Chase (Fearless) by Francine Pascal

Fearless #28

by Francine Pascal

If Tatiana's my evil stepsister,And Natasha's my wicked stepmother,Then what does that make Loki?Some kind of knight in shining armor?Yeah, right.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction, Teen, Childrens

Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Francine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.

Reviews

[Lucie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's been a distinct lack of Ed in the last couple of books. Move over Jake, bring back Ed! Hoping for a major resurfacing at some point in #29.

[OnePageAway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Summary: Tatiana spies on Gaia while planning to extract information from Gaia about her mom's whereabouts, Gaia finds a key in Natasha's room which she eventually finds out belongs to a safe house in Alphabet City, Gaia joins Jake's karate team, Ed meets a girl named Kai and starts hitting it off with her but still struggles getting over Gaia, Once Loki recovered from his coma he becomes nice while helping Gaia locate Tom, Tatiana hires some backup in the form of Brendan and his gang, Gaia along with Jake and his karate friends help fight off Brendan during the time Tatiana's plan was to unfold, Gaia and Jake win with Tatiana getting sent to jail but with Jake having a bullet wound in his shoulder from blocking a bullet from Tatiana that was originally meant for Gaia, and the book ends with Oliver telling Gaia that her dad is in Siberia and that they'll need to go rescue him as long as Oliver gets a hold of the necessary passports.

I was never this infuriated when I read through Fearless. Yes, it was bad, but I was seriously pissed off when reading this that I quit several times. Maybe it was just how awful the quality was and how lots of lines left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, Chase had some wasted opportunities in regards to plot.

1. Instead of having Gaia take on muggers in a graveyard (Do these thugs do anything other than mugging or attempted molestation?), why couldn't we see Gaia stop a grave robbery instead? Sure it's a petty complaint and I had mentioned it before, but it would still be refreshing to see Gaia take on new conflicts around NYC. I'm tired of seeing these criminals doing the same crimes in every book.

2. I find it pointless for Ed to gain a love interest, who will likely remain a static character for the sake of having Ed keep trying to fight off his Gaia obsession and failing. Why couldn't we see him get involved in something shady or maybe brushing up on those investigation skills he used earlier in the series? In fact, since Ed mentioned how he'd love to get a pet (although he's allergic to cats), why couldn't there be a heartwarming/amusing subplot of Ed adjusting to the life of being a pet owner?

3. It made me really uncomfortable to see Tatiana act sexual towards Brendan to get to where she wanted when she's likely underage...

4. I'm really despising the hints of Gaia and Jake getting together as there's not really much of a point in doing so this late in the series.

5. The little bit about the front door being unlocked to the school after hours for the janitor is a REALLY bad idea. Not only is the school leaving itself open to possible bomb plants and other lethal plots, but even worse can happen just because no one thought it would be a good idea to look the doors. This book in the Fearless series was published years after the Columbine Shooting took place, which ramped up security measures in schools. Granted, the shooting didn't take place because doors were left unlocked but you would think the school Gaia attends would at least try to protect it's staff and so forth in case danger was to happen. Why didn't the staff/principal leave the doors locked after school ended but gave the janitors each a key so they could go home after their work is done? Better yet, why didn't we get to see Tatiana stealthily try another way in other than an unlocked front door?

6. On another note, who would leave the dojo unlocked to strangers/vandals? If you really wanted to have the climax take place at a dojo at least have the owner go take a break at a restaurant across the street while a student continues with their training.

7. The climax scene really irked me with how cheesy it was. It literally felt ripped from an family animated film. I couldn't take any of it seriously the second Jake showed up out of the blue with his karate dudes.

8. Why didn't we get to see the scene where Tatiana actually gets arrested? It would be satisfying to see Tatiana attempting to fight her way from the cops while yelling at Gaia.

.............

[Edward Creter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 28th outre into the world of the Gaia Moore Universe is marginally better than the last one in that Gaia may learn to actually trust herself to people once again, which is a miracle since she's led a life unimaginable to us real life humans. She never allows herself to be loved by anybody, which is both bogus and sad, yes, as she sees herself as fearless by way of genetics. This, I think, is the biggest lie anybody, male or female, can tell themselves and Gaia has proved herself wrong on so many occasions. The fear is there--fear of love that's genuine, fear of true friendship, fear of enjoying life itself--yet Gaia never acknowledges that. This may change. Today, she's inviten by handsome karate expert Josh to join the karate team at high school, but Gaia feels threatened by that (she had once roundly kicked his ass in combat once...and he admires her for it! Horror!) and besides which, she's so focused on finding her lost father, lost in the game of espionage somewhere in the world. Her only hope, oddly enough, is her evil uncle Loki, now good uncle Oliver by way of coma emergence. Could it be that the most heinous villain of all time is actually connecting with the neice he never knew? WELL...if Darth Vader change around, maybe uncle Oliver the Twisted cando so too. I actually have some hope for the series. See if you agree.

[Terry Marine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rate many of the books in this series three stars; because I "Like" them. The rating doesn't indicate the books are good; it says I "Like" them. The books in this series basically contain three elements: 1. Typical teen drama, 2. Lots of fights for the mighty Mary Sue, 3. Some confusing and implausible spy stuff; which resembles Mad magazine's "Spy vs. Spy" comic strip. Some of Mary Sue's fights are gratuitous, because in a youth novel, fights sublimate sex; which would be obligatory in adult fiction. For example, in book number 22, "Alone" ; Mary Sue and Tatty-Anna see a child abduction, just happen to happen in broad daylight, on a New York City street. They pursue the kidnapper to a polar bear cage in the zoo. And of course, Mary Sue saves the day. This, and a climbing scene for a break and enter, in which Tatty-Anna is charmingly inept, cement the bonding bond, between these erstwhile two rivals. But that was #22, this is #28. Now Tatty-Anna is Mary Sue's foe, as the evil Russian spy; and Loki is the reformed hero. Okay, that's fine. It's like seeing someone wear new clothes. It changes things up, you know? The series would get monotonous otherwise.

[anolinde · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5.

Ed is so goddamn annoying.