Book Review: CROOKEDSTAR'S PROMISE

Crookedstar’s Promise by Erin Hunter

Crookedstar’s Promise is set in the world of the cats, in which cats have Clans which they live in, and they hunt and live in the forest, away from the humans. There are five Clans: ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan and StarClan; the last Clan is not a Clan of living cats like the others, as StarClan is made of the cats who died in the past (in short, the ancestors of the other Clans). Crookedstar’s Promise is set mainly in RiverClan, with the protagonist being Stormkit, a kit who is born at the start of the book in the midst of a storm.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Stormkit is a brave, daring kit from the start, with a fierce desire to become leader of RiverClan – whereas his brother Oakkit is often tagging behind. Stormkit is the one who leads him in sneaking out of the RiverClan camp. However, this leads to an accident where Stormkit falls on a large rock, breaking his jaw – in the aftermath he is left disfigured, and his mother Rainflower insists on changing his name to Crookedkit. When his name is changed he thinks his Clan doesn’t really need him and he runs away – he is then visited by a cat, Mapleshade, whom he thinks is from StarClan and who tells him that he has a “destiny”. After realizing that he wants to return to his Clan and fulfill the destiny he has been told of, he heads back to RiverClan and becomes an apprentice, proving himself again and again to his Clan and eventually succeeding in becoming leader.

Crookedkit is a strong, respectable character who knows what he wants and does what he will to succeed, as long as it doesn’t clash with his morals. Although he could have stayed away from RiverClan, he knows that he wants to become leader and is willing to go back, even though he might face disapproval and even dislike from his Clanmates from running away. Indeed, many RiverClan cats, his mother especially, are wary of him after that, unsure if he will betray them again by running away. But Crookedkit stays on in RiverClan, becomes the deputy (taking the name Crookedjaw), proves his bravery by fighting away dogs and saving Clanmates who have been taken by humans (or Twolegs, as the cats call them), and is eventually rewarded for his bravery.

However, during a fight with vicious rats, when he is told by Mapleshade that he must leave RiverClan’s current leader Hailstar to die in order for Crookedjaw to inherit his place, he instead tries to save Hailstar. He fails in the end and Hailstar still dies, leading to Crookedjaw becoming leader and finally fulfilling his destiny, leaving us satisfied as the character we are rooting for has finally succeeded in his dreams and managed to keep his principles at the same time.

Another point I like is how Hunter describes the path to success as a lonely one – in his path to become leader, Crookedjaw witnesses his father, Shellheart, the deputy of RiverClan (cats have to become deputies before becoming leader, and there is only one deputy at any time), step down to let Crookedjaw take over and eventually die of an illness; he is misled by Mapleshade into letting his mother die while he goes off to fight a dog (this is the incident that leads to his becoming deputy); he watches as his mate and two out of three of his kits die in childbirth (which he believes is the price for him becoming leader) and meanwhile he lives on, unable to die because he, like every leader, has nine lives. He loses so many friends and family that it’s not even funny, and by the end of the story he welcomes death, as he will be able to see his friends again. As a leader, the path he walks is lonely; he literally has no one he’s really close with, because all of them eventually die before him – even his brother dies in a battle, and his last daughter dies in childbirth as well, leaving him with no kin at all. It’s almost tragic how he has to hold himself together for his Clan while everyone leaves him behind. This makes him a character we respect for his strength, because he’s strong enough to endure all these difficulties to the very end.

Also, I like how Hunter has created a whole new world for the cats. She created new terms for things that cats would refer to differently from humans (e.g. Monsters for cars, Twolegs for humans, freshkill for food, Springleaf for Spring and so on), giving us a sense of falling into a whole new world, one of cats and their conflicts.

On the other hand, there are too many characters in the book. There are a lot of characters not essential to the story, only mentioned in passing, and as many of the names are similar (Sparrowtail and Swallowtail, etc.) it becomes very confusing and difficult to keep track of all of them. A character chart of all the cats in the Clans is placed at the start of the book, but it breaks the flow of the story to keep flipping back to find out who each character is, so I think there should be less characters written into the story to make it less confusing.

A minor plot point that I have issues with is that I could not understand Rainflower’s dislike of Crookedjaw after he breaks his jaw. Initially she is loving towards Crookedjaw, and seems to prefer him over his brother, but that all changes after he is disfigured. Not only does she embarrass him by changing his name, she shows no love for him until the day she dies and is constantly cold to him, while showering love and affection on Crookedjaw’s brother Oakheart. Throughout the story we are given no reason for this change in attitude other than his disfiguration, but I find that an inadequate reason, hence Rainflower’s treatment of Crookedjaw is pretty much incomprehensible to me.

All in all, I think that Crookedstar’s Promise is a book is a good book that is worth reading. I highly recommend it for children who are in Primary 3 or older.


Rating: 3.5/5

Recommended for children aged 9 and above