Oh hi hello I want to talk to you about this book I read called Fable.
I want to talk to you about it because I am low key obsessed. It's an instagram book, like so many of the good ones are, these days, one that I was totally influenced into buying because people I follow - and respect the opinions of - were all out raving about it and oh my goodness if that cover doesn't lend itself to pretty pictures.
I ordered it, because that's just the person I am; it had a delivery date of min-October, which when I ordered in August seemed like forever away but which I was actually fine about because I have a backlist that makes me want to cry - I figured it was good that this wasn't going to turn up all shiny and new and distract me.
Except that it did.
And look at the cover. Obvs I was totally going to read it immediately. So much pretty.
I am - and I am aware I said this already - low key obsessed with this book.
See the thing is, I've been waiting since 2017 for a book to give me those Six of Crows feels, to get caught up in a world so perfectly built it felt real, with a cast of idiot characters that made me want to squish them as much as I wanted to bang their heads together, and I worried it may never happen.
But then Fable, which might actually be better than SoC, because, well, pirates. Yeah, you heard me, this one's set at sea, mostly.
So the deal is this - Fable was abandoned by her not-father-of-the-year Dad on this awful island with lots of bad people and not a lot of food. She's spent 4 years surviving and plotting her way off the island, hoping to find her way back to said parent and claim her rightful place as crew on one of his ships. Her way off that island? Teaming up with a trader named West and his crew, on a ship called the Marigold, facing treacherous storms and treacherous people.
I don't make it sound anything like as good as it is.
I loved it.
The whole world with the islands and the ships trying to negotiate the stormy waters of the narrows and dredging the reefs for gems to trade and all the laws and bylaws and shady dealings is so lush and rich and real and I could feel it. I was 100% transported. I believed in this place. Then there's Fable - so feisty and so vulnerable and at times super annoying, and then West and Willa and Auster and Hamish and Paj - the characterisation here is strong, guys, I was so so invested in every single one of this band of idiots that I still feel a little bit giddy thinking about it. Its like Six of Crows meets Pirates of the Caribbean but better and why would I not be here for that? Why would you not, actually, which is why I am suggesting you get yourself a copy of this book and get lost for a while in the best kind of escapism, where there's a little bit of magic and a little bit of intrigue and a whole lot of drama.
And a little bit of romance.
And that is the other thing - there's love stories going on here but they are subtle and not the driving force of the narrative and somehow smack you so much harder in the feels for not being just there in the background and I was so very very invested. Heart eyes for days over here. You know when you just sort of yell at the page (or at Meredith Grey and Nathan Riggs) to just kiss already? That.
The backstories are rich and well thought out and so clever - I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING I gasped, a time or two and honestly the only bad thing I can think of to say is that I have to wait til next year for the sequel. I hate that. This is why its good to come to the party late, when the whole series has been published so you don't have to do this waiting thing. Especially when there's a cliffhanger. Which there is. Oh holy cliffhanger, batman.
I mean, sure, it's probably not the best written book, there may be flaws, but whatever, I cannot bring myself to look for them or to care, because what I needed when I read this book was to get lost for a while, and that is exactly what happened here. This book was exactly the escape I needed from the hell hole that is 2020 and I love it for that.
If you need me I'll be re-reading. I loved it that much.
