Pokémon Book Reviews

Puppet - by beyaliv

Puppet:

"I'm a freak.

My hair is long and black, with one bloody red streak and bangs that hang in my eyes. My skin is pale, and my eyes are a red-violet shade.

I am made - experiment after experiment...a success.

Giovanni tells me I will accomplish many things one day, but I don't know what that is. Ghetsis glares, but too, promises me that I will accomplish something great. Cyrus too, all tell me I will accomplish great things someday. All the other leaders say so, Archie, Maxie, Lysandre, and all the others.

We reside on an old island, a place where the sun never shines, a place where I can practice my powers. They tell me that true, I will be seen as a freak of nature, but what I really am is the representative of a new age.

Not even the Dex Holders will be able to stop me."

Genre: fanfiction

Eve (NaivEevee )'s Review:

Puppet is a long story portraying a young girl by the name of Magenta Exe who is the result of Dark-type DNA and human DNA mashed together and modified in a human form. The entire story essentially follows Magenta as she goes on a long "journey" to find herself while Villains United chases her down and tries to use her for their own evil purpose.

First off, I thought that the synopsis was overall well done. It gives a sneak-peak into the brain-washed mindset of Magenta and conveys a tone that reflects the title nicely. Right off the bat, I was beginning to have a feel for Magenta as powerful and dark character; this was quickly confirmed through an interesting introduction to her creation, her will-manipulating powers, and her weaknesses in the first three chapters. I enjoyed reading Magenta's rebelliousness in using her powers against VU and was feeling almost bad for her when she was punished afterwards.

But upon arriving at the part where she was ordered to journey through six entire regions and collect the eight badges of each region, I was shocked. There definitely did not appear to be a solid and developed reason for this sudden order from VU and so six regions felt extremely unnecessary and unrealistic. What was more bewildering to me was how this huge evil organization of six notorious crime organizations managed to convince not one, not two, but six professors of six regions to give Magenta a PokeDex when, clearly, her only objective was to collect gym badges and not to catch 'em all? Why did they have Magenta do this in the first place? There was no motive at all. And going further into the journey...the buildup to Zena's death lacked detail, and her final passing felt very bland. Furthermore, by the time Magenta reached Johto from battling all five other regions, how do you explain her Pidgey being only a Pidgeotto after defeating forty other gyms? And how did Magenta conquer the gyms her Pokemon (Lucario and Zoroark) would be weak to, say a fighting-type gym?

Then, there were the Dex-holders. Their introduction was, once again, underdeveloped. There was no explanation as to what trainers such as Blue, Yellow, and Green were doing in Johto. And after taking care of Magenta for just one night, all of the Dex-holders become abnormally attached to Magenta. Still, they didn't press questions about her strange appearance even after concluding that it was odd for someone as sickly as Magenta to be in Johto when she was last seen in Kanto. And over the span of just a few days, the Dex-holders do a one-eighty-turn and suddenly act as if they've known Magenta forever and were even willing to sacrifice and devote themselves to protecting her and resolving her life circumstances later in the book. Silver and Blue felt like the same character, and the same went for Crystal and Yellow and Green. Gold was the only one I felt stood out just the slightest bit, but poor Red was left out.