t write him to be THAT GOOD in the first place.
Just a weird installment overall.
This should’ve been called Onestar’s Guilt because jfc.
This book was… ambitious. It wanted to cover the span of like 30+ books in about 35 chapters and that’s just an insane task to take on. So I realize that things would be cut out, there would be huge time jumps, we would kind of be expected to fill in the holes along the way since we’ve already read all this before. But the pacing just felt off, especially in the beginning.
The book starts when he’s an apprentice, and I know they had a lot of ground to cover but how is that any different from any other Super Edition that spans a cat’s life? I feel like this part is both drawn out and not long enough At the same time. Less Bailey and apprentice nonsense and more Smoke characterization maybe? She is, after all, a huge part in the conflict of this whole book. It spends way too much time recapping TNP events that we’ve already read before. Some of it I understand; it shows why Tallstar began considering him for leadership later, but some of it dragged on, or I felt like it should have been focused on scenes we haven’t already read before. Like more Whitetail scenes? I know romance has never been their strong suit but ugh this was one of the worst cases of “oh this person is good for me, I guess I love them now” in warriors yet imo.
I feel like the plot about Bailey and her kits coming to live in WindClan was kind of forced. We know Tallstar is one of the most progressive leaders from TPB and pretty much all of the Clan leaders at the time were letting outsiders join up with them (Bluestar with Firestar, ShadowClan had a ton of rogues join like Russetfur and Boulder) so it’s not that I don’t buy him letting them try Clan life, I just don’t think it was needed.
“Clan life is too harsh for a kittypet” has been an almost unquestioned maxim among all the Warriors books. There have been cats who have proven that wrong like Firestar and the SkyClan daylight warriors, and there have been cats that have proved it wrong like Sol, the cat Darktail got killed in the RiverClan battle, and Minty. The only thing I think that made it kind of worth it was the fact that Rushpaw died, while as most of the other examples simply went home to their humans. However, I think Onestar’s reasoning for why he chose to leave Smoke and Darktail was fine. He was a Clan cat who had an illicit romance that resulted in a kit, he had a new mate by this point, WindClan was doing very badly because of the forest being destroyed around them, and he had no idea what they were going to do or if they’d even survive. Sometimes people make mistakes, and they don’t do the absolute most to try to fix them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad people, but that’s a take a little too nuanced I guess.
They wasted a lot of time trying to make Onestar look better. By having Rushpaw die, it gave him this nagging fear that kittypets couldn’t survive in the wild (despite Firestar still being right there) which makes sense sure but could have been scrapped entirely for the sake of literally anything else. We could have given Smoke better character development. She’s the mother of Darktail, a huge villain in the series, and she gets like zero characterization. Even looking back on her, Onestar only ever really remembers that she was pretty and she thought he was amazing. While I understand that might be part of the point, it just feels weird.
They go so out of their way to try to insist that Onestar is a decent person just haunted by one mistake. They waste pages on showing him going back to the old territories to try to find Smoke and Darktail YEARS later. And yeah it was kinda cool to see what happened to the old territories but like none of that was needed. The only insight we got was that Darktail was a menace from the beginning and was the reason Smoke made them leave the humans that had adopted them. It’s like they’re shoving it in our face going “but see??? He does care! He went back, he’s not that bad!” But in all actuality, every move Onestar makes is driven by selfishness. Including going back.
I won’t sit here and write that Onestar didn’t feel guilt because he definitely did, but his selfishness cost so many lives. His actions had disastrous consequences on all 5 Clans. The only Clan that got out without losing a single cat to Darktail was ThunderClan. He even felt guilt over causing his friendship with Firestar to end, which that was a whole reach of a section.
It would have made so much more sense to have young Onestar have an anger problem or something. I have absolutely been in the position where I’ve said something and as I’m saying it, I internally cringe. And they use this as a way to explain what he’s thinking whenever he flies off the handle at Gatherings for drama’s sake. Like he’s super aggressive and accusatory to Firestar but his internal monologue is “oh being a leader is so lonely wah, wah, I have to behave this way for my clan boohoo” when he doesn’t need to. WindClan becomes the “problem” Clan the moment he becomes leader, and I know he feels like he has to show his Clan mates he’s independent and that’s why he’s so harsh but it’s over the top sometimes. Which is why if they had established he had an anger problem, it would make sense why he’d crash out at a Gathering. And THEN he can feel bad and guilty LATER when he has time to think about his actions. Instead we get a walking contradiction of a character who says the exact opposite of what he thinks 90% of the time. Because they don’t want him to be BAD, but they didn’t write him to be THAT GOOD in the first place.
Just a weird installment overall.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2024
This book was great!! I really loved reading Onestars' story and seeing all the background we never knew about! It really explained and gave so much insight into Onestar and why he became the way he was while he was leader and it was refreshing to see he was still the same Onewhisker he always was inside, he just had to put on an outward change to be a strong Leader. It's definitely a great super edition and a wonderful read. 10/10 recommend!
September 15, 2022
love the warriors books, as always! ive seen lots of people complaining about the technical errors in this book and i do agree that they take away from the story (Onestar being mistaken for Heathertail, misspellings, etc) but i also understand that its a big team working on it and theyre trying to mean demand.
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