Book
Review: Into the Wild
By Vitora
It
was late night, and I was bored. I had
already completed my Visual Basic programming for the night, but my laptop was
still connected to the Internet and Mom was working on the family computer. So I decided to search for some books—school
was, after all, quite light, and my summer reading had been rather sparse.
The
year was 2003, and I had just about run out of good “young adult fantasy novels”’;
as my family’s restrictions on the magic and such that goes on in such a genre
is pretty strict, so most of the new books out were off-limits. And so when I read the title, saw the cover—the
one with the cats all over it—and read the review blurb, I decided to put a
hold on this new book. Erin Hunter was
the author’s name; her book was entitled Into
the Wild, and it was a fairly decent length—272 pages. Besides, upon further investigation I
discovered that there was already a sequel at the library and another one on
order.
Getting
Mom to drive to the library took some convincing, but finally I had the book in
my hands. It looked even better upon
closer inspection, as it seemed to combine just the right amount of
mythological and magical aspects with the wild cat (yes, two words) and
adventure world. I dove into my favorite
easy chair and started to turn the pages.
Right
away, I was hooked. The main character,
Rusty, a farm cat who wants nothing more than to be free and live in the nearby
woodlands, is interesting right from the start (though in later books, he gets
slightly unbelieveable—however, that’s another story…literally); he has dreams he
wants realized, he has goals—to catch and eat a mouse, for instance, instead of
just dry cat food—he has friends, and he even has a few flaws. And the secondary characters, such as
Bluestar and Tigerclaw, leaders of ThunderClan, and Rusty’s (whose name becomes
Firepaw part of the way through the novel) friends Graypaw and Ravenpaw, have
unique qualities as well.
There
is a mystery surrounding the cat clans—of which there are four: ThunderClan,
WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan—that is revealed from the very beginning
and is developed through the first four books.
This first novel, however, focuses mostly on Rusty’s journey to becoming
a warrior’s apprentice, taking on the surname -paw as well as many
responsibilities and duties. We are
introduced to the other clans and their leaders, although the style of writing
is such that the reader is shown only what Rusty/Firepaw knows himself, and so
at first the story and characters are limited to what goes on within
ThunderClan.
I
can’t spoil the ending, as from there the storyline (which currently spans five
books and, I believe, is going to span seven or eight) only grows more exciting—though
slightly predictable. I recommend this
book, and its sequels, if you have some time to kill and a cozy corner
somewhere. The terminology used by the
warrior cats may be a little confusing at first, but don’t give up; the book is
written with children in mind, same age as Redwall readers (though the plot is
heavier and deeper than BJ’s novels), and so it can’t be too confusing. May StarClan
guide you on your journey through the Warriors
series!