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A review by smpearce
Namesake by Adrienne Young
2.0
This book was a real disappointment for me.
I enjoyed Fable well enough, but I wasn’t in love with it—I decided to give Namesake a chance because I heard the writing had really grown and the story has been getting such rave reviews (plus I’m a sucker for a pirate themed tale).
Unfortunately, this book seemed to diminish all the things I liked about Fable while doubling down on the things I didn’t.
The things I enjoyed most about Fable were the world-building and compelling plot—both of which I found lacking here. I still found some of the prose nice, but I was quite bored past the first 1/5 of the read.
My main problems with this book was that it just felt like reading something from 2012 in a lot of ways:
- smirked
- a very ‘not like other girls’ vibe (I was especially annoyed with the inaccurate way historically inspired fashions were described—corsets aren’t the evil, patriarchal torture garment that writers like to believe)
- that weird sort of love triangle between Fable, the romantic interest, and her negligent father
- surprise! Relatives (not terrible on principal but I didn’t like the use here)
Other, assorted peeves (because I spent a lot of time trying to read this thing)
- Fable’s character developed felt regressed—I found her much more dependent and passive
- the plot didn’t feel like much, lots of talking and not much suspense for me
- all that worrying about West’s ‘darkness’ felt needless and the revelation was super predictable—also isn’t the whole idea that everyone in this world, especially Jeval, has to be cutthroat and blood on their hands to survive sometimes? why wouldn’t West have had to kill people in his line of work?
- I was satisfied with how she left things with Saint in the first book, and didn’t like the weird sort of reconnection and love for this definitely abusive parent (it felt like her crawling back into a toxic relationship after finally moving on)
I probably should have DNFd this one, but I kept hoping it would get better (and I hate not finishing hardcovers). The pirate themes were cool, but just not enough to carry the book for me.
I rated 2/5 because I reserve one stars for books that incite rage within me—this one was more just a tedious read (though judging by the absurd length of this review, maybe I’m more irritated than I thought
I enjoyed Fable well enough, but I wasn’t in love with it—I decided to give Namesake a chance because I heard the writing had really grown and the story has been getting such rave reviews (plus I’m a sucker for a pirate themed tale).
Unfortunately, this book seemed to diminish all the things I liked about Fable while doubling down on the things I didn’t.
The things I enjoyed most about Fable were the world-building and compelling plot—both of which I found lacking here. I still found some of the prose nice, but I was quite bored past the first 1/5 of the read.
My main problems with this book was that it just felt like reading something from 2012 in a lot of ways:
- smirked
- a very ‘not like other girls’ vibe (I was especially annoyed with the inaccurate way historically inspired fashions were described—corsets aren’t the evil, patriarchal torture garment that writers like to believe)
- that weird sort of love triangle between Fable, the romantic interest, and her negligent father
- surprise! Relatives (not terrible on principal but I didn’t like the use here)
Other, assorted peeves (because I spent a lot of time trying to read this thing)
- Fable’s character developed felt regressed—I found her much more dependent and passive
- the plot didn’t feel like much, lots of talking and not much suspense for me
- all that worrying about West’s ‘darkness’ felt needless and the revelation was super predictable—also isn’t the whole idea that everyone in this world, especially Jeval, has to be cutthroat and blood on their hands to survive sometimes? why wouldn’t West have had to kill people in his line of work?
- I was satisfied with how she left things with Saint in the first book, and didn’t like the weird sort of reconnection and love for this definitely abusive parent (it felt like her crawling back into a toxic relationship after finally moving on)
I probably should have DNFd this one, but I kept hoping it would get better (and I hate not finishing hardcovers). The pirate themes were cool, but just not enough to carry the book for me.
I rated 2/5 because I reserve one stars for books that incite rage within me—this one was more just a tedious read (though judging by the absurd length of this review, maybe I’m more irritated than I thought