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.
Ah, the one where Gaia actually feels fear, I think. It's about time this girl knew what the rest of us feel like when stuff happens to us out of the blue. This was the perfect series to read as a young high school girl who loves to read.
Not devouring these books at quite the same pace as in the beginning-- it can indeed get a bit repetitive. But enjoying the developments happening with Hannah and Tatiana
Summary: Gaia discovers George is dead, Heather's mental health starts heavily deteriorating from the Fearless serum she took, Tom and Natasha spend the entire book getting tortured before finally escaping the prison they were held in by Loki's goons on a stolen boat, Ed finally is able to walk again which delightfully shocks Tatiana and Gaia among others, Josh tries to help cure Heather despite his efforts eventually getting him shot by Loki, Gaia and Tatiana improve their relationship and also try to find their parents together, Loki lies about Tatiana's mom dying before setting the laboratory on fire in which Gaia and Tatiana end up escaping, and the book ends with Loki taking fearless serum.
Even with all the events that happened I couldn't get really invested in anything other than Heather and Josh's subplot; everything else was just a snooze-fest so don't expect this to be as long as my other reviews.
1. When the minor park characters like Zolov are brought up at some point, a guy called "Mr. Pak" is mentioned. There was never a guy called Mr. Pak, but there's the similarly named Mr. Haq who's had more screentime. I'm reading these books in digital format so I don't know if that was an actual typo or not.
2. I did find it a little amusing that Francine Pascal plugged in a Sweet Valley High book for a quick gag, even knowing she created the SVH series.
3. I can't understand how yelling in the school library is a severe enough offense that can get you expelled. Just.... What?!
4. Why is Heather worried about missing a History test if she was expelled "until further notice"? If Heather couldn't go to school then she wouldn't be able to even take the test. Also, I'm surprised with how she remembered that even with her short term memory loss.
5. What was the point of making Heather's parents absent? I know that with them present, a lot of the plot wouldn't happen but it just makes them come off as terrible parents similar to how Ed's parents left him home alone longer than necessary.
6. I personally found Tom and Natasha's subplot the most boring one of them all in my opinion.
.....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
After a couple of slower paced books, this one gets things back on track. I really enjoyed it. Things are finally moving along quickly between Gaia and Loki.
I've read this series over ten years ago. But I remember it being very good. For the first 18 books. After that the more it lasted the worst it got. I stopped at book 32. These days I wouldn't give it more than 20.
Back to the good stuff. I found that Gaia was a good strong, pretty but still flawed character. She was special without being annoying. It's just that once the author stopped looking over the shoulder of the ghost writer. Things went down the drain pretty fast.
Last note. The series may be in boxes but I won't be giving them away any time soon. She's a good example of an interesting main character in an interesting premise.
Title: Fear Series: Fearless (#23) Author: Francine Pascal Genre: Teen Fiction Rating: 3 stars
I enjoyed reading these when I was younger. It was a good, short read with a great concept. However, it was very predictable.
Gaia was an awesome character, easily relatable even if she was more special than most. She still had her flaws, and in the book she was finding herself as a young woman.