Shock

Fearless #27

by Francine Pascal

Sam's disappearance had caused Gaia a great deal of pain, but he suddenly returns, leaving her wondering about the true intentions of his homecoming.

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

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 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 2 out of 5]

Not loving this one. I'd been enjoying revisiting this childhood favourite series right up to book 25... but the last two have flopped, this one particularly so. The plot seems to have gone past unlikely and into the bad soap-opera realms of the ludicrous. It's as if FP has decided on the spot to turn a couple of trusted characters into traitors in an ill-advised attempt at plot-twistery. It doesn't work - she ends up contradicting a lot of earlier events in the series, or giving unsatisfactory explanations in an attempt to mollify the devoted readers. Maybe she's assuming that by book 27 some readers haven't read or have forgotten the earlier storyline? I was disappointed. Nevertheless, based on the strength of the first 25 I will persevere, bring on no. 28! Fingers crossed for a redeeming read.

[Edward Creter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gaia's sitch is getting worse and worser. Not only has she lost Ed Fargo as a boyfriend and friend, her father may be actually dead, and her Russian stepmother could be the death of our plucky heroine yet. I wish there weren't so many soap opera-esque plot twists like who should come back from the grave or who should we turn into a bad guy. It's a little old and very depressing.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

The whole "Gaia trusts someone, they betray her, cue angst" formula has worn a little thin

[OnePageAway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Summary: Ed and Gaia continue to strain their relationship, Dmitri keeps on trying to find clues about where Tom went with Gaia's help, Tatiana gets more snobbish and strange acting during the course of Shock, Loki remains in a coma, Gaia is under suspicion that Sam is trying to kill her but retracts that thought when she finds a gun in the fireplace of Natasha's apartment which was likely used to shoot at her during the Church meeting setup, Gaia dumps the gun in the waters near the Carnival and fights off some thugs shortly after, Natasha plans to kill Gaia with the help of Tatiana (Who had Sam's cellphone the whole time and knew where Gaia was since Gaia had left a voicemail to meet him later), Tatiana and Natasha pummel Gaia as Natasha verbally abuses her and reveals that she poisoned Tom at dinner and had him dumped into a river, CIA shows up to have Natasha arrested while Tatiana goes into hiding where she'll plan her revenge on Gaia, and Shock closes with Dmitri hugging Gaia as she wonders if what Natasha said about Tom's current whereabouts is true.

Some action this time around in Shock, albeit still not very much.

1. It's about time the school notices that Gaia skips class an awful lot, However the story heavily implies that Gaia will continue to not care about education and will keep skipping school.

2. I love how Dmitri is aware that sending sensitive information over email is risky yet Loki never took note of this.

3. On my digital version of Shock I could barely read Megan's letter to Tatiana. I also happened to have the physical copy and still could not read the cursive writing. I know lots of people write in cursive but couldn't Francine Pascal make it in Comic Sans or something more readable?

4. Even though I admittedly thought the part with Natasha and Tatiana attempting to kill Gaia was pretty cool, I thought it came out of nowhere with not much of a build up.

The CHASE is on in the next book....

[Christy Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to do the thing of trusting my first instincts because in these books they are usually right. That's for sure when comes to Natasha and Tatiana.

Feel bad for Gaia cause everything is falling apart and she don't have anyone she can really trust though Dimitri who she rescued with Sam in last book did come through at end when she set Natasha and Tatiana up.

We have no update on Tom but we did get little pages of Loki's coma thoughts which is strange since how he was and how they are now.

So awkward with Gaia and Ed plus Sam don't want anything do with her now after she freaked out thinking he was one trying kill her.

I keep reading because I want series to end and Gaia to be happy with her dad and have boyfriend that not flipping out. Plus I'll feel accomplished I started this in 2005 so to know I'm 9 books from end is great.

[Russty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book... Read way out of order, only my second by this author(happened to find it lying around in some books I was about to donate), but plan to go back and try them all. Don't know if I'll make it back to #27(if my library even has it), but gonna give it a shot... Gaia is a very interesting character, with some of the sub-actors not far behind, and looks like many more are introduced in the interim. Should be interesting!!!

[Alisha Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: Shock
Series: Fearless (#27)
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.

[Laura Hedrick]

Another one of my thrift shop finds, & another one that's late in a series where characters have already been developed. Gah! I read it long ago & looked for the rest of the series but never found it. (yes, even as an adult I liked it--I have been a Francine Pascal fan since Sweet Valley High #1 when I was in 6th grade)

[Terresia Thompson]

loved it. i been waiting to read the next one. very soon though

[Boo Boo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series just gets better and better with every book. Sadly I don't have the rest in this series so I'll have to go out and find them now.

[anolinde · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5.

Shit went DOWN in this book! Finally. Unfortunately, it's hard to buy Natasha and Tatiana's sudden transformation into evil stepmother/stepsister. Well, I shouldn't say that for Natasha, but the thing is, we've seen her and Tatiana's POVs before, and right up until the end they sounded perfectly innocent. Especially Tatiana. Since Francine Pascal's always been pretty heavy-handed with the bad guys and constantly shows us their maniacal POVs, it's odd that she suddenly chose to be discreet (or outright lie, actually, since their POVs were so drastically different from what was revealed in this book) with Natasha and Tatiana.

And I just... I don't know. Again, Natasha is far easier to imagine double-crossing Gaia, because we've always known she's been a spy, but Tatiana? I knew the reveal was coming and so I've noticed that Tatiana has been working against Gaia for a couple of books now, but her motives are very unclear to me. Has she hated Gaia this whole time? Did Natasha brainwash her? Or is she a spy, too? Sure, she and Gaia have argued, because they're teenagers and also Gaia must be terrible to live with, dear God, but right now it's a stretch for me to believe that she'd try to have Gaia killed.

So. Exciting. But even more suspension of disbelief required than usual.

Also, let's do something with Jake instead of having him pop in and out of the story.