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The Alliance Saga - Clouded Moon #1: Shifting Roots
Caught between barren wastes and the expansive ocean, the four Alliance colonies have had to fight tooth and claw to defend their lush territory from scavengers and rogue magicians for generations. By holding fast to their traditions, these brave and noble cats have created a fragile peace for themselves that is uprooted when two rangers from Marsh Colony are found dead under mysterious circumstances.
The entire Alliance is shaken-especially Spottedshadow, a Mentor from Field Colony, and Dawnfrost, an Envoy poised to take leadership of Oak Colony. These two young mollies are determined to discover who, or what, killed the rangers, and stop it before it can kill again. Together with friends and allies from across the territory, they will embark on a mission to save their homes and lives from a danger none of them could have imagined.
However, not all threats lurk outside the Alliance, and facing this foe will force all the colonies to tear out the roots of their own prejudices and beliefs.
The entire Alliance is shaken-especially Spottedshadow, a Mentor from Field Colony, and Dawnfrost, an Envoy poised to take leadership of Oak Colony. These two young mollies are determined to discover who, or what, killed the rangers, and stop it before it can kill again. Together with friends and allies from across the territory, they will embark on a mission to save their homes and lives from a danger none of them could have imagined.
However, not all threats lurk outside the Alliance, and facing this foe will force all the colonies to tear out the roots of their own prejudices and beliefs.
- GenresFantasy
300 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 23, 2024
13 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 19, 2025
1/10. I'm so disappointed...
For the full rant, go to my website
For the full rant, go to my website
January 24, 2025
As I was reading this book, I had a lot of different thoughts and feelings on the story. I love Star Cat Studio's work, and I have followed Tennelle in particular for many years now, so I was so excited to learn that there was going to be a novelization for this series. I was a little worried, as I thought this story was conceptualized for a fully visual medium, but I absolutely adored this book and I am excited for the rest of the series!
The writing is easy to follow while still including great, vivid details, and Avalon Roselin excels in creating strong, unique dynamics between their different characters. While it felt exposition-heavy at times, I still got the sense that Roselin trusts their readers to pick up on details without hand-holding them, and that's something I always appreciate. I also liked that though this book is about magical cats, it did not dumb itself down or soften itself for a younger audience. While I could absolutely see this book as being popular with kids, it is still engaging as an adult reader, and I was delighted to see the cats say "bastards" and handle heavier topics such as mental health.
While overall, this book was a win for me, there were some issues throughout that kept it from being a full five stars. This isn't something that usually bothers me, but there were so many typos that it got distracting, especially apostrophes facing the wrong way. While I know this is a formatting problem on some websites, I've never seen that issue in a printed novel and I couldn't help but keep noticing it. Towards the end of the novel, there's even a part where I think the first half of a sentence is missing, and instead, the sentence just begins with a comma. I expect more typos from an independently published book than a traditionally published one, and I was willing to overlook that, but it felt like Shifting Roots could have done with another round of editing. At least another look-through focused specifically on the formatting could have helped.
Additionally, I think the book is hindered by how many different perspectives it takes on. I enjoy the omnipresent third-person perspective and Roselin does an excellent job at writing in this fashion. However, the story rotating between each Colony every chapter gets confusing, and at times, I had difficulty remembering which Colony was even being focused on. Narratively, it would have been more clear if we only had Spottedshadow and Dawnfrost as our narrators. It sometimes felt as if this was the original intention as well - Though I love Wolfthorn and Wildfur, their perspectives seemed less developed than Spottedshadow and Dawnfrost. I think this problem also hindered the pacing.
Now, to talk about my favorite part of the book - Goldenpelt. I absolutely adored Goldenpelt, which I was pleasantly surprised by! From the other media produced by Star Cat Studio, I liked him but cared far more about other characters, especially Dawnfrost. Though Dawnfrost remained one of my favorites, I was swept away with Goldenpelt's characterization and I think Roselin did an excellent job of exploring his character. Several of my favorite moments were between him and Spottedshadow, where you could feel the tension and history between them. The way he treats relationships in general is fascinating. He loves his family more than anything. His loyalty to Field-Colony blinds him to how he is harming them. He adores Spottedshadow, but can't see her past what his idealized version of her would be. He has such an incorrect view of the world, but he feels that he's in too deep to reconsider now, and I love it! I'm going to be thinking about his brief moments of being the point of view for a long time, I think.
The biggest strength of this book is, without a doubt, the relationships between characters. As I stated earlier, every relationship feels unique while still being believable. There are so many different levels of interpersonal drama, there's blossoming and established relationships, there's excellent sibling dynamics, there are parent/child bonds, and there's even acknowledgment that hey, these cats have grandparents! While I have been trying to steer clear of Warrior Cats comparisons in this review, I have to say that I love that there was more focus on those family bonds even when 'important' characters aren't involved in them. The mentor/new-claw dynamics were also so well done. I loved that we got different attitudes toward being a mentor, and I enjoyed how sweet many of those relationships were. Wildfur and Pool especially had my heart!
I'm no good at ending book reviews, but please know that I will definitely be recommending this book to friends. There's so much more that I could say about this story that I haven't even touched on here, it's so engaging and had me thinking every step of the way. You guys did an amazing job with this, and I can't wait for more!
The writing is easy to follow while still including great, vivid details, and Avalon Roselin excels in creating strong, unique dynamics between their different characters. While it felt exposition-heavy at times, I still got the sense that Roselin trusts their readers to pick up on details without hand-holding them, and that's something I always appreciate. I also liked that though this book is about magical cats, it did not dumb itself down or soften itself for a younger audience. While I could absolutely see this book as being popular with kids, it is still engaging as an adult reader, and I was delighted to see the cats say "bastards" and handle heavier topics such as mental health.
While overall, this book was a win for me, there were some issues throughout that kept it from being a full five stars. This isn't something that usually bothers me, but there were so many typos that it got distracting, especially apostrophes facing the wrong way. While I know this is a formatting problem on some websites, I've never seen that issue in a printed novel and I couldn't help but keep noticing it. Towards the end of the novel, there's even a part where I think the first half of a sentence is missing, and instead, the sentence just begins with a comma. I expect more typos from an independently published book than a traditionally published one, and I was willing to overlook that, but it felt like Shifting Roots could have done with another round of editing. At least another look-through focused specifically on the formatting could have helped.
Additionally, I think the book is hindered by how many different perspectives it takes on. I enjoy the omnipresent third-person perspective and Roselin does an excellent job at writing in this fashion. However, the story rotating between each Colony every chapter gets confusing, and at times, I had difficulty remembering which Colony was even being focused on. Narratively, it would have been more clear if we only had Spottedshadow and Dawnfrost as our narrators. It sometimes felt as if this was the original intention as well - Though I love Wolfthorn and Wildfur, their perspectives seemed less developed than Spottedshadow and Dawnfrost. I think this problem also hindered the pacing.
Now, to talk about my favorite part of the book - Goldenpelt. I absolutely adored Goldenpelt, which I was pleasantly surprised by! From the other media produced by Star Cat Studio, I liked him but cared far more about other characters, especially Dawnfrost. Though Dawnfrost remained one of my favorites, I was swept away with Goldenpelt's characterization and I think Roselin did an excellent job of exploring his character. Several of my favorite moments were between him and Spottedshadow, where you could feel the tension and history between them. The way he treats relationships in general is fascinating. He loves his family more than anything. His loyalty to Field-Colony blinds him to how he is harming them. He adores Spottedshadow, but can't see her past what his idealized version of her would be. He has such an incorrect view of the world, but he feels that he's in too deep to reconsider now, and I love it! I'm going to be thinking about his brief moments of being the point of view for a long time, I think.
