Naked

Fearless #16

by Francine Pascal

I'VE BEEN STRIPPED OF A HOME. STRIPPED OF A FAMILY. STRIPPED OF A LIFE. I HAVE ALMOST NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE. EXCEPT THE ONE I LOVE MOST.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction, Childrens, Romance, Mystery, Suspense

Library Binding

First published July 1, 2001

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

[OnePageAway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Summary: Gaia decides to stay with the Moss family while her dad is away, Gaia bonds with Paul, Sam is still being tormented by Josh to deliver packages and limit his contact with Gaia, The story of "The Accident" is finally revealed, Heather and Ed's relationship is strained, Loki continues to track Tom, Tom carries out his mission in Berlin while learning about Loki likely going to use Gaia for DNA testing in the future, and Gaia is left to wonder if Loki is actually the villain AGAIN.

Recurrent stupidity as usual, except Naked manages to take it much worse. Communication skills have gone down to -1% and the book completely undoes any progress made previously. Gaia finally figuring out who to trust? That's gone! Gaia happily being with Sam? That's gone too!

1) Gaia claims to cry under five times in five years. It's complete bullshit because she's cried numerous times in Fearless.

2) Gaia claims to empathize with George yet if she actually did care about him, she would have sat down to eat with him and Ella, spent more time with him, and actually took it upon herself to stay with him even for a short time. George is dealing with lots of hardships by this point, yet Gaia chooses to do NOTHING about it.

3) I should have brought this up earlier, but if Loki's so secretive and brilliant, why doesn't he bother using a VPN to hide his eeeevil internet activity from the FBI that they can use against him?

4) Sam blames everything on Ella for the one night stand. I can understand that, but he blames HER for getting him drunk. In reality, Sam was the one who decided to go to a bar that night and get drunk. He was the one who decided to drink lots of alcohol, so he's partially to blame for the stand itself.

5) What's Gaia's response to Sam getting freaked out by the Taxi driver? "You should have warned me you were such an asshole."

First off, how was that considered a jerk move in the slightest? SAM WAS SCARED OUT OF HIS MIND. Second, it could have really helped if Sam actually told Gaia what was going on instead of panicking without context. This part seriously makes me hate Gaia even more (as if Sam is any better).

6) Why aren't any cops searching for Loki if they know he's escaped from prison?

7) How the hell would Gaia be a pro at a sport she had only played that day? It only adds on to the heap of other Mary Sue traits she already possesses.

8) The upcoming DNA Testing subplot actually sounds cool, although since the books quality are rapidly deteriorating I shouldn't have my hopes up.

9) Gaia is so fucking dumb that she goes back to believing Loki's not a villain when he shows up at Mary's place to talk to her. I mean, really Tom? You thought it was a good idea to teach your Sue daughter all these languages, combat skills, and knowledge yet you never thought manipulation deserved a mention?

10) According to Loki, people aren't actually making choices because surveys and shit have already predicted it.

People aren't the robots you think they are, Loki. They all have different interests. For example, one person may not think Breaking Bad is good while another will think it's the greatest show of all time. One little girl might prefer to play with Hot Wheels while a group of other girls of the same age may prefer playing with dolls. This might blow Loki's mind, but companies launch surveys all the time because people's opinions change often. If people didn't make different choices then we would have the same products with barely any competitors because people would only want one product. If people didn't make choices, we'd all wear the same clothing and ultimately live the same lifestyle because no one would ever think "maybe I don't like this way of living and I should try something different."

But that's not how real life works.

In fact, Mr. Surveys-Are-Ultimatum over here made his own choices throughout Fearless. Loki chose to stalk his underage relative, He chose to be a villain, Loki chose to hire Pearl to kill Ella, Loki chose to risk spending time with Gaia which led to him ultimately, and Loki chose to be an idiot numerous times in Fearless. I could go on, but honestly Loki felt like a gigantic hypocrite at that point in his monologue. I don't even know if it's part of his character for him to not understand how humans actually function but then again this is all coming from the same man who doesn't know emotions come from the brain.


Fearless as a whole keeps getting more atrocious every sequel, but I don't think I'll see myself FLEEing anytime soon.

[Edward Creter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy, just when you have all your hopes up for Gaia and her friends, lo and behold, their progress as well-maintained spirits backtracks. Specially Gaia, who still can trust no one. What's that say about us--all of us? Trust and love are important to the human condition and I hope (still) that Gaia can know that in her adventures. It's amazing what sympathy for fictional characters can do.

[Merary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just because I want to do something different I'm going to write the reviews in a Friends episode format. Enjoy!

The One With The Deep Buried Secrets

Tom Moore has abandoned Gaia Moore. Again. When she receives a call from Mary's mother to stay with them, Gaia finally gets a chance to feel like part of a family. Sam Moon is still in his deep struggle. Josh is still hiding something from him, and he will do anything in his power to kill Sam Moon if he doesn't do what he says. Meanwhile, Ed Fargo and Heather Gannis aren't what they used to be. Since Ed revealed his secret to Gaia, Heather's chance to get the money is null. But, what Ed doesn't know is the real reasons behind his accident . . . and the person near his might the guilty one after all.

Actual rating: 3.5/5 stars

Another one that I didn't enjoy as much. Where's the action that made me fall in love with these books? Where's the depth? Oh whom am I kidding? These books are suffering because they were stretched far too long for its own good. Don't get me wrong, I still like Gaia. She's still my favorite character of this series.
Ed and Heather make the most awful couple. I hate Heather and its selfish, hypocrite ways. These two together remind me of a Hispanic TV couple. Oh, yeah! I remember; La Familia Peluche. I really don't want to explain the whole plot of the show, but I'll explain you this: The main couple is pretty much dysfunctional. The guy is always humiliated by his wife; always being told what to do, always being insulted. The wife is pretty much a hypocrite and acts like everything is the guy's fault. When it is her fault, she always twists around so the guy gets the blame. The only difference is that in that show, that relationship is played for comedy. Ed and Heather's relationship just makes me so fucking sad. I feel very sorry for Ed that he has to deal with her nagging, hypocrite, lying ass. Did you know that Heather was the real reason why Ed was in a wheelchair on the first place? That settles it.
I'm glad Ed dumped her.
And Sam Moon, like always, pisses me off. But that's another story.

[Lindsay Wilcox]

As of December 17, 2011, the problem described below has been corrected.

For the record, the cover Goodreads is displaying is not the correct cover. Photoshop can be nefarious in the hands of the wily. It should look like this user-submitted image from Amazon:

[anolinde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, these characters just go round and round in circles, don't they? I guess if they ever actually communicated with one another half of these books wouldn't have had to happen. At least this Paul guy is interesting.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay. Man i need to stop following these religiously.

[Christy Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was only slightly better than the last one.

We find out how Ed ended up in the wheelchair doing something on a dare because pride and also I blame some on Heather no matter what he says. She wanted a freaking bedroom she seriously needs help. Still mad over the money too childish.

Gaia and Sam had 1 book of happy now they broken up ugh too much drama. Josh got Sam spiraling too all the attempts and fights stuff.

I'm little suspicious now that Gaia moved into place of Mary Moss family. They somehow in with Loki? He showed up trying brain wash Gaia and think it working which sucks cause her dad trying get home stop him.

[Christina Mages · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kept me hooked right from the beginning. Loved it

[Courtney · Rating 1 out of 5]

These books have aged so poorly (and were honestly never really good), but boy do I have very strong nostalgia for them

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam is a big coward!!