Member Reviews
Thank you for providing the ARC to review Fable before its publishing date.
I loved this book so much I'm probably going to be talking about it past its publishing date. The plot was fast-paced in a way that I couldn't wait to read more after each chapter. The characters are great. I loved Fable as a MC because she was independent, and hard-working and I think the feminism in this book is palpable and truly inspiring in a way that I didn't mind the lack of romance in the first two-thirds or so of the book. With this said, Fable is established as a tale of adventure that when romance is introduced it was the book a thousand times better.
I can't wait to buy my own copy when the book comes out, and post a review in my biog and recommend it to the patrons in the library I work at.
This book was really good. I am a big fan of the authors books and this did not disappoint. The storey was good and the characters too. I can't wait for book 2!
I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review
Fable is the type of character you can't help but root for and love. I haven't connected with a character like this since Anne of Green Gables. Adrienne Young's character-building makes this book difficult to put down. Fable is a tough, determined, spirited young girl trying to sail away from a city where she was abandoned four years prior. She will do anything to gain passage to a new town, and prove herself along the way. Her spirit isn't the only thing that attracts me to this character. Fable is resilient. She is a survivor. It's the message we all need to hear in this day and age. While there have been a few nautical books released lately, Fable stands apart. This story is not focused on sea witches or pirates; It's the story of a driven girl fighting for her place in the world.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Although I have two Adrienne Young books on my shelf, I have not read them yet. However, she is quite a popular author on bookstagram, so when I saw this book (and honestly look at how gorgeous the cover is) I knew I had to read it. I went into it without reading the synopsis and had no idea what it would be about. I naively believed it to be a fractured fairytale.
I was wrong.
Fable is the name of the main character, who was dumped onto this island named Jeval. Her father, Saint, claims Fable was not meant for this world. And to show her he's serious, he abandons her on this dangerous island where Fable is forced to dredge pyre in order to survive. Selling pyre to West, the man aboard The Marigold, who has bought faithfully from her for the last two years, allows Fable to save up enough money in hopes one day she would get passage back home to confront Saint, her father, and demand what is rightfully hers.
Well the plan is good in theory, but of course she is nearly killed for having too much coin. She's chased off the island and saved by, none other than West. From there, her plan of finding Saint is set into motion.
Young provides an abundance of characters, the most notable being The Marigold's crew. Admittedly I had a difficult time keeping them straight in my mind, besides Willa. The other members fell flat to me. I also liked West, but at the very beginning I pictured him as a middle age chubby sailor. I don't know why, but he's young and hot apparently.
The MC, Fable, was hard get to know. This story is told from 1st POV, so the reader has to connect with the MC. I didn't, because I did not get much of her personality. She cried a lot, which was rather annoying. I felt like every chapter she had tears in her eyes. I'm all for vulnerability, but this was almost a nuisance. She also always seemed to know where Saint was.
Saint was undutifully the most interesting character and we honestly did not get much from him. He was the king of trade and was deeply in love with Fable's mother until she met a tragic end. I think his history and the story of how he fell in love with this water born woman would have been an even better story.
That is not to say that I did not like the story, I did. I thought it was interesting. However, I did have problems with world building. I did not think I knew the world as well as Young wanted me to understand it. I felt like their were plot points that did not necessarily make sense, and the ending was rather lackluster. I know we should have been surprised, but I had to remember who that character was because there was not a lot of build up around that particular character.
Overall, I liked the book and will probably read the next one.
Adrienne Young has done it again with another complex, character-driven story that sucks the reader in from start to finish and evokes all the emotions.
I've noticed an influx of nautical YA fantasy lately, but Fable will surely stand out due to its raw character relationships, vivid setting and descriptions, and the timelessness of a young woman trying to find her place in the world.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC of my most anticipated book of 2020!
This was a quick, enjoyable read. Fable's world is so harsh and unforgiving, and I found myself rooting for her to finally catch a break. This ARC has some patterns of errors that shouldn't have made it this far in the editing process, and the ending felt very abrupt even for the first book in a series, but overall I liked it and look forward to book 2.