The biggest strength of this book is, without a doubt, the relationships between characters. As I stated earlier, every relationship feels unique while still being believable. There are so many different levels of interpersonal drama, there's blossoming and established relationships, there's excellent sibling dynamics, there are parent/child bonds, and there's even acknowledgment that hey, these cats have grandparents! While I have been trying to steer clear of Warrior Cats comparisons in this review, I have to say that I love that there was more focus on those family bonds even when 'important' characters aren't involved in them. The mentor/new-claw dynamics were also so well done. I loved that we got different attitudes toward being a mentor, and I enjoyed how sweet many of those relationships were. Wildfur and Pool especially had my heart!
I'm no good at ending book reviews, but please know that I will definitely be recommending this book to friends. There's so much more that I could say about this story that I haven't even touched on here, it's so engaging and had me thinking every step of the way. You guys did an amazing job with this, and I can't wait for more!
February 9, 2025
This is the worst book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of really bad books, books that are offensive or incoherent or clearly cash-grabs. This book is worse. This book made me understand the banality of badness in a real and true way that I had not understood before, and I am Jewish! I am so sorry to be so intensely negative, but I do not understand how this happened. I genuinely do not understand how a human being wrote this. This may sound like hyperbole, to make a funny and entertaining, or just just plain mean-spirited review, but I do really want to promise you this is my honest to god reaction to the book.
First all of it is just a complete failure on the craft level. Like, if I did not know better I would say the team responsible for it has never read a book, although I know this is not true; everyone involved has at least read Warriors because this is the worst "file the serial numbers off of it" Warrior Cats fanfiction I have ever read. The serial numbers are not even really filed off: the characters still have names like Hazelfur and Dawnfrost for god's sake. Even ex-Warrior Cat fanfic comics made by 14 year olds and posted on deviantart get rid of the Obvious Warrior Cats Names in the process of trying to make their story original (and thus able to sell. for money). If you are hankering for Warrior Cats, just read Warrior Cats.
Anyway: The book is written in 3rd person omniscient done extremely poorly. The POV changes within paragraphs, between sentences, and constantly to characters that don't even matter and whom I don't care about. Although I would say that characters have their own personalities, no character has a distinct voice, either in dialogue or internally. Everything is completely overcrowded because the author/team is overly invested in every single character which is just...it's not how writing works. Because of this excess, the book's plot doesn't really meaningfully start until halfway through. Your average reader, who hasn't been following this project on social media, does not have any reason to care about the interpersonal drama between dozens of characters they just met! This story is in need of some serious darling-killing.
Attempts to provoke emotion are extremely overwrought and manipulative, particularly regarding character death. I won't get into specifics, because I don't want to have spoilers in this review, but all of the death scenes in this book are trying to milk tears out of you over the deaths of characters that have barely even been established. There's no time to get to know anybody except the main four POV characters, so it's kind of impossible to care about anyone but those guys, who all have plot armor. Other moments of emotion fall flat for similar reasons. Everything feels kind of scripted and on rails--the moments when the book is at its best is when it's doing something completely new and breaks free of its long-ago origins as an old fanfiction. Unfortunately, that only happens in a small segment of the book.
Despite an attempt to queer Warrior Cats/xenofiction in general, all of the queer content in this book is fringe and feels perfunctory, irrelevant to the plot or themes. The main focus of the book is on two cishet romances. I know the creators of this project are largely queer, so I don't know how that happened. I'm not saying a book has to be queer or queer focused to be good, but if you're marketing your work as SOOOO QUEER (unlike Warrior Cats--a lot of cat xenofiction is sort of "but what if Warrior Cats had gay people?") it's certainly a choice to make the focus of your book cisgender straight people (I know from social media that two of the main characters are bi but um. that never comes up. at all even though the two female main characters I guess used to date?).
And this lack of investment in actual queer representation kind of belies the actual core flaw with this book: it isn't really about anything. There's a movement toward theme that never catalyzes into anything; the plot trods forward and characters make decisions but nothing behind any of it feels real, feels like someone, anyone, cared about it at any point in time. This is a book where things just sort of Happen, and the things that happen aren't fun or provocative enough to make that at least engaging. I know this is someone's baby, I know this is a book someone cares about a lot, that these character are deeply important to someone--but if I didn't know that from social media, I would not be able to tell from the text itself.
Other negative reviews have pointed out plot holes and worldbuilding flaws; I'm not going to, because I don't think those make or break a book. I think a book riddled with plot holes and nonsensical worldbuilding can still be really powerful and worthwhile provided there is skill and emotional truth behind it. This book does not have either. It's got nothing to say, and it's not written beautifully, or even passably, or even in a way that is interestingly bad, that might reveal something about the artistic voices behind the work. It is nothing, not even a fun hate-read. Please don't read this book, I wish I hadn't.
First all of it is just a complete failure on the craft level. Like, if I did not know better I would say the team responsible for it has never read a book, although I know this is not true; everyone involved has at least read Warriors because this is the worst "file the serial numbers off of it" Warrior Cats fanfiction I have ever read. The serial numbers are not even really filed off: the characters still have names like Hazelfur and Dawnfrost for god's sake. Even ex-Warrior Cat fanfic comics made by 14 year olds and posted on deviantart get rid of the Obvious Warrior Cats Names in the process of trying to make their story original (and thus able to sell. for money). If you are hankering for Warrior Cats, just read Warrior Cats.
Anyway: The book is written in 3rd person omniscient done extremely poorly. The POV changes within paragraphs, between sentences, and constantly to characters that don't even matter and whom I don't care about. Although I would say that characters have their own personalities, no character has a distinct voice, either in dialogue or internally. Everything is completely overcrowded because the author/team is overly invested in every single character which is just...it's not how writing works. Because of this excess, the book's plot doesn't really meaningfully start until halfway through. Your average reader, who hasn't been following this project on social media, does not have any reason to care about the interpersonal drama between dozens of characters they just met! This story is in need of some serious darling-killing.
Attempts to provoke emotion are extremely overwrought and manipulative, particularly regarding character death. I won't get into specifics, because I don't want to have spoilers in this review, but all of the death scenes in this book are trying to milk tears out of you over the deaths of characters that have barely even been established. There's no time to get to know anybody except the main four POV characters, so it's kind of impossible to care about anyone but those guys, who all have plot armor. Other moments of emotion fall flat for similar reasons. Everything feels kind of scripted and on rails--the moments when the book is at its best is when it's doing something completely new and breaks free of its long-ago origins as an old fanfiction. Unfortunately, that only happens in a small segment of the book.
Despite an attempt to queer Warrior Cats/xenofiction in general, all of the queer content in this book is fringe and feels perfunctory, irrelevant to the plot or themes. The main focus of the book is on two cishet romances. I know the creators of this project are largely queer, so I don't know how that happened. I'm not saying a book has to be queer or queer focused to be good, but if you're marketing your work as SOOOO QUEER (unlike Warrior Cats--a lot of cat xenofiction is sort of "but what if Warrior Cats had gay people?") it's certainly a choice to make the focus of your book cisgender straight people (I know from social media that two of the main characters are bi but um. that never comes up. at all even though the two female main characters I guess used to date?).
