Junie's Reviews and Promo Book (Closed)

Review: Guardians of Alola

Guardians of Alola: by TxpuFini

Genre: Adventure, Fanfiction, Fantasy, Romance

Chapters Reviewed:  5 Chapters (13 Chapters)

Update Schedule: Every Saturday

Quote: "Sometimes, trouble and pain bring wisdom and peace. Trouble may come your way, but you will know how to handle it." ~Mystic

Mystic is about ready to start her Pokémon Journey, but just as she's about to get her Pokémon, she soon discovers that the Alola region may be in grave danger. It's up to her to find the other three special Trainers and the Island Guardians to save the region from destruction.

I know this isn't really up to the writer's control, but it's always good to see readers giving positive feedback in a story. Some of these comments include...

"Wow. That got into it IMMEDIATELY. Pretty expertly, too. Continue this, its actually good!" TheShinyAzelf

"Nice buildup. Cant wait for the next one"  TheShinyAzelf

"Its getting good now." TheShinyAzelf

Of course, seeing these, I was excited to see what this story was all about. Now, before I get deeper into the review, I need to make an important note of something. I've read this book before and after some edits were made. Unlike previous reviews, this one will reflect on how well those edits were made, some other points that needs improvement, and, as always, parts the book did well on. Keep in mind, some of this may seem harsh, so I want to take a step back and look towards what some of the comments are from the book. Hard work and dedication was put into this story, and that's something very good to note. It's not easy writing a story, taking criticism and then making necessary changes as seen needed is even harder. For that, I want everyone to be aware that this writer has made some of those that have greatly improved the book.

Yet while this book has made some improvements, there are some things that still needs to be improved on.

The one thing that this book has always done well on is pacing. It's very well done. I'm the kind of reader that likes to know what the plot is going to be about when I start reading a story, and this story does exactly that. From the first chapter, I know that Mystic is off to save Alola, even if that wasn't the reason she wanted to start a journey. She has her partners in crime that are introduced right away, and it's amazing how things just pan out the way that they do. Everything is plot driven, and that is what makes the book very interesting.

Another strong suit this book has are the character differences. Now, I'll admit, not all the characters stay the same. I notice Mudkip still switches from a cute little Pokémon who always wants to help to non-interested in helping Mystic when she needs it. There could've been a reason behind it that would've made this scene make sense, like maybe Mudkip was tired, or shy of large groups of people. All that needs to be portrayed though. Other than Mudkip's switching personality, every character seems to be consistent with their unique personalities. This could be from how flirtatious Shane is to how chill Gyarados is.

Despite how consistent the characters seem in the first five chapters, there are still a lot of inconsistencies that this book needs work on. These can be fixed in nearly anyway. Before I even could read the book, I already saw one inconsistency that stuck out, and that was the chapter titles. When naming chapter titles, you have to keep it consistent. Either you use all numbers or you write out the numbers. This story has chapters one through ten written in word form with chapter eleven being written like the number "11". While that would be correct in grammar, chapter titles are an exception to that rule, meaning it's either one or the other (and either way is correct).