Fable has been stuck on the island of Jeval since her father abandoned her there four years ago. She’s scraped by diving for gems until she can buy passage off the island, but the ship she secures passage on is not the simple trading ship it seems. Naturally, adventure awaits! This was a really fun book, with deep sea diving, shady traders that are almost pirates, and a crew formed of a bunch of outcasts. The found family trope is my favorite, and I loved it here. The perilous seas and coral reefs are described beautifully, I could practically smell the salt water. I have not read Adrienne Young’s previous books, but I will definitely fix that now. My only real complaint is that it is a series which, you know what that means, cliffhanger ending. But that seems to happen in almost every YA series so, what can you do? We’ll just have to wait for the sequel!
I loved the atmosphere and characters in this adventure on the high seas. It is not fantasy, despite the category given on Goodreads, but it has a compelling atmosphere and a world that is easy to imagine and live in. I have always loved stories that involve water, so I was pulled in right away. Some readers may say that the pacing in the middle was slow, but by then, you are pulled in and craving more. The action is well written, but the ship’s characters and dangerous elements are what keeps readers so invested. Can’t wait for the sequel!
First of all, the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous and the ship in her eye is the perfect foreshadowing of what is to come. This story follows Fable, a marooned young girl that uses her wits and grit to survive on her own. Fable endures many hardships as a young girl in a man's world. She works as a dredger to survive and finds herself escaping death by purchasing passage on a ship with an assortment of shady characters. Most of the story takes place either on a ship in the sea, beneath the sea or near a port by the sea. Fable has to work to earn friendships with the crew and there is a slight romantic vibe between her and West. The story line was good and the dangerous encounters believable. If you want a hard-knocks story about the dangers and risks working as a trading seaman, this is the story for you. Beware, this is the first book in a series and you will be left needing to read the next one.
This is an amazing book. I adored Fable. She is brave and yet vulnerable. She is strong and fierce and but weak. She has survived things that most couldn’t imagine and kept her focus of what she was surviving for through it all. This is a brutal story that I feel in love with. When Fable talks about her parents it feels so really the emotion she has for them. The crew of the Marigold are fantastic. I enjoyed each one. They reminded me of the Characters in Six of Crows. I highly recommend this.
Fable is an absolute gem. Don't skip out on this one. I love Adrienne Young's stories.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the E-arc copy of this novel.
Highly Recommend
Fable is a dredger; she sinks to the bottom of the ocean to uncover gems she must barter in order to live. Her father dumped her on a god-for-saken island then turned his back on her years back after her mother died, drowned. Fable is left orphaned, alone, searching for her place and family. Dark, grim, and yet compellingly lovely and engaging. I must read the sequel... this one's a cliff hanger!
As Adrienne Young is the author, it should come as no surprise that this was as amazing as it was. This book was well written, well thought out with a plot that was P E R F E C T! The characters...every single character was likable. Fable is a stubborn female dredger that was left to survive on her own when she was younger. Times have changed and now she is taking control of her own destiny. This book follows growth of Fable and takes you on a journey involving crews on ships, friendships, romance and family drama.
In other words, this book has it all. LOVE this and can't wait to put in the hands of my patrons!
Adrienne Young outdid herself again! I adore her previous books and couldn’t wait to read this!
All I can say is that I’m ready for the next installment. I know these things take time, but I need it, now.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC.
A story that pulls you in from page one, Fable is a story of a girl at sea. Readers must know this is book 1 of a duology, and I couldn't be happier! Adrienne Young is a gifted author that has yet to write a book that doesn't pull in the reader and left with wanting more!
Fable is a girl on an island trying to find passage on the ship Marigold. Filled with action, sea diving, lost treasure, lost love and a possible redemption, Fable has lived on the rules her Father taught her long before he abandoned her. Determined to find him again, she sails on a ship with a crew who she has to prove her worth to. Filled with twists and turns, this book is a breath of fresh air. Incredible world building, and great characters, while the book ends with a cliffhanger, the reader will not have a hard time overlooking it due to the vast amount of action and story telling. So thankful to read a great adventure! I'm excited for the next installment!