And this lack of investment in actual queer representation kind of belies the actual core flaw with this book: it isn't really about anything. There's a movement toward theme that never catalyzes into anything; the plot trods forward and characters make decisions but nothing behind any of it feels real, feels like someone, anyone, cared about it at any point in time. This is a book where things just sort of Happen, and the things that happen aren't fun or provocative enough to make that at least engaging. I know this is someone's baby, I know this is a book someone cares about a lot, that these character are deeply important to someone--but if I didn't know that from social media, I would not be able to tell from the text itself.
Other negative reviews have pointed out plot holes and worldbuilding flaws; I'm not going to, because I don't think those make or break a book. I think a book riddled with plot holes and nonsensical worldbuilding can still be really powerful and worthwhile provided there is skill and emotional truth behind it. This book does not have either. It's got nothing to say, and it's not written beautifully, or even passably, or even in a way that is interestingly bad, that might reveal something about the artistic voices behind the work. It is nothing, not even a fun hate-read. Please don't read this book, I wish I hadn't.
March 7, 2025
There is no reason to read this book over warrior cats. This is the most boring fanfiction I've ever read and you'll save yourself time and money not buying this. The characters are flat as paper, the conflicts are forced and boring, and the pov is absolutely terrible, it's like baby's first 3rd person omnipotent. I have so many bad things to saw about this book but it would be way too long so that's it. Save your money and don't get this.
January 2, 2025
It was an engaging read.
But the only issue I had with the book was how quickly Goldenpelt turned on Spottedshadow after they returned from their mission together. I don't understand how Goldenpelt wouldn't have crashed out upon Fernface for getting cats a part of his colony killed and making a deal with a rival colony. This is the same cat that shares a lot of beliefs that Forestleaf had. Plus, Fernface had his sweet niece he loves killed due to her actions as well. Goldenpelt should've at least had to be held back by Spottedshadow or some other Field Colony cat from shredding her into pieces at that moment. I feel like his eventual betrayal against Spottedshadow for his ambition of wanting to be Captain should've played out in a different but gradual probably in book two or three or so. Especially since it looked like he was going to begrudgingly accept Wildfur as Spottedshadow's mate and a new member of Field Colony. Which makes sense after the long journey and mission they spent together in the Wastes.
Other than that, the only other issue I had with the book was how there weren't any descriptions of the characters' appearances in the allegiances section for each of the colonies as it was kind of hard to keep up with how the characters looked at times without looking up outsider stuff such as the art made by Tennelle Flowers on Tumblr and Youtube. In addition, you can pretty much tell this story originated from Warrior Cats and is heavily inspired by said series with this book's worldbuilding.
But I enjoy the fact there are more cat xenofiction being made and hopefully, this causes others to create more for the genre.
But the only issue I had with the book was how quickly Goldenpelt turned on Spottedshadow after they returned from their mission together. I don't understand how Goldenpelt wouldn't have crashed out upon Fernface for getting cats a part of his colony killed and making a deal with a rival colony. This is the same cat that shares a lot of beliefs that Forestleaf had. Plus, Fernface had his sweet niece he loves killed due to her actions as well. Goldenpelt should've at least had to be held back by Spottedshadow or some other Field Colony cat from shredding her into pieces at that moment. I feel like his eventual betrayal against Spottedshadow for his ambition of wanting to be Captain should've played out in a different but gradual probably in book two or three or so. Especially since it looked like he was going to begrudgingly accept Wildfur as Spottedshadow's mate and a new member of Field Colony. Which makes sense after the long journey and mission they spent together in the Wastes.
Other than that, the only other issue I had with the book was how there weren't any descriptions of the characters' appearances in the allegiances section for each of the colonies as it was kind of hard to keep up with how the characters looked at times without looking up outsider stuff such as the art made by Tennelle Flowers on Tumblr and Youtube. In addition, you can pretty much tell this story originated from Warrior Cats and is heavily inspired by said series with this book's worldbuilding.
But I enjoy the fact there are more cat xenofiction being made and hopefully, this causes others to create more for the genre.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2025
I know that reviews on this book are very mixed, but personally I had an awesome time with it. I found the characters very interesting and engaging, and I enjoyed their arcs and interactions a lot. It was a LOT of characters in a lot of locations, which may be confusing to some, but I actually found that more real-feeling, and I had the videos to help out.
There were some parts of this book that made me feel real genuine emotion. I teared up several times during some of the more intense scenes. It was all around a fun time, and I’m foaming at the mouth for the next book!
So why didn’t I rate it 5 stars then? Well- unfortunately there were a good number of typos, or sentences that were worded strangely. This wasn’t enough to break my immersion or sour the experience by any means, but they are issues that I couldn’t in good conscience ignore for the sake of a perfect rating. I hope that future installments will be edited more carefully, as I can imagine typos bothering the average reader a lot more than they bothered me.
I waited for Clouded Moon’s release for quite some time. I had been following the series eagerly through the lore videos and animations they’d been posting. Despite that- I didn’t get around to starting the book until this past July. I’m really glad I ended up reading it, and finishing it once I replaced the kindle that died halfway through.
It was a really cool experience to be able to read this story in its final form. What started as a warriors fan story has blossomed into something interesting and new! I’m excited by the magic and the world, and I’m really happy for the team who has finally taken their little friend story to a level that most of us can only dream of for our OC’s!! Congrats guys! Good job, I can’t wait for more!
There were some parts of this book that made me feel real genuine emotion. I teared up several times during some of the more intense scenes. It was all around a fun time, and I’m foaming at the mouth for the next book!
So why didn’t I rate it 5 stars then? Well- unfortunately there were a good number of typos, or sentences that were worded strangely. This wasn’t enough to break my immersion or sour the experience by any means, but they are issues that I couldn’t in good conscience ignore for the sake of a perfect rating. I hope that future installments will be edited more carefully, as I can imagine typos bothering the average reader a lot more than they bothered me.
I waited for Clouded Moon’s release for quite some time. I had been following the series eagerly through the lore videos and animations they’d been posting. Despite that- I didn’t get around to starting the book until this past July. I’m really glad I ended up reading it, and finishing it once I replaced the kindle that died halfway through.
It was a really cool experience to be able to read this story in its final form. What started as a warriors fan story has blossomed into something interesting and new! I’m excited by the magic and the world, and I’m really happy for the team who has finally taken their little friend story to a level that most of us can only dream of for our OC’s!! Congrats guys! Good job, I can’t wait for more!
December 23, 2025
(This book has two Goodreads pages for some reason. I’m just putting this on both)
EDIT: Authors are now vocally supporting a known groomer trying to reintegrate into a fandom full of children and teens https://x.com/Joox_imus/status/200318.... Do not buy this book. Do not give them an iota of your money or time. They’re either grossly incompetent at best or actively malicious at worst. Their book is dogshit anyway.
“Mom, can we have warriors?”
“We have warriors at home.”
Warriors at home:
1/5. This was originally a two, but after Maya’s review dug up even more numerous problems I didn’t even know I had, I just can’t find it in me to justify the original rating. If you can’t even correctly describe what a calico is in your cat xenofiction, something tells me you don’t know enough about the animal you’re writing. I really, REALLY hope the next book improves.
TLDR; Xenofiction fans, if you’re looking for an original, well-written standalone project, this isn’t it.
Warriors fans, you’ll find better fanfics than this online.
As someone who’s been following this project since the beginning and got into xenofiction from warriors (despite a current love-hate relationship with it), I wanted to like this book so, so badly. I was so excited to see it deviating from the worldbuilding of warriors (which the authors themselves claimed they were happier doing, citing the original framework as ‘restrictive’) and potentially build something from the ground up. You can imagine my disappointment when I got ‘Warriors but we just renamed all the important terms and threw in magic at the end so it’s a different series now’
Celeste Dylla’s review (On the other page for this book) summarizes a lot of my gripes perfectly, but I’ll put my own foot forward.
