Warriors (The Broken Code) 5 – The Place of No Stars

Erin Hunter's The Place of No Stars is a dark Warriors adventure for 10 year olds that takes the Clans' fight somewhere no living cat should go.

What happens

The prologue is dramatic. Ashfur, the spirit who stole Bramblestar's body, drags Squirrelflight down into the Moonpool. She wakes up in the Dark Forest, a grey place with sickly trees and no stars, where he plans to keep her for himself. Lying nearby is Bramblestar's body, empty and still.

Squirrelflight doesn't give up. She decides she'll get out and bring the real Bramblestar home with her, whatever it takes.

Back by the lake, nobody knows any of this yet. The leaders had agreed that Ashfur had to die, even though it meant Bramblestar's body would die too. Then Ashfur escapes. Squirrelflight is missing, and plenty of ThunderClan think she helped him.

The three young cats are back. Bristlefrost tries to stand up for Squirrelflight while her Clanmates call their missing leader a traitor. Shadowsight is shut in Ashfur's old prison by his own Clan. And Rootspring is the only cat who saw what really happened at the Moonpool, if only someone would believe him.

There's a lot going on in ThunderClan's camp too. Several cats left on a wander and not all of them have come back. Two have gone off to live as pets with Twolegs. Graystripe has headed for the Clans' old forest home to see if StarClan can be reached from there.

It's tense from start to finish. Leaders snarl at each other, Tigerstar pins Lionblaze to the ground, and every Clan seems ready to blame another one. Your reader will be desperate for somebody to just listen to Rootspring!

Be ready for a frightening opening. A cat is held under the water until she nearly drowns. Her mate's lifeless body is right beside her, and Ashfur coolly says Bramblestar has served his purpose. The story is also built around a death sentence the leaders have agreed. A reader who already knows this run will cope, but it's a heavy book for a young one.

As book five of The Broken Code, it picks up straight after book four and spends no time explaining who anyone is. For a newcomer it's very hard going.

What to read next

If your reader wants to know how it all began, the first Warriors book of all is Into the Wild. Rusty's a house cat in a collar, and the wild Clans are living just beyond his garden.