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100 Books, #18: Fearless #1, Fearless
Mar. 8th, 2013 12:10 amYOU GUYS YOU GUYS. You know what the library has? The companion series to Fearless, about Gaia’s career as an FBI agent! I will probably hate them to death, but I almost feel compelled to read them because I looooooved the Fearless series so much when I was thirteen/fourteen.
Fearless! After crafting the Sweet Valley High empire, Francine Pascal went on to found another series, Fearless, which is...well, I never read any of the Sweet Valley books, but I’m pretty sure that Fearless has 110% more espionage, martial arts, and bad attitude. Probably the same amount of blondness, though.
Our heroine is Gaia Moore, with long blonde hair and a penchant for dressing in camouflage and combat boots. She has half a dozen black belts, an IQ of 180, and the most traumatic past EVERTY-EVER. When she was twelve, Gaia’s father’s identical twin brother Loki, who is an international criminal/terrorist mastermind, shot Gaia’s mother. And then Gaia’s father abandoned her, in order to protect her, except he didn’t explain that to her, so Gaia hates everyone.
But I've left out her most important quality. Gaia Moore was - dun dun DUN! - born without the fear gene!
Okay, that’s actually bunk - and not just in a “what do you mean, fear gene?” kind of way. Physical danger doesn’t concern Gaia - one of her hobbies is walking around New York parks at night, hoping someone will try to rob her so she can break out her six black belts and pummel him - but she’s petrified of emotional intimacy, or even just emotional connection, to the point of snapping people’s heads off simply for speaking to her.
She meets her future best friend, Ed, when he asks if she’s lost. She’s all, “No, this is not what lost looks like. This is what pissed off looks like.”
And Ed is like, “She is so beautiful and she was mean to me! No one is ever mean to the guy in the wheelchair! I am in love!” (Ed and his wheelchair are worth another post. For now, it is enough to note that Ed is amazing and clearly a better match for Gaia than the drip who was set up to be her love interest.)
This nastiness is the thing I find interesting about Gaia as a fantasy figure - because she, like the Sweet Valley Twins, is in a way presented as the perfect girl; and when she’s not being ridiculously brave or tragically vulnerable, Gaia is sometimes petty and cruel.
The best example - because Gaia learns from it, and is never quite this petty again - is at the end of the first book. Gaia runs into her nemesis Heather just outside a park invested with gang members. Heather is rude to her - so Gaia doesn’t warn her about the gang.
And then Heather is duly slashed and ends up in the hospital and Gaia is all “I AM THE WORST PERSON EVER and also in love with Heather’s boyfriend oh God oh God, why why why?”
It’s so unusual for a heroine to be allowed to be quite this fucked-up.
Fearless has a lot of problems - “problematic” is not really the right word for it; it’s more like there’s islands of good stuff floating in a vast sea of problematicity. But one of the things I loved so much about Gaia, and one of the things I still admire about the series, is her fearless imperfection: Gaia’s flaws are real and raw and gaping.
Fearless! After crafting the Sweet Valley High empire, Francine Pascal went on to found another series, Fearless, which is...well, I never read any of the Sweet Valley books, but I’m pretty sure that Fearless has 110% more espionage, martial arts, and bad attitude. Probably the same amount of blondness, though.
Our heroine is Gaia Moore, with long blonde hair and a penchant for dressing in camouflage and combat boots. She has half a dozen black belts, an IQ of 180, and the most traumatic past EVERTY-EVER. When she was twelve, Gaia’s father’s identical twin brother Loki, who is an international criminal/terrorist mastermind, shot Gaia’s mother. And then Gaia’s father abandoned her, in order to protect her, except he didn’t explain that to her, so Gaia hates everyone.
But I've left out her most important quality. Gaia Moore was - dun dun DUN! - born without the fear gene!
Okay, that’s actually bunk - and not just in a “what do you mean, fear gene?” kind of way. Physical danger doesn’t concern Gaia - one of her hobbies is walking around New York parks at night, hoping someone will try to rob her so she can break out her six black belts and pummel him - but she’s petrified of emotional intimacy, or even just emotional connection, to the point of snapping people’s heads off simply for speaking to her.
She meets her future best friend, Ed, when he asks if she’s lost. She’s all, “No, this is not what lost looks like. This is what pissed off looks like.”
And Ed is like, “She is so beautiful and she was mean to me! No one is ever mean to the guy in the wheelchair! I am in love!” (Ed and his wheelchair are worth another post. For now, it is enough to note that Ed is amazing and clearly a better match for Gaia than the drip who was set up to be her love interest.)
This nastiness is the thing I find interesting about Gaia as a fantasy figure - because she, like the Sweet Valley Twins, is in a way presented as the perfect girl; and when she’s not being ridiculously brave or tragically vulnerable, Gaia is sometimes petty and cruel.
The best example - because Gaia learns from it, and is never quite this petty again - is at the end of the first book. Gaia runs into her nemesis Heather just outside a park invested with gang members. Heather is rude to her - so Gaia doesn’t warn her about the gang.
And then Heather is duly slashed and ends up in the hospital and Gaia is all “I AM THE WORST PERSON EVER and also in love with Heather’s boyfriend oh God oh God, why why why?”
It’s so unusual for a heroine to be allowed to be quite this fucked-up.
Fearless has a lot of problems - “problematic” is not really the right word for it; it’s more like there’s islands of good stuff floating in a vast sea of problematicity. But one of the things I loved so much about Gaia, and one of the things I still admire about the series, is her fearless imperfection: Gaia’s flaws are real and raw and gaping.
