Pascal, F. (2002). Fearless #1. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.
ISBN-10: 0671039415
•Plot Summary
Gaia Moore is the new girl in school, and on the surface, looks like any other teenage girl of seventeen. Unlike others her age, or indeed anyone at all, Gaia can't experience fear. Born without a gene to allow its being generation by her mind, not to mention speed and reflexes that are also well above average, she spends her free time exacting revenge on criminals that try to attack innocent people. Ed Fargo sees Gaia in the hall, and instantly falls in love, to the point where he begins following her around in his wheel chair. A few nights later, while Gaia is strolling for criminals, Ed mistakes the situation and charges in to "rescue" her. Unable to do anything about it, Gaia is forced to knock out the three criminals, and allow Ed to find out about her physical abilities, albeit not her fearlessness. Unfortunately for Gaia, the situation is about to become even more complicated when her new classmate (Heather) becomes her enemy, and Gaia fails to explain to the other girl that a new group of guys is in the park with a knife, just as Heather starts to enter it. Gaia does tell Heather's friends, who are less than a minute behind the other girl in arriving, but it's too late. Heather is attacked, ends up in ICU, and everyone thinks Gaia allowed Heather to be nearly murdered. Gaia blames herself, believing that because she mentally thought about Heather deserving to be stabbed, that it happened. Heather's boyfriend, the disturbingly handsome, intelligent, and loyal Sam, thinks so too. But Gaia and Sam have met before, the two having played chess, and both experiencing a level of magnetism neither had ever experienced before. Days later, when Gaia goes to the park to bring her chess buddy Zolov a sandwich, Sam is there. She rushes off, but soon after Sam goes in search, and comes back in time to find Zolov being attacked by some of the same guys that had attacked Gaia and Ed. Unable to help Zolov directly, Sam runs to find a pay phone for a 911 call, and Gaia finds Zolov. Seeing Sam running, she accuses him of having committed the crime, only realizing she is wrong after the real perpetrators make a reappearance. Sam and Gaia take the group on, and manage to make it out alive, but Gaia ends up in the hospital just a few rooms down from Heather's new location. Sam and Gaia have another experience like they had over the chess match, but with more sensuality involved, feeling a connection they cannot explain. The nurse enters, and explains that Sam's girlfriend is looking for him, so the two part ways. That night, one of the attackers meets with an older woman he's been meeting with for awhile, one that's been giving him instructions. Her name is Ella, and is married to George, the man Gaia's father sent her to live with. Ella quickly dispatches the inept attacker, and goes home, knowing that Gaia has been released and will be there as well. The novel ends here.
•Critical Evaluation
A clean, fast-paced novel, hard to define in terms of genre. Classified here as Science Fiction, due to the genetic manipulation factors inherent in Gaia's make-up. As a character, she is superhuman, but still possesses factors of vulnerability that make her likable.
•Reader’s Annotation
There are twenty-one books in this series. Unknown if violence, language, and sexual content increase through the series.
•Information about the author
Born in New York, 1938, Francine Pascal graduated from NYU in 1958. While she had been married once before, it was here that she met her second husband, John Pascal. Her three daughters from the previous marriage lived with the couple in Manhattan, until John's death from cancer in 1981. Francine's older daughter, Jamie, died in 2008 from liver disease. She splits her time between New York and France, and has never remarried.
Francine published her first novel in 1977, and several of her books have been made into television movies. She is probably most well known, however, for being the author of the Sweet Valley High series of novels.
•Genre
Science Fiction
•Curriculum Ties
N/A
•Booktalking Ideas
Superheroes, genetic modification
•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 9-12/Ages 14-19
•Challenge Issues
N/A
•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
Unlike most teens, I never read the Sweet Valley High novels, this one intrigued me. I liked the idea of a girl who was unable to feel fear, and was therefore fight crime.
