d_s_t_e's Wattpad Reviews

Sharing Our Performance World by Inuwanforall [Pokémon]

Sharing Our Performance World is a fanfic about a Pokémon Performer named Millie who wants more than anything to become the Kalos Queen. In spite of being an underdog, can she win the three princess keys and the title?

The first thing I'll say about this story is that it was somewhat refreshing to read a book based on Pokémon performance rather than challenging gyms. The thing that I liked best about the book was the message it sends that people can make a real difference in the world through art and performance. I think this is quite true and often overlooked, especially in a genre that typically focuses on making change by battling and defeating villains. To be fair, there was an element of that in this book as well, but it wasn't the main focus at all.

I also enjoyed reading about the performances themselves, which were sometimes quite interesting. My favorite performance was the one in Chapter 20, which had a particular theme and a few surprises to it. There were also some interesting battle scenes in which Millie tried putting her skills as a performer to use in a different way and ended up with some creative solutions, like stealing a Braixen's stick and doing a number of moves with it while Braixen is unable to do so. I also liked that Team Flare tended to battle like villains, throwing insults, disrespecting their Pokémon, and sometimes even fighting dirty. I also thought it was good that Millie isn't perfect right away and slowly develops her skills over time, in battling as well as in performances.

That being said, though, the internal dialogue of Millie boosting her own confidence tended to get repetitive at times. I understand that it was important for her to be telling herself these things, but it could have been summarized to the reader more often than it was. I also disliked the internal dialogue when Millie criticized herself for being distracted seemingly every time the narration paused to give a bit of description that I thought was actually quite welcome. I thought the story could have used more such descriptions, and it just seemed like the author was unnecessarily worried about them disrupting the flow of the chapter and was projecting that through the main character. Actually, one of my major criticisms of the book is that I often had very little awareness of the setting. I didn't even know where the characters were sometimes, and that easily could have been resolved with more descriptions of the surroundings.

I also thought that some of the characters could have used a bit more complexity. I didn't pick up on much personality from Clara or from Clyde, even though they are important characters who are with Millie for a large portion of the book. I also noticed some attempts to make some of the antagonists more complex or relatable, which was good but didn't quite go far enough in my opinion. For example, I never understood why Matinee chose to focus so much on criticizing Millie and her performance skills, even though we do learn a little more about her eventually.

On a smaller note, I found it a little odd that almost every chapter was called either "Start! ;)" or "Begin! ;)". This made it somewhat difficult for me to find certain passages that I wanted to reference in this review. More importantly, though, I think it would make it more difficult for a reader or a follower to keep track of where they had left off in the story, especially as it was being published. Having interesting chapter titles can also help draw in readers. On that note, a good cover can draw in readers as well, and I couldn't understand why the figures on this one are drawn so that they can be difficult to make out and why the title doesn't appear in the white space at the top.

I noticed a number of typos, punctuation, and grammar mistakes throughout the book as well. At some points, it seemed as though words had been autocorrected to something else, and there were a number of other errors that would seem easy to pick out if the author took the time to read back over the chapter. Those kinds of errors are also the ones that tend to be the most obvious to readers.

Overall, I think Pokémon fans who are specifically interested in reading about Pokémon performances might give this one a try simply because I haven't seen many others on Wattpad with that focus. I thought it was a fanfic of pretty average quality, not the best but potentially a bit enjoyable to the right audience.

** Published in January 2017 **