Review Detail

While Fearless didn’t provide me with much more insight into Hunter’s past than I had already gleaned from Storm, it was interesting to see a less confident side of Hunter and the dynamic between him and his father.

Part of Hunter’s appeal, and his simultaneous untrustworthiness, in Storm was his mysteriousness and his confidence; he always seemed to know exactly what to say, or when to say nothing at all. So imagine my delight to see a younger, clueless Hunter, one who has yet to learn that unshakeableness that’s such a staple of his characterization in both Storm and Spark.

"Bleeding? He touched a hand to his nose and felt wetness. Crimson drops clung to his fingers.
Clare was fishing through her backpack. “Here.”
Tissues. He held one to his face. This was just great. Maybe he could pee his pants next."

This is Hunter during his formative years, when the gravity of his role as a fifth hadn’t truly sunk in. It’s why I appreciated the few scenes with his father so much, as it was in Fearless that the dangers of being an Elemental was truly driven home for me. While Hunter’s father teaches him many things, he also works to let Hunter learn his own lessons which is why when he learns of Hunter’s new friendship with Clare, the only advice he had was: use them before they use you. It was a defining moment for Hunter, a moment where he began to question the relationships in his father’s life, and how his own powers will ultimately affect his relationships in the future.

"But for the first time, Hunter started to wonder if what looked like doting was really … tolerance. Indulgence. As soon as he had the thought, Hunter shoved it out of his head. They’d been together for seventeen years. They never fought. He’d never questioned their love for each other, because their love for him was an unwavering constant. But now that he’d considered it, he couldn’t stop thinking it."

When your emotions effect those of the people around you, how can you ever be sure they truly like you for who you are, and not for who you want them to think you are? Unfortunately for Hunter, he mostly ignores his father’s advice and Fearless works to show him just how far people are willing to go, just how deceptive they can be, in order to further their own agendas.

Slightly darker than both Elemental and Storm, Fearless was a really interesting look into Hunter’s past. I do wish that he would have been a little more suspicious of Clare’s sudden interest in him and his father’s rather impressive gun collection, and I would have liked to see more interaction between Hunter and his father, the man who helped shaped him into such an enigma.