Not only does Tigerclaw's plot come to fruition,

but Graystripe leaves and on the meta-level, we have a new author!

Let's get into this one.

Forest of Secrets released on the 14th of October, 2003:

4 ½ months after the second book and 9 months after the first.

It is also, more importantly, the first book written by Cherith Baldry.

This is another fresh start on the writing department, and like Into the Wild it comes with a lot of plot advances to get through.

Unlike Into the Wild, though, the various character dramas going on are perhaps equally as important,

which lets Cherith start off with her own unique set of strengths and faults.

As for what those are...uh, well let's start with the story.

We begin with a short prologue between Oakheart and Graypool,

two Riverclan cats speaking about a couple mystery kits with unknown pasts that Graypool agrees to care for.

We then move back to Fireheart, three days after the ending of the last book.

He is now set in his knowledge that Graystripe is his friend that he will be loyal to despite all shortcomings

and that Tigerclaw is a problem he really needs to deal with.

For this reason, Fireheart and Graystripe take a secret impromptu journey back to Barley's farm

to speak with Ravenpaw and get the full story about Redtail's death.

As it turns out, Oakheart was killed by a rockfall, not by Redtail,

so the most unbelievable part of the original story is gone.

It is also here that they find out about a connection between Stonefur and Thunderclan,

which starts off the second mission of the book: solve this mystery.

When they come back, Fireheart and Graystripe are punished for being well fed

and Fireheart has a dream with Spottedleaf, saying that water can quench fire.

They go together into the heart of Riverclan territory to speak with Silverstream and confirm the story.

She doesn't know about it though, so she brings Mistyfoot,

who we learn knows about the relationship between Graystripe and Silverstream and disapproves:

effectively making her Riverclan's Fireheart equivalent.

Mistyfoot confirms it was an accident,

but wants to bring in her mother Graypool to find out what Stonefur's connection to Thunderclan was,

and that requires coming back to Riverclan again on another day.

Brightpaw and Thornpaw become apprentices, to Whitestorm and Mousefur respectively,

and then Fireheart finally learns that Mistyfoot and Stonefur are from Thunderclan.

With this information Fireheart goes for take two of telling Bluestar about Tigerclaw killing Redtail,

which she nearly believes until Fireheart adds in the Thunderclan-kits bit for which she gets defensive and kicks him out.

At this point, Fireheart defaults back to casual clan interactions:

going herb-gathering with Cinderpelt where she decides to be a full medicine cat,

teaching Cloudkit about his kittypet heritage, and patrolling with Graystripe and Sandstorm.

After yet another Spottedleaf dream, silent this time,

a flood happens and Graystripe and Fireheart save some Riverclan kits and start giving them prey, which they quickly get in trouble for.

Shadowclan and Windclan get very angry with Thunderclan for sheltering Brokentail.

They decide to attack, and Brackenpaw proves himself enough to become Brackenfur.

Graystripe however wasn't at the battle, and gets an earful from Tigerclaw for it.

Also, Silverstream has Graystripe's kits and dies in the process, much to Cinderpaw's dismay,

making Graystripe's secret Riverclan romance not-so secret anymore.

Speaking of not-secrets, it is revealed that Mistyfoot and Stonefur are Bluestar's kits.

Cloudpaw is apprenticed to Fireheart, and he finally gets to meet his mother.

Riverclan tries to take Graystripe and Silverstream's kits multiple times,

but before we can conclude that plot Tigerclaw finally makes his move and attacks Thunderclan's mostly unguarded camp,

using his position as deputy to get almost every cat away.

While the rogues busy everyone else in camp, he attacks Bluestar himself and is cut off by Fireheart,

who neutralizes him and, once the battle is finished, tells every cat about his treachery.

Tigerclaw immediately reveals himself, saying he hates not only Fireheart but Bluestar as well,

thinking of them both as weak and useless.

He then goes to Darkstripe, Longtail, and Dustpelt and asks them to come with him,

which they all refuse for different reasons.

Tigerclaw leaves with a promise of revenge and soon after Graystripe does too,

bringing his kits to Riverclan like they wanted.

Fireheart is made deputy late since Bluestar isn't...feeling that great, and the book ends.

