Fearless by Cornelia Funke: even better than the first one!!

Fearless 

by 

Cornelia Funke

Jacob is going to die. At least that’s what everyone keeps telling him. To save his brother Jacob will pay the ultimate price . . . unless he can get his hands on something in the magical Mirror World that will cure him. Problem is he’s tried everything. Except for a magical crossbow. Shot in hate it can kill thousands, but shot in love it just might be able to heal him. With only a few months left to live Jacob is willing to try anything. Even if it means getting shot in the heart. But if Fox is willing to take that chance they still need to find it before anybody else.

Characters

Jacob: Amazing what a death warrant will do for your character development. He was far more focused and mature this time around. The fact that he realized he was totally head over heels for Fox certainly helped. And can I just say how perfectly Funke managed to portray his desperation. Because it was beautiful. He agonized over it just the right amount of time for me to feel really scared for his life but not so long that it got annoying. I love Jacob he was unexpectedly awesome in this book.

Fox: How can you go wrong with a girl who can turn into a fox?! 

(well you can a little bit because she didn’t have that much to do in the last book) 

But who cares because She’s gotten times cooler! Not that she wasn’t cool in the last one it’s just that she wasn’t so overshadowed by all the other characters. Also probably because Jacob was busy being half dead for a good bit of the story. I also liked how Fox had to start relying on her human side just as much as her Vixen side.

Likes

There were less characters which is always nice: Will and Clara were . . . alright in the last book. But compared to Fox and Jacob they were on the boring side. Okay maybe I’m being a bit generous. One of my main complaints about Will was that he was more plot device than character. He and Clara were both like that honestly. Besides with the reduced cast of characters I got to see a lot more of Jacob and Fox.

Holy crap Bluebeard was terrifying: I remember reading the Bluebeard fairytale as a kid and it scared me too death! 

(so of course I read it the most) 

Needless to say Cornelia Funke’s version was ten times scarier. I’m pretty sure he was like the mirror world version of a serial killer which is awesome and all but it’s also another reason why this book shouldn’t be in the kids section. Seriously? Why is this in the kids section? Some of this stuff is enough to give me nightmares.

The romance was totally adorable: but not mentioned every other page thank goodness. It was probably the most realistic romance I’ve read in a while. I’ve complained about YA romances before where every other sentence that comes out of their mouth is about whatever person they’re crushing on. It’s probably just the author’s ham-handed way of showing how much the characters like each other but surely I’m not the only one who finds the whole thing really, really annoying.  On a side not though can I just mention that it was super cute how they spent half their time saving each other. Totally adorable.

Dislikes

Apparently there weren’t any drawings in this one: I just assumed that my copy was the only one but apparently none of the versions had Cornelia Funke’s drawings in them. In the last book Funke illustrated her own book 

(life goals)

 and they were beautiful! Except they weren’t in this one. According to one person on Goodreads the lack of original art was due to the publishers meddling. Too bad.

These books are awesome! I mean seriously awesome. I’ve read a lot of fairytale retellings and stories written like fairytales. These are easily the most beautiful and scariest versions of those stories and I am completely sold. Sure, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles will probably still be my favorites (their humorous tone is a little more my style) but I’ll go for dark stabby fairytales any day.