You know those rare published Reylo fics you see sometimes where it’s really obvious it was originally a fanfic that the author had to hastily rename every character in before putting out properly? It’s one of those, but for warrior cats. I was literally able to copypaste the entire book as I read it into a google doc and revert EVERYTHING, including the magic system, into an accurate warriors book with arguably minimal changes. It started as a joke to cope with my own disappointment lack of originality, but the fact the thing I had the most problems with was the eBook text formatting is really, really telling.
Why deviate from your source material if you’re going to do literally nothing with it? Why throw in literal magic cats and not even show them for two-thirds of the book? The names are the same, the groups are the same, the culture is the same, the religion is the same, everything is identical when it has every reason not to be. It feels like the absolute bare minimum to avoid getting sued. Warriors has done both clan cats and outsider groups with powers from spirits too, so even the magic system is somewhat derivative. The few genuinely original beats that I found myself caught off guard by come right at the end and are stifled by the back half’s pacing issues before they have a chance to sit. There’s potential buried here, however scarce, and that’s what makes me the saddest.
Of course, being warriors in a different coat of paint comes with all the typical warriors pitfalls. The cats aren’t even remotely cat-like, they’re little people in fursuits that meow and eat mice while simultaneously knowing about stitching up wounds, cultivating plants, and necromancy, I guess. None of the colonies have remotely distinguishing features other than where they live and what they eat. The worldbuilding and culture lack depth and dimension. I would, of course, expect this if I was reading warriors, and I was lowkey expecting it here, but I’m still going to point it out while it’s relevant, because that’s another thing I would have loved to see averted for once in warriors-inspired fiction.
The pacing starts out ok, then crams the events of what could easily be two or three books into the last ten chapters (Some major events of which happen off-screen, including but not limited to the coyote attack on the travelling alliance cats, the River Colony raid on the Field Colony, and most if not all of the journey back with the Followers of the Wind). Breaking the status quo of the colonies completely lacks impact when the status quo hasn’t even been established for a whole book. Again, it’s just trying to one-up the same-y absence of self-awareness in Warriors while trying simultaneously to not be Warriors. It doesn’t work.
The prose fluctuates between passable and bone-dry with an abundance of telling over showing, the largest offender being the giant blocks of backstory exposition that litter the early story. If you’ve seen the original Drawing a Blank videos from Tennelle you’d already know all the info being given, and for a reader going in blind it just comes off as extremely clunky and offputting. The book practically relies on you having seen supplementary material anyways, both to know what characters look like anyway since they completely lack any physical character descriptions in their allegiance section, and to actually feel any sense of personality from or attachment to the characters themselves. You just can’t immerse yourself or get properly attached with just Shifting Roots itself, because so much has just already happened offscreen by the time the book starts. What results are cardboard cutouts of characters, bland, flavourless relationships, and another mountain of wasted potential.
So much could have been solved simply by shifting the timeframe of the book back, and starting at the VERY beginning during the protagonists’ youth. Let us see the friendships and relationships actually develop. Establish the norm in the colonies before breaking it apart. Show us the River Colony under Poolglare that Wolfthorn so desperately wants to restore instead of just plunging us head-on into Rainfall’s era. Show us Golden and Shadow actually being friendly with each other instead of just showing on-screen Goldenpelt as nothing but a petty, manipulative asshole and trying to convince us Spottedshadow, much less anyone actually liked him or thought he showed any leadership skills at any point in time by repeating it ad nauseam. So many events would mean more if we weren’t dropped blindly into the middle of the story.
EDIT: The authors have now confirmed this book’s reliance on supplemental material is indeed the intended experience (https://www.tumblr.com/tennelleflower..., reblogged by the group’s official tumblr), which A. Only makes me question the whole backstory dump decision more, and B. Raises a whole new host of issues that I’d like to address now.
Your book should not rely on following the activity of a team of four authors (Three of whom aren’t even credited by name except in the ‘About the creators section’, and two of whom don’t even have their relevant social medias attached to the names they’re credited by) just to know things like what a character looks like or very plot-relevant beats of main characters’ backstories. You should be able to pick up the first book in a series completely blind and know exactly what you’re dealing with with no issues by the time you finish it. That’s literally just how books work. Leaving important information obscured behind a wild goose chase does nothing but alienate and thin out your potential audience. I cannot emphasize enough how much this decision is simply shooting your own work in the foot. Now, back to the review.
The PoV also doesn’t help flesh out the protagonists, full of meaningless fluff as it abruptly jumps around between background characters whenever it feels like to tell you whatever barely-relevant thought/feeling they’re experiencing before springing back to the main characters. There’s an entire chapter of this that’s just Redleaf playing with his kittens just so you feel bad when he dies horribly soon after. Shrewpelt/Viperfang is the one who accidentally leads the bears into the base at the end of the chapter; if you had to focus on a side character then, why not give him depth before the journey thrusts him into the limelight? Why not explore his guilt over his ambition’s involvement in the attack that gets Redleaf, HIS FATHER, killed? His guilt is barely brushed over for two paragraphs before Redleaf dies, and is never mentioned again. In their attempt to create a full, flesh-out background cast, they just achieve a bunch of unnecessary crowding of characters and accidentally ends up with only a marginal improvement on the warriors staple of a cast full of undefined nobodies, which was something the original Drawing a Blank videos for the clans made me genuinely hopeful would be avoided. The amount of times this book falls into warriors pitfalls while trying specifically to avoid them is honestly kind of impressive.
Everything in the Alliance Saga relies too much on both having watched videos by the authors and having been an avid warriors reader to even begin to stand as its own work, and as someone who falls into both categories, I’m still disappointed by this first instalment. If you don’t avidly follow Tennelle and company or dislike warrior cats at all, you’re not going to get anything of value out of this book.
That being said, I do know the first is typically the worst, and I do hope the potential that’s very much there will be built upon with these initial reviews. I will be grabbing books two and seeing this series through, and I’d like to hope Shaded River will be an improvement, though that may be nostalgia talking. If this was my first impression of a brand new series though, I definitely wouldn’t be picking up any more books.
EDIT: Authors are now vocally supporting a known groomer trying to reintegrate into a fandom full of children and teens https://x.com/Joox_imus/status/200318.... Do not buy this book. Do not give them an iota of your money or time. They’re either grossly incompetent at best or actively malicious at worst. Their book is dogshit anyway.
“Mom, can we have warriors?”
“We have warriors at home.”
Warriors at home:
1/5. This was originally a two, but after Maya’s review dug up even more numerous problems I didn’t even know I had, I just can’t find it in me to justify the original rating. If you can’t even correctly describe what a calico is in your cat xenofiction, something tells me you don’t know enough about the animal you’re writing. I really, REALLY hope the next book improves.
TLDR; Xenofiction fans, if you’re looking for an original, well-written standalone project, this isn’t it.
Warriors fans, you’ll find better fanfics than this online.
As someone who’s been following this project since the beginning and got into xenofiction from warriors (despite a current love-hate relationship with it), I wanted to like this book so, so badly. I was so excited to see it deviating from the worldbuilding of warriors (which the authors themselves claimed they were happier doing, citing the original framework as ‘restrictive’) and potentially build something from the ground up. You can imagine my disappointment when I got ‘Warriors but we just renamed all the important terms and threw in magic at the end so it’s a different series now’
Celeste Dylla’s review (On the other page for this book) summarizes a lot of my gripes perfectly, but I’ll put my own foot forward.