Reading Sky in the Deep, I fell in love with Adrienne’s storytelling, and Fable did not disappoint. The way she paints the setting with her words is indescribable. Chapter by chapter, I feel as though I am there — I can smell the smells, picture the surroundings and hear the sounds she has described on the pages. I don’t think I’ve felt IN a story as much as I do in hers. When her characters feel something, it’s as if they’re reaching out of the pages making me feel it too. These stories are not over complicated, but still have so much depth to them. Fable is strong, but flawed, reminding me much of Eelyn, but with pirates instead of Vikings. And this cover is 😍. I really don’t have a bad thing to say, other than I CANT WAIT FOR NAMESAKE! 😩♥️
Fans of Sky in the Deep will not be disappointed with Young's latest. Fable is a fierce heroine, determined to find her own way in a dangerous world of sea traders. It was hard to put down and I can't wait for the sequel!
Once again I find myself frustrated. Young always comes up with great ideas in her books but never seems to deliver them for me. Some of this is personal opinion – I find her style hasty and a little toothless, and I prefer more richly evoked worlds and deeper characters. But some of it is that she just doesn’t take the time to lay ground work and foreshadow important events – eg her romances always come out of nowhere with no build up and rarely make sense. However, I liked this better than Sky in the Deep for example. This is a good story, the execution just didn’t quite sell it for me.
3.75/4 stars--fluctuates on my mood.
I'm straight up saying this: my rating is 100% because of my own personal feelings toward the book. As a whole, I felt like this story was very well-constructed. Adrienne Young has a unique way with words that causes the atmosphere an world around her characters to come to life in a way I very, VERY rarely ever see in YA. It's why Sky in the Deep is one of my favorite YA books of all time, and why I love her world of the Aska tribe so much.
My main complaint with this story was, unlike SitD, I didn't connect to the characters as much. I found them a lot more generic and copy-paste than I expected. Fable, while compelling, became redundant throughout the story, and all of her big twists didn't feel unexpected in the slightest. I also didn't feel like she or really any of the crew of the <i>Marigold</i> had major character development. <spoiler>We are told repeatedly throughout the story the "big rule" of the world is to never trust others and never let them know what is important to you, yet Fable and her new friends immediately throw caution to the wind and trust one another way too quickly in my opinion. It was to neat and tidy for it to be truly believable, and I feel like the crew should have had a lot more reservation than they did about Fable. As it was, as soon as she offers to basically free them from slavery, they sell their souls to her which, honestly, I probably would too if someone came up and said they could solve all my problems, but it also felt super out of place in this world where every single character is cutthroat and cruel.</spoiler>
I also found the romance ridiculous. Again, it plays into how I find so much of the character development lacking and unbelievable in how quickly people trusted one another in this despite it being an "every man for himself" world. I wasn't a fan of the pairing revealed <spoiler>West and Fable</spoiler> nor was I a fan of how quickly they coupled up in general.
Do I recommend this? Definitely. Despite my complaints, I devoured this book. The only reason it took me as long as it did to finish it (and I say that and it was like 3 days) was because I was so exhausted I couldn't keep my eyes open. I did not want to put this story down. It's fast-paced and exudes <i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i> ambiance. If I listened to music while reading, those films would be the desired soundtrack. This has all the feel of wide, open oceans with magical kelp and coral worlds beneath the waves, salty sea-decks on ships with the rigging slapping the mast and canvas sails snapping in the wind. You can taste the saltwater breeze and fishy smells. It's beautifully written, and I'm really excited for the second book. I just wish the characters had more depth and complexity than what we were given.
This was a vibrant seafaring adventure.
Usually, I'm not the biggest fan of seafaring, but it wasn't a problem for me here. Fable is a stranded diver with past full of secrets, and when she hitches a ride on a ship crewed by what seems to be a found family of teenagers, the tangled web only tightens. I read this mostly in one sitting, and didn't want to stop until I'd finished it.
What I like most about this book is the strength of the family ties that bind everyone. Fable and her father's strange, fraught relationship was very powerful. Also Willa and West's relationship, and how the whole crew became each other's family. The world and the cutthroat rules governing everyone's life in it were compelling and, frankly, knowing that this was the first in a duology, I'm SHOCKED that they made out as well as they did.
Sure, it ended on a cliffhanger, but it's one that I can easily forgive. Can't wait for the second book.