It is, at this point, difficult to tell the exact differences in this book that are due to a different author's style,

rather than to the different type of outline the book follows.

The through-lines in this book are about equally balanced between character drama and plot developments,

where Into the Wind focused almost entirely on the overarching plot

and Fire and Ice stepped back to deal with smaller conflicts and developing the characters.

However, we can take note of this book's strengths and flaws for later.

As usual, we will start with basic clan changes.

Cinderpaw is officially listed as a medicine cat apprentice. Yay!

We have 10 warriors now, since Sandstorm and Dustpelt have joined the roster, but amazingly still 5 apprentices.

Sandpaw Dustpaw and Cinderpaw have been replaced with newcomers Cloudpaw, Brightpaw, and Thornpaw.

The leadership roles, queens, and elders are also identical,

save for Brokentail now being listed with the elders as he is held prisoner in the camp.

The top 10 characters this time around get 81% of the lines,

again, a drop in the right direction, though not as large a jump as Fire and Ice's.

The issue though comes in the gender distribution.

Only 38% of the characters for this book are she-cats, and they only get 35% of the lines

despite the many many Riverclan she-cats taking up a large part of this book.

(Seriously this book could make you believe Crookedstar is the only tom left in the clan.)

The cast size is smaller than Fire & Ice's overall,

which makes sense as it would likely be difficult to take on such a large group for your first book into this world.

I'll reserve any judgement until Cherith has had more time to get acquainted with writing for the series.

In addition to the different balance of plot and character time, this is also the first book with a mystery,

or at least the characters seeking out the answer to a mystery the readers may have already understood.

The prologue and much of the book's time is dedicated to finding out who Mistyfoot and Stonefur are or were: Bluestar's kits.

It is pretty easy to figure out, especially given the sheer number of clues pointing to the answer,

but it's interesting to have a new style that may be brought back at other points in the series.

On a less happy note, welcome! To the first Warriors retcon!

es it only took 3 books for a rewriting of canon to be necessary.

In Into the Wild, at a gathering, Ravenpaw described Redtail running away with blood dripping from his mouth and his fur torn,

immediately after Oakheart's death, implying Redtail killed Oakheart.

He later clarified to Firepaw explicitly that Redtail killed Oakheart

and, just as Redtail was watching Riverclan run away, Tigerclaw killed him.

However, in Forest of Secrets, Ravenpaw says they were both hit by a rockfall.

Oakheart died, but Redtail came out completely unharmed, and he ran *into* Tigerclaw instead of Tigerclaw creeping up on him.

Graystripe calls him on messing up at book 1's gathering,

but Fireheart doesn't mention his clear statement to the contrary and that part is never explained.

Because the rest of this book and the arc's story hinges on Redtail not, in fact, murdering Oakheart,

it is generally accepted that this version of the events is what truly happened.

But the fact that we have to retroactively make a choice about which canon to take as fact is already a slight problem.

There is one other thing that isn't a retcon, at least not yet since it's the first time we've ever seen it,

but will become important to check on much later.

This is the book where Bluestar explains the story of her, Oakheart, and how their kits came to be in Riverclan.

As far as we're told, from her, Oakheart and Bluefur met at a gathering in early leaf-bare.

They were both young, and weren't mates for long.

She intended to keep the kits for Thunderclan and simply not say who the father was,

something that wasn't required by the clan's culture.

This makes sense with arc 1's depiction of the queens,

as they haven't yet mentioned any of the kits' fathers and no one seems to mind.

The deputy of Thunderclan in Bluefur's time, Tawnyspots, decided to retire

and Bluefur knew she had a good chance of getting the promotion if not for her kits.

The medicine cat had explicitly told her Starclan had a great destiny for her.

Thunderclan meanwhile was half-starved in the middle of leaf-bare,

and Bluefur knew Riverclan with their plentiful fish population would care for them well.

As a side note, after Fireheart pries, she mentions Thistleclaw:

a fine, strong, and brave warrior who solved every problem with a fight

(something not especially problematic given how often we know the clans fight in this arc).

He was also ready to be deputy.

Bluefur didn't want to see him as leader of the clan.

So with all this, Bluefur made the tough decision to give them away.

She met Oakheart and gave away two of her kits.

