Ivypaw’s jealous behavior towards her sister made her do hateful things; fearful thing here is that she does not look ashamed on her deeds. Such expression of Ivypaw leaves many questions in the mind of those who were once close to her. Among those is Jayfeather who gets a chance to enter Ivypaw’s dream and there he see the root cause of everything.
Cats of the Dark forest are actually behind all of this stuff. Not only Ivypaw but Tigerheart as well are getting proper training from the cats of the dark forest and those cats have promised them very high things. Dovepaw also senses all this stuff and talks to her sister in order to stop her but she is too far gone this time. One issue and then the other keep the chosen trio busy in this part of the series.
The three were in different competitions in The Fourth Apprentice and Fading Echoes but here they are not behind any serious motive till the middle. Dovepaw for example is busy with the issue of her sister; similarly Lionblaze faces the annoyance of Flametail who is not ready to forgive what he did in the previous part. Author Erin Hunter in the later part brings the story back on track when Ivypaw learns the truth about the cats of the Dark forest.
She agrees to help her sister and the rest of the chosen cats in their mission against the evil doers. A lot of characters with different styles and personalities were difficult to handle for MacLeod Andrews. The narrator has completed the task in an error free way but a little help from a second narrator could have made things easier for him.
