Books written by Adrienne Young. Published 2020-2021.
Fable is the daughter of one of the most profitable scumbags in the world. Saint abandoned her after her mother drowned at sea, but he promised that if she could make her way back to him off of one of the harshest islands in the Narrows, he would give her what she rightly earned. So Fable learned to survive; she learned how to dredge for gems, how to get out of trouble, and how to stay out of it, all so she can reunite with her father and prove to him that she deserves a place on his crew.
One day, Fable’s luck runs out, and she needs to make a quick escape from the island. She turns to West, the young helmsman she trades with and the only one Fable really trusts to keep her in one piece as she makes her way back to her father’s base of operations. This voyage is all kinds of unplanned. Fable makes friends, falls in love, and essentially discovers the family she’s been missing all along.
But Saint isn’t the only one in Fable’s biological family with something to offer her. In the end, Fable will have to make a choice: the family she remembers, or the family she found.
I really liked the first book in this duology. It did a good job of creating a detailed world that was imaginative and unique. I especially liked the scenes Fable dredges in. Her descriptions and experiences underwater are really colorful compared to some of the other books I’ve read within the pirate/seafaring-maiden genre. The characters and the romance were also a solid win for Young in my opinion. Sadly, the second book was a bit of a letdown for me. I felt that it just didn’t bring anything new to the table. What little I did like about it could have easily been put into the first book, and it would have made it that much better.
Overall, I’m glad I took the time to read it, but that’s about the extent of it.
These books contain language, on-screen and off-screen sex (though not blatant or extensive—less than a full page, easy to skip over), and some blood, but no scary pools or missing limbs. Consider it barely rated R if it were a movie.
Stay tuned for more thoughts on Fable! Here come the spoilers . . .
I think the one thing I really liked about this duology was the characters. First, I liked that Fable’s character was quieter than some of the other sea-faring maidens I’ve read in the past few months. In learning to survive, she’s learned to keep to herself, so she doesn’t draw a lot of attention, and she doesn’t trust anyone. She’s come to believe that you can’t get something for nothing, so she works hard and trades smart. So really, Fable is a warrior with a quiet strength that everyone underestimates. But this first book is all about re-writing these lessons that Fable spent years learning. She learns to come out of this defensive shell she spent years building up, and that happens mainly through the romance element between Fable and West.
Their relationship is actually really sweet. West sacrifices a lot to protect the people he cares about, and in this universe that Young has written, that makes a person really vulnerable. So when West first takes Fable on his crew, he doesn’t really want one more person to have to sacrifice for because he’s already spread so thin. So while it’s apparent that these two come to really care about each other, both are reluctant to give in to those feelings because neither wants to really trust each other. But then they both can’t really help themselves, and they start to think that maybe their relationship doesn’t make them vulnerable. That idea really came through in how they treat each other. I liked how protective West is of Fable because even though she is pretty convinced that she doesn’t need it (and for the most part, she really doesn’t), it was touching to see that someone was looking out for her and genuinely cared about her well-being after she spent so much time alone and surrounded by people that saw her as either a threat or a nothing. It was also nice to see somebody willing to take risks for West as much as he risks for everyone else. In a way, they give each other support so that they can continue to be themselves, which is a beautiful element in a healthy relationship.
But that was just in the first book.
There was very little I actually liked about Namesake. My biggest issue was simply that the plot seemed pointless because it didn’t drive the characters forward in any way. Hear me out: Holland is the type of antagonist that likes to play around with the protagonists until they are firmly entangled in a well-thought-out trap. And Holland is the overly-confident type, so she doesn’t even bother trying to hide her intentions from Fable. In my experience, this kind of trope is meant to give the protagonist something to fight for/against so they gather courage and learn to keep to their morals and that kind of stuff. But Fable and West are entirely too self-sacrificing. What was endearing about them in the beginning just becomes a recurring issue for them. They continually get in each other’s way so that by the climax, there’s really no way out. Holland hasn’t ensnared her prey as much as they’ve tripped themselves right into her path. Instead of growing together or challenging themselves as characters, Fable and West stumble into “damsel in distress” status, which doesn’t strike me as character development at all. And I know that they had some sort of contingency plan put in place that would free them both, but I don’t think the entirety of that plan was ever revealed. The only reason that Fable and West got out of the hole they dug themselves into was because of Saint. So I’m not sure what happened to their contingency plan—would it have worked if Saint hadn’t shown up? Was Saint the contingency plan? Either way, it just didn’t come across very well and didn’t leave me adoring the main characters as much as I did.
That being said, I did like the ending of Namesake. It was beautiful the way Fable finally got closure with her father and her mother in a way (though that maybe could have been done without all the Midnight madness). In the end, West and Fable got exactly what they wanted: Saint’s respect, the Marigold free and clear, and a trade route of their own . . . which is pretty much exactly what they had at the end of the first book. It would have been easy for Saint to just tip his hat and say, “Well played. Love you, Fable. See you out there,” at the end of Fable, and it would have been a really good standalone novel. But no. We had to get dragged around through all the extra pointless drama before we could get to that bit.
I don’t mean to harsh on Young’s ideas because I do like what she’s created, I just don’t understand the point of the second book. But I’d love to chat about it with the rest of you! Let me know your perspective in the comments below, and tell me if you think I missed something.
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