You know those rare published Reylo fics you see sometimes where it’s really obvious it was originally a fanfic that the author had to hastily rename every character in before putting out properly? It’s one of those, but for warrior cats. I was literally able to copypaste the entire book as I read it into a google doc and revert EVERYTHING, including the magic system, into an accurate warriors book with arguably minimal changes. It started as a joke to cope with my own disappointment lack of originality, but the fact the thing I had the most problems with was the eBook text formatting is really, really telling.
Why deviate from your source material if you’re going to do literally nothing with it? Why throw in literal magic cats and not even show them for two-thirds of the book? The names are the same, the groups are the same, the culture is the same, the religion is the same, everything is identical when it has every reason not to be. It feels like the absolute bare minimum to avoid getting sued. Warriors has done both clan cats and outsider groups with powers from spirits too, so even the magic system is somewhat derivative. The few genuinely original beats that I found myself caught off guard by come right at the end and are stifled by the back half’s pacing issues before they have a chance to sit. There’s potential buried here, however scarce, and that’s what makes me the saddest.
Of course, being warriors in a different coat of paint comes with all the typical warriors pitfalls. The cats aren’t even remotely cat-like, they’re little people in fursuits that meow and eat mice while simultaneously knowing about stitching up wounds, cultivating plants, and necromancy, I guess. None of the colonies have remotely distinguishing features other than where they live and what they eat. The worldbuilding and culture lack depth and dimension. I would, of course, expect this if I was reading warriors, and I was lowkey expecting it here, but I’m still going to point it out while it’s relevant, because that’s another thing I would have loved to see averted for once in warriors-inspired fiction.
The pacing starts out ok, then crams the events of what could easily be two or three books into the last ten chapters (Some major events of which happen off-screen, including but not limited to the coyote attack on the travelling alliance cats, the River Colony raid on the Field Colony, and most if not all of the journey back with the Followers of the Wind). Breaking the status quo of the colonies completely lacks impact when the status quo hasn’t even been established for a whole book. Again, it’s just trying to one-up the same-y absence of self-awareness in Warriors while trying simultaneously to not be Warriors. It doesn’t work.
The prose fluctuates between passable and bone-dry with an abundance of telling over showing, the largest offender being the giant blocks of backstory exposition that litter the early story. If you’ve seen the original Drawing a Blank videos from Tennelle you’d already know all the info being given, and for a reader going in blind it just comes off as extremely clunky and offputting. The book practically relies on you having seen supplementary material anyways, both to know what characters look like anyway since they completely lack any physical character descriptions in their allegiance section, and to actually feel any sense of personality from or attachment to the characters themselves. You just can’t immerse yourself or get properly attached with just Shifting Roots itself, because so much has just already happened offscreen by the time the book starts. What results are cardboard cutouts of characters, bland, flavourless relationships, and another mountain of wasted potential.
So much could have been solved simply by shifting the timeframe of the book back, and starting at the VERY beginning during the protagonists’ youth. Let us see the friendships and relationships actually develop. Establish the norm in the colonies before breaking it apart. Show us the River Colony under Poolglare that Wolfthorn so desperately wants to restore instead of just plunging us head-on into Rainfall’s era. Show us Golden and Shadow actually being friendly with each other instead of just showing on-screen Goldenpelt as nothing but a petty, manipulative asshole and trying to convince us Spottedshadow, much less anyone actually liked him or thought he showed any leadership skills at any point in time by repeating it ad nauseam. So many events would mean more if we weren’t dropped blindly into the middle of the story.
EDIT: The authors have now confirmed this book’s reliance on supplemental material is indeed the intended experience (https://www.tumblr.com/tennelleflower..., reblogged by the group’s official tumblr), which A. Only makes me question the whole backstory dump decision more, and B. Raises a whole new host of issues that I’d like to address now.
Your book should not rely on following the activity of a team of four authors (Three of whom aren’t even credited by name except in the ‘About the creators section’, and two of whom don’t even have their relevant social medias attached to the names they’re credited by) just to know things like what a character looks like or very plot-relevant beats of main characters’ backstories. You should be able to pick up the first book in a series completely blind and know exactly what you’re dealing with with no issues by the time you finish it. That’s literally just how books work. Leaving important information obscured behind a wild goose chase does nothing but alienate and thin out your potential audience. I cannot emphasize enough how much this decision is simply shooting your own work in the foot. Now, back to the review.
The PoV also doesn’t help flesh out the protagonists, full of meaningless fluff as it abruptly jumps around between background characters whenever it feels like to tell you whatever barely-relevant thought/feeling they’re experiencing before springing back to the main characters. There’s an entire chapter of this that’s just Redleaf playing with his kittens just so you feel bad when he dies horribly soon after. Shrewpelt/Viperfang is the one who accidentally leads the bears into the base at the end of the chapter; if you had to focus on a side character then, why not give him depth before the journey thrusts him into the limelight? Why not explore his guilt over his ambition’s involvement in the attack that gets Redleaf, HIS FATHER, killed? His guilt is barely brushed over for two paragraphs before Redleaf dies, and is never mentioned again. In their attempt to create a full, flesh-out background cast, they just achieve a bunch of unnecessary crowding of characters and accidentally ends up with only a marginal improvement on the warriors staple of a cast full of undefined nobodies, which was something the original Drawing a Blank videos for the clans made me genuinely hopeful would be avoided. The amount of times this book falls into warriors pitfalls while trying specifically to avoid them is honestly kind of impressive.
Everything in the Alliance Saga relies too much on both having watched videos by the authors and having been an avid warriors reader to even begin to stand as its own work, and as someone who falls into both categories, I’m still disappointed by this first instalment. If you don’t avidly follow Tennelle and company or dislike warrior cats at all, you’re not going to get anything of value out of this book.
That being said, I do know the first is typically the worst, and I do hope the potential that’s very much there will be built upon with these initial reviews. I will be grabbing books two and seeing this series through, and I’d like to hope Shaded River will be an improvement, though that may be nostalgia talking. If this was my first impression of a brand new series though, I definitely wouldn’t be picking up any more books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2025
I want to talk about spoilers, so if you plan on reading this look away! Please do go read this book though, its a really fun and action-packed story that any warriors/wings of fire/guardians of ga'hoole fan, etc would love.
The action in the book was incredible, every death in the story was a stab to the heart. It is incredible that Roselin and the others working on this story managed to accomplish this within one book, Peachblossom's death had me tearing up.
The book is not without its flaws, but it definitely doesn't ruin the story by any means. If anything, it just suspends the believability of the characters' motivations at times. I see a lot of people mention Goldenpelt's actions at the end of the book to feel very sudden and strange given you felt like he began to accept Spottedshadow on the journey, which I agree with and I think is a valid criticism. I think this would have been easily resolved by just not having Goldenpelt go on the journey and have Spottedshadow and Wildfur return to that chaos.
Another thought I have, which I think may only be a criticism if the authors didn't intend it, but I found Spottedshadow hard to agree with sometimes towards the end of the book. Her leaving her colony with Rainfall and the bears as a looming threat felt somewhat dumb, although I think this is honestly a good demonstration the very stubborn side of Spottedshadow's personility and the tunnel-vision she seems to get about her own view of whats the right thing to do. I also thought the same thing when she brought the mages to the gathering, of course the other captains would never agree to let magic in the territories when being against the use of magic is so ingrained in the culture and identities of the colony cats. Both her leaving and bringing the mages into the territories felt so risky and sorta stupid, and it barely paid off in the end.
