Fearless

Easy to read perhaps on a holiday.

Intriguing

Hiliarous, serious,thought provoking journey. A must read…loved it

Its always obvious if authors of fiction are writing about a topic or place they know well as they can seamlessly drop facts in without it appearing as if theyre offering up some sort of PhD thesis and overtly demonstrating their vast knowledge. The fact that Fiona Higgins author of Wife on the Run and The Mothers Group lived in Indonesia and understands the place, customs and culture is thus very obvious (in a good way) in her latest novel, set in Bali.

Higgins did a good job of character development. In fact, as we spent so long with the first character we meet (Janelle) Id assumed shed be the focus but instead each of the six players are given a lengthy introduction and backstory either at that time, or later in the novel.

The characters could easily have been clichd but were complex and each brought something a little different to the group and to the plot.

I assumed this book to predominantly be about the disaster mentioned in the blurb. I wont share what that event entails, but it feels a little late coming (about 2/3 of the way through the book), almost as if an afterthought. Although the events of end are catastrophic and offered our characters some opportunity for growth, they felt a little underdone and almost irrelevant to the story.

The range of characters on offer means this book should appeal to a range of readers, and very particularly lovers of Bali for the realistic portrayal of its culture and customs.

Read the full review on my site: […]

3.5 stars

Fearless is a new fiction novel from Australian author, Fiona Higgins.

I was really excited to read this novel, as Id thoroughly enjoyed Higgins Wife on the Run back in 2014, and everything about Fearless was broadcasting being a great summer read to me. But what really pushed me into reading this one was my catching the 2012 movie The Impossible on TV one night. Its a great movie based on a true story, about a British family on holiday in Thailand, who are separated by the destruction and chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The blurb of Fearless alludes to an unspeakable act happening in Bali, that throws six strangers lives into mayhem and of course thats alluding to an event similar to the 2002 Bali Bombings but The Impossible reminded me of the power in such stories where an unfathomable disaster happens in the middle of paradise so I delved into Fearless, and hated it. Absolutely hated it.

The premise of Fearless is these six strangers from all corners of the globe come to Bali to attend a Fearless retreat where they intend to combat everything from a snake phobia, to fear of heights and flying, to general dissatisfaction with life. We get a chapter that follows each of the six strangers, to understand the deeper meanings behind their wish to combat fear. And straight away from meeting these characters, the story started to fall down for me because theres so much clich theres Annie, an older mid-Westerner who is (of course) an outspoken devout Christian and overweight American. Remy is a Frenchman who falls for Australian Janelle while shes wearing a rash-vest and zinc on her nose (because of course he does Frenchmen are so very romantic). Henry is a paunchy, British bird-watcher and quintessential geek (because hes British?). Cara is a broken mother and even her, who has one of the more compelling and believable backstories, I wish thered be a decision to make a subversive gender-flip and have her be a father grieving the loss of his child, just so that not every character was so darn predictable. And then theres Lorenzo an Italian photographer who has experienced some Bill Henson-esque backlash in his home country, amid accusations that his artistic photographs of ingnue girls are inappropriate his introspective story takes a bizarrely sharp turn towards the end, and I couldnt help but feel he got lugged with this exploration on the clich that Italian men are sleazy and pervy or something?

It wasnt just that these characters all felt built on the most typical of tourism clichs, its also that theyre all kind of unbearable. At one point, the Australian Janelle puts on a saccharine presentation to be filmed for her bulimic teenage niece, wherein she quotes bumper-sticker philosophy while stripping down to her underwear and Taylor Swifts Fifteen plays from her iPod in the background. I just my eyes were so busy rolling, I could barely focus on the page during that scene (which is also when Frenchman Remy really falls in love with her, because of course.)

But the book was also off-putting to me for the presentation of Bali, as seen through the eyes of these Westerners it reminded me of a Kirkus book review I read once, of Heidi R. Klings YA book Sea in which the reviewer accused the story of being; Disaster tourism masquerading as romance and the last line of the review was also apt for Higgins Fearless; Well-meaning, but ultimately about slumming in disaster zones for a summers recuperative fun. Because Higgins does present Bali as a disaster zone, essentially. Everything from Annies observations of their abuse of street dogs, to Remy watching a woman defecate in the street and all six hearing locals bad-mouth the Javanese none of this sat well with me.

So, nothing in this book was really working for me why did I keep reading? Well, I wanted to get to the unspeakable act tagline on the cover I thought everything at the Fearless retreat and getting to know these strangers was boring or infuriating, but maybe theyd rise to the occasion in the midst of a disaster? But this plot-turn doesnt happen until around page 220 (of a 391-page book) and it did feel utterly disjointed from the rest of the story it felt cheap, actually as did the whole book for me, unfortunately and ultimately.

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