Fearful Book Review

As a certified Kitt hater (controversial opinion, I know), I have admittedly been putting off reading Fearful. Although I adored the Powerless trilogy and the first novella holds a very special place in my heart, as it hit me harder emotionally than any the main books, I was afraid I’d dislike Fearful purely because it is from Kitt’s POV. I had this fear that somehow, with this being my last impression of the series, it would diminish my love for it as a whole.

While I still didn’t love Fearful, this thankfully wasn’t the case. I was able to accept this book for what it was: an insight into the reasoning behind Kitt’s actions in the trilogy, even if I still do not agree with said actions nor fully understand them.

What got me through this book was the introduction of a new character, Mara, who is the personification of Death. The way Lauren Roberts wrote this character is so intriguing, especially with the angle she took with the character as someone who doesn’t kill, but merely leads souls into the afterlife after Life tires of them.

Reading from Mara’s perspective was so fun because of her bluntness and interesting observations of life and the people around her. Since she can’t be seen, she often spies on Powerless characters Blair and Lenny, so you get a fun little insight into their relationship, Blair’s character and regrets, and what really happened to Blair in Fearless. These chapters were by far my favorite.

As for Kitt, I suppose I should address him, seeing as how the book was centered around his shocking actions in Fearless. While I do have some empathy for him and realize his mind is not completely sound from taking the Plaque, I still cannot defend him. He claims that everything he did was out of love for his brother, but really, his brother would have never wanted the future Kitt envisioned for them.

Also, if this were true, he would have stood up for Kai more throughout their childhood and definitely would not have forced Kai continue his role as Enforcer upon becoming King. Especially after knowing firsthand how deeply someone you love is hurting and that you have the power to stop it, I don’t care who your father is or how scary it is to stand up to him at that point. As a protective older sister, it frustrated me that Kitt never took action in defense of his brother. As for his hatred towards Paedyn, she was never stealing Kai from him. As cheesy as this sounds, there is enough love to go around, and his whinny attitude annoyed me, quite frankly.

*minor spoilers in the following paragraphs*

All in all, I had expected and hoped that this novella would answer my lingering questions from the end of the trilogy, but it only seemed to create more. There were a lot of allusions to their being more to the Plaque and its creation, Mara having a past relationship with an Azer, and someone in the series being the new Death, but none of this was explained. Perhaps Lauren is setting us up for future books? If so, it honestly felt a little last minute.

If you are going to read this novella, I’d say it’s worth it to find out the true cause (or should I say true killer) behind Kitt’s death, as everything is not as it seems in Fearless. This little twist had my jaw dropping. Kitt’s fate in the afterlife definitely took a dark turn, although I felt that it was completely deserved, although Kitt lovers might say otherwise.

*end of spoilers*

I ended up rating this book 2 stars. It’s definitely my least favorite in the series. However, if you’ve read all the Powerless books and are skeptical about Fearful like I was, I still think it is worth the read! I also realize that there is a lot of debate surrounding Lauren Roberts and plagiarism recently, and while I love the Red Queen series and definitely see the similarities that may be beyond coincidental, I do think that as the Powerless trilogy progresses, Lauren makes the story more her own and develops a lot as a writer. After all, she was only 18 when she started writing the series, and I think Fearful is a great representation of her growth as a writer with her creativity and experimentation in this novella.