I couldn't tell if this was intentional by the authors, or if they wanted you to agree with her throughout. If not, I think it makes Spottedshadow an excellent protagonist. You know that her intentions are good and that she wants whats best for the colonies, but her tunnel-vision in enacting what she thinks is the best course of action leads her down risky paths. She's entertaining to read about, you want to believe in her very righteous vision for the future of the colonies but you can't help but wonder along with the other characters if she's truly doing whats right.
The action in the book was incredible, every death in the story was a stab to the heart. It is incredible that Roselin and the others working on this story managed to accomplish this within one book, Peachblossom's death had me tearing up.
The book is not without its flaws, but it definitely doesn't ruin the story by any means. If anything, it just suspends the believability of the characters' motivations at times. I see a lot of people mention Goldenpelt's actions at the end of the book to feel very sudden and strange given you felt like he began to accept Spottedshadow on the journey, which I agree with and I think is a valid criticism. I think this would have been easily resolved by just not having Goldenpelt go on the journey and have Spottedshadow and Wildfur return to that chaos.
Another thought I have, which I think may only be a criticism if the authors didn't intend it, but I found Spottedshadow hard to agree with sometimes towards the end of the book. Her leaving her colony with Rainfall and the bears as a looming threat felt somewhat dumb, although I think this is honestly a good demonstration the very stubborn side of Spottedshadow's personility and the tunnel-vision she seems to get about her own view of whats the right thing to do. I also thought the same thing when she brought the mages to the gathering, of course the other captains would never agree to let magic in the territories when being against the use of magic is so ingrained in the culture and identities of the colony cats. Both her leaving and bringing the mages into the territories felt so risky and sorta stupid, and it barely paid off in the end.
I couldn't tell if this was intentional by the authors, or if they wanted you to agree with her throughout. If not, I think it makes Spottedshadow an excellent protagonist. You know that her intentions are good and that she wants whats best for the colonies, but her tunnel-vision in enacting what she thinks is the best course of action leads her down risky paths. She's entertaining to read about, you want to believe in her very righteous vision for the future of the colonies but you can't help but wonder along with the other characters if she's truly doing whats right.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2025
A pretty terrible start to a series. There's an endless stream of new characters, almost none of which get any sort of development or personality. Instead of focusing on a subsection of them, there's just more and more coming.
Even PoV characters suffer from this. It doesn't feel like this is the story that the author wanted to develop. A lot of the space is spent on narration about the past events. These aren't flashbacks, they aren't even past discussed by characters, it's just the narration telling us what happened, what the character motivations were, what their development was. Their entire lives and character arcs happened before the book even started. Why can't we focus on that instead? The scraps of development and involvement in the book also happen to be mostly told by narration - a very baffling choice.
The villains are terrible. We have magic bears, which are bearable, actually. They aren't the most interesting of the choices, but they are one of the very few plots that is actively built up in the book and has an on-screen resolution.
Then there's Goldenpelt, who's supposed to be torn between his love for Spottedshadow and wanting the best for the Clan. Of course, his internal conflict mostly happened offscreen before the book even started, so he's just a random asshole. Am I supposed to care for his supposed feelings for Spottedshadow? He never displays them. His supposed competence is also never shown, so why the Colony thinks he's the best choice remains a mystery.
Finally there's the River Colony. They constantly flaunt how evil they are, so the book keeps finding excuses why the other colonies can't just deal with them.
A lot of major events are skipped to after they already have happened, and we are instead told by narration what happened. Everything happens off-screen. The result is that the book feels like a wiki summary of what the story is supposed to be. And that's boring. The battles happen off screen. Character romances? Off screen. Character dilemmas? Off screen. And most of them actually happened before the book even started. We're just reading the echoes of the character backstories. If the writer doesn't care about showing the storyline, why should I care?
Even PoV characters suffer from this. It doesn't feel like this is the story that the author wanted to develop. A lot of the space is spent on narration about the past events. These aren't flashbacks, they aren't even past discussed by characters, it's just the narration telling us what happened, what the character motivations were, what their development was. Their entire lives and character arcs happened before the book even started. Why can't we focus on that instead? The scraps of development and involvement in the book also happen to be mostly told by narration - a very baffling choice.
The villains are terrible. We have magic bears, which are bearable, actually. They aren't the most interesting of the choices, but they are one of the very few plots that is actively built up in the book and has an on-screen resolution.
Then there's Goldenpelt, who's supposed to be torn between his love for Spottedshadow and wanting the best for the Clan. Of course, his internal conflict mostly happened offscreen before the book even started, so he's just a random asshole. Am I supposed to care for his supposed feelings for Spottedshadow? He never displays them. His supposed competence is also never shown, so why the Colony thinks he's the best choice remains a mystery.
Finally there's the River Colony. They constantly flaunt how evil they are, so the book keeps finding excuses why the other colonies can't just deal with them.
A lot of major events are skipped to after they already have happened, and we are instead told by narration what happened. Everything happens off-screen. The result is that the book feels like a wiki summary of what the story is supposed to be. And that's boring. The battles happen off screen. Character romances? Off screen. Character dilemmas? Off screen. And most of them actually happened before the book even started. We're just reading the echoes of the character backstories. If the writer doesn't care about showing the storyline, why should I care?
December 22, 2025
I was really rooting for this book, but unfortunately it fell kind of flat for me. I’ve been following Clouded Moon’s progress since Tennelle made their first video about Spottedshadow many years ago, and I was sooo pleasantly excited when I checked back and saw that Star Cat Studios had made a novelization (a bit late to the party, I know ha ha).
Anyways, the biggest highlight of the book for me was the pacing. I liked how there always felt like something was going on. I also liked the characters, with particular standouts for me being Hawkshell and Dawnfrost! Like, I REALLY want to learn more about Hawkshell and Elmtail’s past!
However, while the characters were nice, I also felt like they were the largest problem of the story. The perspective jumps around quite a bit, and as a result, I found it very hard to care for a lot of them, even if they were major characters. For example, Wildfur is meant to be a central figure to the book, but I found that we learned more about Pool and got more development for Pool than we did our central Marsh Colony cat. Spottedshadow was also a bit frustrating for me, and I can’t really put a pin down why. I think the story would benefit from condensing the perspectives down to maybe two or three so there is more chances for cats to have character development.
Anyways, I still think you should check this out! Even if I didn’t really care for many of the characters, there were several good moments and I’m interested in seeing where this story goes next!
3/5
Anyways, the biggest highlight of the book for me was the pacing. I liked how there always felt like something was going on. I also liked the characters, with particular standouts for me being Hawkshell and Dawnfrost! Like, I REALLY want to learn more about Hawkshell and Elmtail’s past!
However, while the characters were nice, I also felt like they were the largest problem of the story. The perspective jumps around quite a bit, and as a result, I found it very hard to care for a lot of them, even if they were major characters. For example, Wildfur is meant to be a central figure to the book, but I found that we learned more about Pool and got more development for Pool than we did our central Marsh Colony cat. Spottedshadow was also a bit frustrating for me, and I can’t really put a pin down why. I think the story would benefit from condensing the perspectives down to maybe two or three so there is more chances for cats to have character development.
Anyways, I still think you should check this out! Even if I didn’t really care for many of the characters, there were several good moments and I’m interested in seeing where this story goes next!
3/5
July 9, 2025
There. Is. No. Filler… All stories and chapters feel important! The overall story is enjoyable and fun! I love it! Characters are fleshed out. Which is lovely! I had several favorites! Though no one I had that feeling of hating. But the antogonist still fills a great roll!
