Pokémon Book Reviews

"The Sea Guardian" - by annaa-xx

The Sea Guardian:

"I was alone. Concealed in a cell without anyone, not even my pokemon. I only wanted to help, but they were too strong. They stole my best friends, my pokemon, and locked me away. I could hear the cries of innocent pokemon being attacked. Fighting for the safety of the city. They'd taken everything from me. My family, my home, and now, my pokemon. I'd never been so determined to get revenge.

~~~~~~

Hazel Baca: a coordinator with a rough past and a determination to avenge her parents. When all hope is lost, an idiotic breeder and cold-hearted trainer come to her rescue, followed by a perky brunette. Hazel, Silver, Lyra, and Gold set out to stop Team Rocket once and for all, but the evil organization has a trick up their sleeve."

Genere: FanFiction, Adventure

Rating: PG-13

Ivy (@RiverIvy)'s review:

Something that I personally found to be the best aspect of the book were the characters. They all had their own realistic, balanced personalites that clearly varied from one another. I also just adored how they all had their own clear little quirks and differences - Gold being funny and cheery yet sometimes insensitive, Silver's complicated feelings; like he can't decide whether he's cold and uncaring, or soft and loving, Hazel clearly being snappish and moody as a way of showing her fright and jumpiness, yet mostly being a fun and understanding person (even though she's pretty harsh when it comes to training!), Lyra's fragile, innocent and happy nature, Naomi being quiet and shy yet kind... A lot of writers don't realize this, but small details like these matter a lot in books - it's what makes the reader feel really attached to it, as shown here.

Another thing I loved were the many tensions and emotions that the author built up, whether major or minor, and I think it was done wonderfully. I can't really get into detail without much spoilers here, but some examples would be the romance between Silver and Hazel - how it was uncertain at some points and yet at others seeming sweet. And the part at **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT DON'T READ AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK** Silver and Naomi's supposed betrayal. Breath-taking.

*No spoilers from here*

The ending was brilliant: the suddenness of it all and all the action and hopping from place to place and battles, and the solemness the characters were feeling as they knew that it may very well be their last day, the twists and turns all the shock as the unexpected was revealed - amazing! I did feel it was just a bit rushed, though.

And when all is resolved and the characters are saying their farewells, it just... Aaaah, my feels!! Beautiful.

Grammar was also mostly good, yet still could be improved at some points. I noticed the mistakes were mostly using the wrong "there", "your", "were/where", etc. Nothing too big, though.

I liked the fact that Hazel is a coordinator. I don't see it a lot in Pokemon fanfictions.

The characters aren't amazingly perfect and actually lose sometimes - I was seriously near to dancing with joy at this.

All right, on to the negatives:

Kind of abrupt. I would have liked it if maybe some time was spent in the cell where Hazel was captured in the beginning; it would have been nice if the author used more time to describe exactly how it was like. Also, why exactly was she there? How was she captured? And when, where? These unanswered questions bothered me.

The fact that Hazel is able to bond so easily with Pokemon. Okay, I can understand her being close with ordinary tame Pokemon or even some wild ones - but a Mewtwo? Ehhh. No.