Fanfic Fair for Its Day but still flawed even then.
Everyone knows that the fanfic is controversial due to the harsh treatment of the characters, right? Yes. Does this stop me from liking it? No.
While the fanfic started as a standard Pokémon Accusation Fic / Betrayal Fic / Revenge Fic with the twist that Ash isn't the protagonist, but rather Chloe, I became curious after founding this page. The fanfic was written during a time when Chloe didn't have any focus and there wasn't any Chloe-centric fanfics, so this story standed out more.
I finished reading it a long time ago and Act 1 was my less favorite segment due to how much of a jerk Chloe was, and then comes the beginning of Act 2 and I was ready to quit the story (poor Goh), but then comes The Dead Carnival Car and we see the deconstructive aspects towards these Tropes mentioned before: Chloe loses sympathy after being indirectly responsive for so much chaos, with even her companions being dissapointed on her while Parker doesn't get scot-free (something that protagonists of Revenge Fics never get), with nearly everyone cutting ties with him. The story managed to save itself when the readership was nearly dead.
On Act 3, we see many action scenes, everyone gets Character Development, Chloe finally moves out of her spiteful phase, Goh and Chloe fulfill their promise, the bad guys are defeated, everyone is still alive and the story at least has a Bittersweet Ending.
Despite my issues with the story and how bleak the setting was, it was still a good read and inspired me to enter into this world called Fanfiction due to making me realize that good stories are still possible in this Medium.
7/10
Fanfic unfortunately fascinating
The writing is awful, the pop culture references are egregious and terribly integrated, and the grammar is atrocious.
Unfortunately, the actual meat of the story if fascinating.
Chloe Cerise is such an incredible character in my opinion; the story of a girl who at first seems to be a classic faux-misunderstood bratty teen getting everything she ever wanted and slowly learning how awful she was captivated me the whole way through. Some parts meandered on- I really didn't care about Ash or Trip, and the buildup to the fog car was insanely long (did we really need a chapter just recounting a videogame most people have never played?) but when we got there, holy shit did it pay off.
Chloe is the heart that holds the entire story together; if this had just been about Atticus, Lexi, and Goh, I wouldn't have given a shit. it's Chloe's character and sheer energy that made me read through this doorstopper in its entirety.
Kudos. But... maybe get a spellchecker.