I feel the most jarring thing about reading this book is the POV change. It took me six chapters to get use to the change in POV. Which latter in the book was used masterfully for introductions.
It could just be me, but having no filler in the book is a bit surprising. I am sitting down ready to learn all about the POV; when next chapter I am now in the eyes of another. It makes the POV changes and action feel more punchy and gives me a bit of whiplash. Where I feel like I am trying to catch up with the plot.
Overall I do love this story! The changes in POV took some time to get use to. No page was wasted! So much was covered and the plot is tantalizingly interesting. It has mystery, scares, humor, bonding, and most importantly! Cats. Lots of characters that you can fall in love with. The lack of filler and change of POV are the only reason I would put this book at a four instead of a five. It gives me a bit of whiplash. But I absolutely love this book! It is amazing! And a fun read! When you are prepared for the jumps and know your going for a ride. Not a soft sail along the ocean ^.^ happy reading!
I feel the most jarring thing about reading this book is the POV change. It took me six chapters to get use to the change in POV. Which latter in the book was used masterfully for introductions.
It could just be me, but having no filler in the book is a bit surprising. I am sitting down ready to learn all about the POV; when next chapter I am now in the eyes of another. It makes the POV changes and action feel more punchy and gives me a bit of whiplash. Where I feel like I am trying to catch up with the plot.
Overall I do love this story! The changes in POV took some time to get use to. No page was wasted! So much was covered and the plot is tantalizingly interesting. It has mystery, scares, humor, bonding, and most importantly! Cats. Lots of characters that you can fall in love with. The lack of filler and change of POV are the only reason I would put this book at a four instead of a five. It gives me a bit of whiplash. But I absolutely love this book! It is amazing! And a fun read! When you are prepared for the jumps and know your going for a ride. Not a soft sail along the ocean ^.^ happy reading!
August 17, 2025
I follow the series since Tennelle's first Drawing a ___! episode, so I was hyped when the release date dropped. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but in the end it was a letdown.
Firstly, the positives. I really like all the within the books. The maps are just gorgeous, as well as the colony icons and landscapes. The worldbuilding is interesting, though I needed a bit to get used to it. I like the plot in theory, but not in execution.
Now, the negatives. I find the removal of character descriptions within what's equivalent of the allegiances in Warriors quite a shame. I know that's probably to differentiate the series from Warriors, but it makes it difficult to remember certain characters (in which case you have to look up the character designs online, disrupting the reading flow). It's not really accessibility friendly.
I couldn't really get a good read on most characters with the exception of our protagonists. When most of the side characters experienced bad stuff (like with Pool's sister or that one OakColony ranger) later in book, I didn't really feel anything as they barely had a presence before or after that.
The pacing really bothered me. The beginning and a lot of the middle is kinda slow, then the main characters need to go on a "journey" and everything goes way too fast. That "journey" is also just skipped over. While retroactively characters talk about what happened during it, it really disrupted the flow for me. After that journey, Goldenpelt thought how he finally started to appreciate and respect most of Spottedshadow's friends due to their brave and competent behaviour during said journey. I literally had to take my eyes off the book to stare into void for like half a minute. It felt really out of character and not believable as we basically skipped most of the journey.
In a lot of ways, the book feels more tell than show to me. This book clearly needed a bit more time in the oven with some more chapters. If I didn't follow the series for that long, I would have stopped reading halfway through. I'm still reading the next installement as I hope the issues with this book are just growing pains.
Anyway, I would still recommend reading this book to form your own opinion.
Firstly, the positives. I really like all the within the books. The maps are just gorgeous, as well as the colony icons and landscapes. The worldbuilding is interesting, though I needed a bit to get used to it. I like the plot in theory, but not in execution.
Now, the negatives. I find the removal of character descriptions within what's equivalent of the allegiances in Warriors quite a shame. I know that's probably to differentiate the series from Warriors, but it makes it difficult to remember certain characters (in which case you have to look up the character designs online, disrupting the reading flow). It's not really accessibility friendly.
I couldn't really get a good read on most characters with the exception of our protagonists. When most of the side characters experienced bad stuff (like with Pool's sister or that one OakColony ranger) later in book, I didn't really feel anything as they barely had a presence before or after that.
The pacing really bothered me. The beginning and a lot of the middle is kinda slow, then the main characters need to go on a "journey" and everything goes way too fast. That "journey" is also just skipped over. While retroactively characters talk about what happened during it, it really disrupted the flow for me. After that journey, Goldenpelt thought how he finally started to appreciate and respect most of Spottedshadow's friends due to their brave and competent behaviour during said journey. I literally had to take my eyes off the book to stare into void for like half a minute. It felt really out of character and not believable as we basically skipped most of the journey.
In a lot of ways, the book feels more tell than show to me. This book clearly needed a bit more time in the oven with some more chapters. If I didn't follow the series for that long, I would have stopped reading halfway through. I'm still reading the next installement as I hope the issues with this book are just growing pains.
Anyway, I would still recommend reading this book to form your own opinion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 16, 2025
Overall, the first book of the Alliance Saga was an enjoyable read, but it was far from perfect.
The plot was engaging. The snappy pacing also kept me interested throughout, and I breezed through the chapters. But the pacing turns from fast to breakneck at parts as the readers are simply informed of events and important character moments, which I would have much preferred to read on-page.
The omniscient narration also did not stick the landing for me. It seems to at once tell us too much and too little — sometimes unmasking characters' thoughts which the readers should have perhaps been kept in the dark about to build suspense, while at the same time shifting between so many different characters that we never get the chance to truly get to know anyone in particular in-depth. This is seen most egregiously in my opinion with the book's (arguably) main protagonist Spottedshadow, as the story seemed to assume that we innately understand her character's motivations and leadership qualities, without actually showing us any examples.
While I still think it is a solid start to the series, as a long time supporter of the Star Cat studios team (who has waited a long time for this story,) I can't help but being a bit disappointed. I hope in future installments, the books will take the time to more fully flesh out their world and characters.
The plot was engaging. The snappy pacing also kept me interested throughout, and I breezed through the chapters. But the pacing turns from fast to breakneck at parts as the readers are simply informed of events and important character moments, which I would have much preferred to read on-page.
The omniscient narration also did not stick the landing for me. It seems to at once tell us too much and too little — sometimes unmasking characters' thoughts which the readers should have perhaps been kept in the dark about to build suspense, while at the same time shifting between so many different characters that we never get the chance to truly get to know anyone in particular in-depth. This is seen most egregiously in my opinion with the book's (arguably) main protagonist Spottedshadow, as the story seemed to assume that we innately understand her character's motivations and leadership qualities, without actually showing us any examples.
While I still think it is a solid start to the series, as a long time supporter of the Star Cat studios team (who has waited a long time for this story,) I can't help but being a bit disappointed. I hope in future installments, the books will take the time to more fully flesh out their world and characters.
August 24, 2025
I struggled to get into the book but once I did I really enjoyed it - it's an interesting twist on Warrior cats- it's still somewhat based on the books but it diverges pretty heavily and fast which I really loved because it makes the book unique and stand apart from Warrior cats. The characters are really interesting with interesting plot twists - characters I didn't expect to die died in this book - and some deaths were really shocking and upsetting - and impactful compared to a lot of deaths from Warriors books - and this one adds magic and mages which makes the world that much more interesting and tthe stakes that much higher - it was overall a great first book and I loved the extra chapters added to the end of the book - it was a great start of the series and I cannot wait to read the rest of the books as soon as they come out since I am really really curious where this book goes from here.
