The Rise of Scourge by Erin Hunter is a graphic novel, a part of the Warrior Cats series. This book seeks to explain the origin of Scourge, known as the evilest cat in the Forest to ever exist. He started as a runt of the litter (smallest kit) in a human home and was named Tiny. His mother raised him and his two bigger and stronger siblings, who always used to mock him for being so small. One day he wanted to prove them wrong, so he traveled into the nearby forest, where he was confronted by a few forest cats from Thunderclan, including young Tigerpaw, who attacked him even though he was a kit. The forest cats then just left him. This is what led Tiny to desire revenge, and for the rest of his life he wouldn’t be content until he got revenge on Tigerpaw (who later became Tigerclaw and Tigerstar). One day when a human came to adopt them, they only adopted the two bigger siblings. The siblings had scared Tiny by saying that if he wasn’t adopted, he’d be thrown into a river, so he now ran away. He became a stray in the human town who, after performing an impressive display for all the other strays, became their leader and renamed himself Scourge. This is what led him to be so confident that he could become a prominent cat in the main Warriors series.
This book was interesting, and I enjoyed it because it provided more background information on Scourge. He had seemed so mysterious and full of secrets earlier in the main Warriors series, especially when we find out that he is Firestar’s half-brother. However, I don’t feel like the book covered enough of the things I was wondering about Scourge, like exactly what happened to his father (who was also Firestar’s father). In addition, it doesn’t make sense that Scourge got such advanced fighting abilities all of a sudden. Because of all this, I give this book a four out of five.