Lynnie
fantasy, action-suspense, young adult
Fable was abandoned by her father on an island to fend for
herself after their ship was destroyed in a fatal storm. The
novel begins four years later when she has accumulated enough savings for
passage off the island in search of her father.
Amy's Review
While the story is not a page turner from page 1, it does
immediately hold your attention and gets better the more you read. The
characters are very well drawn. Adrienne Young does an
excellent job of building the atmosphere. I easily pictured the islands, ships,
and coastal towns. The imagery is not
overdone (i.e., it’s not too wordy and boring) but is real. The small fantasy element related to Fable’s
special ability is fun. Halfway through
the novel, the characters start letting down their guard and the reader is
given more insight into their backstories. That’s when it really gets fun and
the plot becomes compelling.
My biggest criticism is that the novel ends on a
cliffhanger. I definitely prefer series novels to be more self-contained in
their story arcs. Thankfully, the sequel comes out in two months so I don’t
have to wait long for the continuation of the story. But it was a quick read
that held my interest and I liked it.
I read some of this novel on Kindle and listened to some of
it on audiobook. The audiobook narrator,
Emma Lysy, was a decent voice actor but really had no voice repertoire. I will
give her a B.
Lynnie's Review
I enjoyed Fable right up until the ending--I hate a cliffhanger ending! But I am glad the second book will be released soon so I won't have forgotten what happened inbetween. I enjoyed the story, the adventure, and getting to know the characters even though their actions were predictable, particularly the cliffhanger which seemed really obvious to me (a great example of Chekhov's gun). I often had to remind myself of the ages of the characters--sometimes they would act much older than their ages and other times so much younger. But, overall, the character/crew interactions were probably the most interesting part of the book for me.
I'm eager to hear where this story ends up and hope that it's just a duology and not a trilogy.
Amy
Lynnie
fantasy, action-suspense, young adult
Amy's Review
Picking up exactly where Fable left off, Namesake continues
at a good pace. The characters and situations leap off the page. But this
finale wasn’t as good as fun as the original novel. I felt this one got a
little too convoluted because there were so many different points of stress and
strife. And the Roth storyline was frustrating because the reader is left out
of Fable’s plans. I also didn’t love the way West was a hostage to his own
feelings through much of it. It diminished him.
I don’t have much more to say other than you should read it
to see the resolution of the cliffhanger
from Fable. But don’t expect as much from this one.
Lynnie's Review
An enjoyable end to this saga--I was happy to spend more time with Fable and the crew of the Marigold as the adventure continued. My only complaint is that the narrative got away from the boat for a good part of the book so we sort of lost touch with all those characters we'd met and loved in Young's first book of the series, Fable.
I still enjoyed the story, though, and the world that Young created throughout. Her characters were fun and well-written, and I was very glad to have that cliffhanger and the story wrapped up nicely.
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