Fable, a story about a daughter’s longing for family…
A story about a daughter’s longing for family, and a dredger-a freediver who excavates rare gemstones from the coral reefs that fill The Narrow. Whilst the cover of this book is absolutely beautiful, unfortunately for me the story didn’t live up. Here is my Fable review:
The Characters & World Building
I have to say I felt these elements were really lacking in this book. I was giving it time to build up but I realised by the time I got half way through that it just wasn’t going to get to the level I wanted. A lot of the characters felt very lacklustre? There was very little depth to most, if not all of them. As a result, I found it extremely difficult to connect or feel emotionally invested in them or their subsequent relationships. There is potential for them to be so much more, to be real. But unfortunately, there’s nothing more to read from them other than scraps of personality threaded through here and there.
In terms of world building, I imagine it is hard to do when the book is basically set entirely on the sea. But I do feel more could be done to make the islands they visited more vivid to the reader. In my head as I was reading I just imagined them all looking the same because it was pretty much just left to my imagination.
The Plot & Story Progression
Moving on to the plot and overall story progression. Despite not being insanely hooked by it, Fable is paced well. That being said, yes there is always something happening, but for the most part it amounts to absolutely nothing. The crew are essentially just island hopping doing the same thing on each island. It was boring!
The romance in Fable, like the characters, is empty and somewhat random. There is no sense of romantic development and its all very confusing. The best way I could describe it would be like a relationship just kind of being thrown in like spices in a spaghetti dish when it tastes a bit bland. Very little thought seemed to have gone into it. When I read a romance I want a build up, some tension, I want to be rooting for something. This book seriously lacked that emotional impact from all angles with no climactic payoff at the end. Yes there was a supposed “twist” but it just didn’t feel like one. It involved a character barely even mentioned throughout, nowhere near enough for me to be invested in it.
The Verdict
To conclude my Fable review, I have to say I was slightly disappointed by this read. It definitely has so much potential to go deeper and I can see why so many people love and enjoy reading it. However on this occasion, Fable by Adrienne Young just wasn’t to my tastes in terms of depth of story and characterization.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
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