Namesake by Adrienne YoungGratitude
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Goodreads Giveaways for the Fable trilogy, of which Namesake is the second. I am enjoying reading my way through!
Description
In Namesake, Adrienne Young starts us off where Fable left off, following up on the cliffhanger ending. We soon learn that Fable has a grandmother and her grandmother, Holland, is the cornerstone of the gem trade in the Unnamed Sea, where she holds court in the most affluent city. Fable’s grandmother wants to pull Fable off of her ship, the Marigold, and use her for her own purposes.Fable lives in a world governed by sea trade and poverty. Many are cutthroat, sometimes literally, because that is what they need to do to survive. After being abandoned by her father on the most dangerous island of all, Fable has finally found a family in the crew of the Marigold, including West, with whom she had built a passionate relationship. She will do whatever she can to keep her place on the Marigold.
Will Fable’s father come through and help her? Is West the man she thinks he is or is he the man that everyone else says he is? Will Fable be able to scheme her way from treacherous Holland?
If you enjoyed Fable, you will likely enjoy the Namesake.
Would I Teach This Book?
Would I teach this book? Sequels are not easy to teach without the books that come before. While reading Fable is not a requirement for reading Namesake it certainly helps. It might work for a class on the YA genre or YA fantasy. To teach it in middle school might be difficult because of some mild spicy content—certainly it would depend on the school.
Overall, I would be more likely to teach Fable than Namesake. The series relies, in part, on our love for Fable and our rooting for her to come from the bottom up. Somehow, now that Fable has worked herself up a bit from the bottom, she is not quite as compelling. She does not seem terribly bothered by her problematic power moves—certainly, she cares about what her crew will think, but less about how her choices will impact other people. I am all for girl bosses, but with the questions that are brought up against her father and West, what moral questions does she have for herself?
To be fair, the business deals that Fable sets up are not so violent as West’s or her father’s—but I am wondering about the lack of any moral culpability, beyond the concerns that Fable has for the Marigold’s crew.
The plot also relies on a few moments when Fable is wrong about other characters’ intentions. The turnaround feels cheap, and Fable’s reactions do not seem to equal what the emotional fallout felt like it should be.
View all my reviews
Overall, I would be more likely to teach Fable than Namesake. The series relies, in part, on our love for Fable and our rooting for her to come from the bottom up. Somehow, now that Fable has worked herself up a bit from the bottom, she is not quite as compelling. She does not seem terribly bothered by her problematic power moves—certainly, she cares about what her crew will think, but less about how her choices will impact other people. I am all for girl bosses, but with the questions that are brought up against her father and West, what moral questions does she have for herself?
To be fair, the business deals that Fable sets up are not so violent as West’s or her father’s—but I am wondering about the lack of any moral culpability, beyond the concerns that Fable has for the Marigold’s crew.
The plot also relies on a few moments when Fable is wrong about other characters’ intentions. The turnaround feels cheap, and Fable’s reactions do not seem to equal what the emotional fallout felt like it should be.
View all my reviews
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