Are you a fan of books? Are you a fan of Pokémon? Well then, you've come to the right place! In this book club, we will devote every review purely to Pokémon fanfiction.
Includes:
- Articles on Pokémon Fanfiction
- Specific interviews with the autho...
From the moment I read this story's description, I knew that it was straight up my alley as a story that I would enjoy. I don't normally say outright whether I enjoyed a story or not in my reviews, but this one was a special case; I really did enjoy The End too much to mess about with a fancy, thought provoking intro.
The main meat of the story is exactly what's written on the box: we follow the adventures of a Meowstic and a Dedenne duo as they survive amidst a war that took away their homes and family. What starts out as an ordinary mission for them turns into a grand journey that drives the cast to change the world. The story does a good job of setting the tone and building the world here, putting emphasis on the effects of the diversity of this world rather than simply outright explaining everything. You get a good sense of what life is like for the characters when they're introduced from the way that they communicate with each other, their plans, and even their notable habits.
There's a little bit too much telling rather than showing at times, especially when it comes to characters having realisations or thoughts towards their experiences, but that doesn't detract from the portrayal of the cast. The cast is huge and each and every member has some deep characteristics that make them all stand out from one another. Even when the main party gets rather big, I managed to remember who was who and never had to go back to refresh my memory of some characters. There was only one character I had difficulty getting into, and he became memorable by the end.
My main point of praise has to be the characters and their exchanges. Simply put, the dialogue and communication between the characters is nothing short of absolutely stellar. Everyone's dialogue and actions feel natural all throughout the book, never slipping up even once. From the insecure but cold perspective of Cleo, to the strict, harsh views of Tinker, to the jokey, passive-aggressive behaviour of Harlequin and Enigma and more; the characters shine beautifully from start to finish. I never grew tired of their exchanges and their personal, intertwining conflicts that served to drive the story along an unpredictable path.
Now I would love to continue praising this story all the way through this review since I personally enjoyed it almost all the way through, but doing so would be a failure on my part as a reviewer. It wasn't perfect, but the way I'm going to look at its flaws is a bit more in depth than usual – meaning that there'll be spoilers from here on. If you intend to read this wonderful book, skip to the score and summary at the end, and then give the story a read and come back.
Despite loving the way the characters talk, act, and the way they drive the plot, the characters themselves were a little too one dimensional for my liking. I feel like it's a fault of the humongous cast – character development was minimal even when it came to the important characters, whilst some seemed to be flat out there to follow a trope and little else. For example, I appreciated Spark's relationship with Cleo, but, for a character that shared Cleo's past, she really didn't seem to be as traumatized or affected by it all, and not because her views differed on the whole ordeal. She barely had any characterization explored and, in the end, seemed to just be there to have jokes made about her height and appetite.
