Review by itsnotalakeitsanocean - Namesake

itsnotalakeitsanocean 's review for:

Namesake by Adrienne Young

3.0

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It really feels like the first book was an elaborate setup for this one because a lot of pacing complaints I had about the first book were absent here. Though I enjoyed this book more than its prequel, there were a lot of things that bogged the experience down for me and thus I've given it the same rating as the first book (which is a shame because I'm starting to realise I like stories about pirates/crews at sea)

Things I liked:

I LOVED Holland as an antagonist and I wish we had more evil old ladies in books like her. I loved how her methods of manipulating people were subtle and how she's a master of throwing unexpected curveballs at people trying to bargain with her.

Things I didn't like:

I just did not care for West and Fable's relationship in the slightest because they're so constantly hot and cold that it feels hard to get invested. Also I don't know what Fable actually sees in him and how she's suddenly okay with
how West is Saint's personal assassin out of nowhere despite fretting about it on multiple occasions. And speaking of...
I don't think a lot of the antagonists outside of Holland pull their weight in being antagonists. I know it's more realistic that at the end of the day, they're just rival companies fighting against each other but considering everyone is a pirate or deals with pirates, I was expecting a lot more heinous stuff to happen. Holland is the only remotely threatening antagonist and West actually does more bad shit than the actual villains.
This is a personal gripe but I found it annoying that during the hunt for the midnight (gem), the gang abandoned their hunt at the reefs to go to Fable's Skerry on Fable's request, only for her to
become suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of her mother and then conclude that it's not there... only for it to be later revealed she was right on the money if only she, you know, actually used her skills to do the job she was already doing and hunt its location. It felt very cheap and lazy to me.
The ending felt rushed, both in terms of the political intrigue <spoilers>(while Holland got what she had coming, everything wrapped up way too fast and conveniently)</spoilers> and where the characters ended up. Some characters such as Hamish and
Clove
felt like they disappeared from the story altogether. When I read the epilogue I didn't understand how far along time had gone in terms of the timeskip, and it was just way too light to be a satisfying ending.

Content Warnings