Warriors – Review

I managed to give my childhood self a treat – I reread my old favorite series’ first book Into the Wild by Erin Hunter. Here are my thoughts on rereading it so many years later!

Synopsis:

Deep inside the woods, four Clans of warrior cats live according to the laws of their ancestors and have done so for many generations. Meanwhile, housecat Rusty has always dreamed to roaming the woods and when he encounters big, wild cats asking if he’s willing to join their clan and train to become a warrior, his life is about to change. Not only his life is about to be different as times are changing and his new clan, the ThunderClan, is in grave danger. Can Rusty prove himself worthy of becoming a warrior despite of growing up with humans – and might he even be the one to save his Clan and lead it out of the dark, some of which seem to come from within…

Genre: Children’s Fantasy

Publication Date: January 9th 2003

Pages: 288

Rating: 5/5 stars

My thoughts:

I first read this book when I was about nine or ten years old and this really used to be the ultimate favorite series for me. I didn’t read all the books as there are about sixty of them, but I did own ten to fifteen of them! For many years, after reading this series, I was super doubtful towards it and couldn’t understand why I enjoyed it so much. But now, after talking to my best friend who also loved these books when she was younger, I was really excited to experience this story again and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book again!

The story was really emotional for me – I remember everything, from the characters, the plot to the atmosphere the woods gave me – everything was just like before! To be honest, before reading this again, I thought this story was super childish and rubbish (excuse the language!) because it features cats – but the plot is actually fantastic! Intrigues, politics, survival, rivalry and loyalty – those cats have everything we do!

The characters were probably the very best part of this book – reading all the names again and then experiencing the character development all over, it was just magical! Firepaw is just the cutest protagonist ever and him and Greypaw just remind me soooo much of Harry and Ron! Like how Ron introduced Harry to the Wizarding World and Hogwarts?!

I know there are some people out there who believe that this book series is ridiculous because it’s about clan cats who fight – but for what it’s worth, these cats are very much like ourselves. The characters are human-like and their politics and society are based on historical events (more or less…). I used to think the same way after outgrowing this series, but now, after rereading it after seven years, I believe to have encountered a very original concept!

Recommendable: as a reread – definetely!

I’m not sure if other teenagers/young adults would love this book had they not read this as a child – it might be boring or confusing to read an animal book. But if you loved this as a child – it’s awesome to dive back into that world. For me, it felt like being a little girl again, with her book and the stories and nothing else to worry.