August 5, 2025
I REALLY wanted to like this book, I even asked for it as my birthday present. But there was so much focus on explaining everything like why this cat doesn't like that cat, and this cat is in a relationship with this cat, and explanations on why some sort of practice isn't common, etc. My breaking point was realizing that each time you go to a different POV and therefore a different colony they explain all this AGAIN but for a different colony.
I think this was the groups first time writing though and I think they should take another crack at it with a second book, for sure! I'm totally down to support buying a second book if they can focus on the four main characters as well as doing the whole, "show, don't tell," more often. As I said, I really want to like this book, but it's a lot of work to read and keep track of everything. I want it to be easier to love.
I think this was the groups first time writing though and I think they should take another crack at it with a second book, for sure! I'm totally down to support buying a second book if they can focus on the four main characters as well as doing the whole, "show, don't tell," more often. As I said, I really want to like this book, but it's a lot of work to read and keep track of everything. I want it to be easier to love.
February 18, 2025
Clouded Moon: Shifting Roots is a xenofiction about four colonies of feral cats held together by fragile peace. Originally conceived as a Warriors Cats fan project, Clouded Moon broke from the source material to become its own original story. While it shares a lot of DNA with Warriors, Clouded Moon distinguishes itself with its own world, lore, and characters. The collective passion of Clouded Moon’s creators oozes in its pages, and I have a lot of respect for them for getting to this point.
The plot of Clouded Moon: Shifting Roots is ambitious. As a first book, it is not only tasked with introducing its readers to the world and large cast of characters, it also has to make the reader care. Clouded Moon: Shifting Roots mostly succeeds in this regard.
First and foremost, I was enthralled with the colonies. The colonies, while similar to each other on the outside, have their own cultures and customs. Any hostility between them usually comes from reasonable suspicion or power grabbing. It’s clear that each member of the colony had a lot of thought put into them, their relationships, and family tree.
The book has an omnipresent narrator to assist the reader in getting to the minds of many varying perspectives of the colonies and beyond. It took a bit to get used to, but I did like getting into the heads of characters like Rainfall and Viperfang. Even so, it always swung back to focusing on a member of one of the core quartet who each inhabit a different colony. This was a smart way to get the reader anchored to each faction.
In addition to an interesting world and characters, I really liked that this book was unafraid to shake things up and kill off characters. There were moments where I was genuinely surprised, or hurt because surely they wouldn’t kill THAT character. (They would in fact kill THAT character, and yes it did hurt). By the end I felt like no one was safe, and that gave the story excellent stakes.
Unfortunately, it’s not perfect.
While the lore is good, it can feel like the narrative is asking too much of its reader at points. I needed to learn the pre-existing relationships between the main characters, the religion of the colonies, the structure of the colonies, the leadership of the colonies, and the outside world all while trying to follow the many different character motivations and throughlines. Luckily the plot is good, but I found myself getting frustrated in the first hundred pages with all the characters and exposition being thrown at me. I personally benefited from my prior understanding of Warriors, but I’m not sure how a brand new reader would fare.
This is compounded by the problem of having a huge character roster, many of whom lack any written physical description. There is an allegiances section at the beginning of the book, but it only lists the characters’ roles, not appearance. It’s a shame because there is beautiful artwork of every character online, but it isn’t a supplement for someone who has purchased a fully written book. (Although, I would go nuts for an artbook of these characters. The art that is online is amazing).
Finally, there were some problems with pacing. I felt that the book was so eager to hit the big moments that a lot of the story and important character moments had to be told to the reader instead of shown. For example, the book often reminisces on how Spottedshadow, Wolfthorn, Wildfur, and Dawnfrost are great friends and have been for a while, but I would have loved to see where that comes from. As neat as the mid-book shake up was, it felt like the ending to an arc rather than the midpoint of a first book.
I honestly think this story would benefit from a prequel. I would love to see it set from a younger Spottedshadow’s point of view. It would be a great way to establish daily colony life, Spottedsahdow’s falling out with Goldenpelt, why she loves Wildfur, and the formation of the core friend group. I would eat it up!
All that said, I left this first book liking it and wanting more. There is a LOT here that is very compelling, and I want to know what happens next. I’m really rooting for this team of creators, and I’d like to see them continue to grow their ideas and improve. To any Warriors fan on the fence, give this a read. There is a lot to like!
(One last note - I read this as an e-book on Kindle and it was not properly formatted. Footers were mixed into paragraphs, there were random hyphens within paragraphs where there should have been breaks, the table of contents didn’t work, and several images were corrupted. I’m not sure how e-publishing works, but I really hope this can be fixed because it was very distracting.)
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EDIT: The more I sit with this book the more issues I realize I have with it.
I think I was too forgiving of the narrator - it's head jumping, and if I'm being honest, it's really distracting.
I've also also seen the Tumblr post about how this book isn't supposed to be standalone, and that the supplemental material is basically a requirement. I personally don't agree with this approach, but whatever it's not my project.
I think the Kindle version of this book has been fixed now, so that's great!
January 3, 2025
I absolutely loved this book. It is terrific for Warriors fans aging out of the series; this book is much better written than anything they have put out since the first series. The prose is very rich and full of life. The colonies feel like developed communities depicted through a third-person omniscient pov that shifts from character to character. My only complaints are that the third act has some pacing issues, i wish the book would have slowed down a bit there to give us some more time with the main four cats. Still, it is terrific, and I am so excited to see more.
December 31, 2024
My daughter had me read this book. I have to admit I was at first skeptical, but I was very pleasantly surprised, and I breezed through the book quickly.
The loose alliance of four colonies of cats is tested to its limits when several cats are violently killed by a creature none have before encountered. As the cats graple with the new existential threat, there is action, friendship, romance, political intrigue, and even a touch of magic. It's a fun book. I look forward to the next chapter.
The loose alliance of four colonies of cats is tested to its limits when several cats are violently killed by a creature none have before encountered. As the cats graple with the new existential threat, there is action, friendship, romance, political intrigue, and even a touch of magic. It's a fun book. I look forward to the next chapter.
January 3, 2025
This book was FANTASTIC! THERE WAS SO MANY EMOTIONS AND EVERYTHING IN THE BOOK HAPPENS FOR A REASON! I HAVEN’T CRIED AT A BOOK LIKE THIS IN A WHILE! I LOVE ALL THE CHARACTERS, ESPECIALLY SPOTTEDSHADOW AND DAWNFROST AND GOLDENPELT! AVALON, TENNELLE, TIFFANY, AND AUDIE ALL DID SO WELL WITH THIS BOOK! BUT WHY DID PEACH HAVE TO DIE?!?!
December 21, 2025
There's really nothing I can say that the other reviews haven't covered. This is just Warriors fanfiction. I'm not a Warriors fan but even I know that the worst books in Warriors can't be as muddled as this. By the way, there are two pages for this book because one is kindle and the other is paperback. This is the kindle review.
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December 21, 2024This helped me finally get the motivation to finish my own cat series and I've always loved clouded moon amazing story!
March 26, 2025
I didnt belive this book was that bad, i have to say i was curious about the plot so finished It. But it was written in such a boring expositive way, didnt make me even care.
Seriously how the autor didnt tell the others this wasn't written as a novel
Seriously how the autor didnt tell the others this wasn't written as a novel
September 3, 2025
This is just warrior cats with queer baiting, all of the "queer representation" are background characters, just read warriors, you'll get the same experience without being queer baited
June 25, 2025
It is a wonderful start to a long anticipated series. Manages to evoke so many different feelings and really hooks you into the story, I didn't want the book to end.
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