Pokémon Book Reviews

"Pokemon Scarlet: Trivial Disobedience" - by Scarlet_Regnar [Not on wattpad]

Pokémon Scarlet: Trivial Disobedience:

"Scarlet Regnar is a 17-year-old boy studying to be a Pokemon Ranger when he realizes that the authorities on his home island have been hiding the real truth about Pokemon training from his entire generation. Through a combination of censorship, forced seclusion, and outright lies, they have been lead to believe that life as a Ranger is the only possible one for them and any other method of capturing Pokemon would be immoral. But what will happen when Scarlet tries, through Trivial Disobedience, to hear out the other side of the story?"

Genre: Fanfiction

Rating: N/A

Ivy (@RiverIvy)'s review:

The especially distinct aspect that caught my, and I'm sure most of the reader's, interest was the originality and complexity of the such unusual themes.

They centered on the whole "ranger VS trainer" topic - is one better than the other? Is either good or bad?

I thought it was something very thought-provoking and interesting to play around with, especially if we consider the possibilities of there actually being such conflicts in the cannon Pokemon world. How would it be like? What would people's reactions and responses be? The book focuses on that - I loved it.

We heard both the trainer and ranger side of the story; each was brought and fleshed out in a way that we can look at and compare easily. The main character's thoughts and idea about the matter were realistic and engaging for the reader. Marvelous.

I just liked the whole part of that. It's the first time I ever saw such a thing in a Pokefic; original, unique, and complex.

The plot of it of course was good too; nothing much to say about since it pretty much purely revolved around that theme. Nonetheless, aside from the main point of it, I liked how the author also managed to paint for us a clear image of how the main character - Scarlet's - daily life was like: showing us his family, school, friends, and hometown, all while being able to maintain a good balance between that and the main point of the plot. It was neat and well-executed, while at the same time making us attached to Scarlet and all his own quirks and traits. I felt that it gave the book a more life-like and human quality, which, like I said, makes the reader feel more attached to the characters and plot in general.

Another thing I enjoyed was that, even though I wouldn't exactly call the book action-packed, in every part there's something that's always compelling the reader to go on - some unanswered questions, strange details to work out. This piques the reader's interest and makes him or her wonder, "But how does this turn out? Why is this how it is? Why, what, how?" I find that the drop of mystery added did a really good job in spicing up the plot.

The flow was smooth; like I said just now, the pace was a bit slow, but that wasn't a problem because of the mystery. In fact, in a way, it helped - it made the reader's feel to a certain extent impatient for more, but not TOO impatient so that they became frustrated.

There was never a point where I felt scenes transitioned into another too abruptly, or too slowly; they were all orderly and consistent. Great job on that.

Now, the humour itself was excellent - dry and comical. It added another nice touch to the book to make it even more likable or interesting; however, seeing as the author has clear talent for humour, I really would've liked to be present more. There only a bit of funny scenes or jokes, and those were towards the end. People with a good sense of humour are VERY rare, and since practically everyone likes comedy, it's always best to put a talent like that into more use.

Something else that I thought could be worked on more was the description, especially in the case of battle scenes. I felt that very little effort was put into describing surroundings and/or actions. The battles scenes, if not for the humour, would be extremely dull. One good way to imrove this is simply - practice. Practice, practice, practice.