The third, well *he* wasn't able to survive the journey to Riverclan.

None of this is in conflict with anything now, but I'd ask you to remember it when we come back to a certain leader's super edition.

As for interesting details in the story, it's worth noting that elders are shown speaking peacefully at gatherings,

and this is said to be a normal occurrence.

They are shown to have more comradery with each other than the warriors,

standing mostly apart from the clan tensions.

Barley's barn is very easy to hunt in, full of mice and starkly different from the supposedly barren leaf-bare.

The starvation leaf-bare sets in is talked about a fair bit as something that should happen,

and Princess does point out how thin Fireheart is, but it's seen as normal,

and in the same scene Fireheart just happens to catch a mouse without trying.

In every example we are shown there seems to be no real effect of leaf-bare beyond the prey being thinner or less tasty.

A natural event like a food is seen as bigger than any one clan, at least by Bluestar.

She demands there be peace between Thunderclan and Riverclan while they try to combat the threat and Crookedstar reciprocates.

This book features the second mini-prophecy Spottedleaf directly gives to Fireheart, just as vague as the first,

and Fireheart is still incapable of interpreting them correctly or in any way that would affect his decisions.

Kits are allowed out of camp!

Cinderpaw casually invites Cloud*kit* to follow herself and Fireheart on an herb-gathering mission and this is perfectly fine.

Speaking of Cloudkit, he is still the only named kit in camp,

and as such he also is the focus of every kits scene, possibly with a couple other nameless faceless kits added as other players.

Kits are also at this point allowed, and even encouraged to be mentored by their kin.

Bluestar gives Cloudpaw to Fireheart citing their kinship as a reason for the pair

and tells Graystripe he can one day mentor his kits.

Uh, Speaking of Graystripe, he has solidly taken on the role of Fireheart's dedicated best friend and sidekick.

Fireheart refuses to betray him for anything and he does finally start joining Fireheart on all the missions:

from going to see Ravenpaw to journeying into Riverclan to learn the secret of Bluestar's kits.

They feel far more like a unit.

However, that isn't quite reflected in Graystripe's behavior.

Fireheart takes too much responsibility from Tigerclaw and Bluestar for Graystripe's actions,

has to train his apprentice for him,

and still seems to be going along with Graystripe and Silverstreams narrative that they *can't* stop seeing each other.

They can, they just won't.

It should be Graystripe's responsibility to deal with the consequences of his actions.

If the reader does consider Graystripe to have his own agency, he seems like a terrible cat,

especially since Graystripe hasn't had any grief for being friends with Fireheart,

while Fireheart has taken a lot of pains for Graystripe's sake.

Moving on from him, Tigerclaw is definitely evil again!

He's actively spreading rumors about Fireheart's disloyalty,

hating half-clan cats as well as kittypets,

and tries to murder Fireheart through inaction in one of the chapters

(all of this before he actually attacks the camp, along with Bluestar and Fireheart).

Tigerclaw is really menacing on the daily.

He gets mad at Fireheart for coming back late from the gathering, saying hello to a queen,

being anywhere near him in the forest, and is generally looking for any excuse to punish him.

It is also clear that, in the background,

Tigerclaw was plotting since at least the middle of the book to kill Bluestar with the rogue attack.

At this point, he is a good enough villain.

As for the lackeys, Darkstripe is mean and outspoken,

willing to even insult his own leader rather than just being mean to kittypets like Longtail.

When he refuses Tigerclaw's offer at the end of the book it is only because Tigerclaw didn't include him in his plan.

Longtail meanwhile is overtly aggressive like in Into the Wild,

this time actively teasing Fireheart and Graystripe when they are made to do apprentice duties,

but he saves Fireheart's life when Tigerclaw won't,

and when he refuses Tigerclaw's offer, he cites his loyalty to the clan.

Fireheart also concludes he is a coward but Fireheart would be biased against him given their relationship

and we in fact will see him being just that in later books.

As for Tigerclaw's third friend, Dustpelt...where the heck did you go?

When he refuses Tigerclaw's offer he gives a powerful statement that showed Tigerclaw was no longer someone he could look up to,

and that Tigerclaw is effectively dead in his eyes after Redtail's murder and everything else he has done.