This book is marketed as a sapphic Hunger Games dystopian YA novel and for the most part I would agree with that. It definitely gave me hunger game vibes with the general idea of there being a "lamb" that is chosen to participate in a gauntlet and be hunted down by an "Angel." The story itself is so fast pace and there are very few moments where there isn't much going on & my attention was easily capture and kept throughout the book. I was fascinated by the world and honestly wish the book went even further in depth about the backstory of how the world got to be the way that it is. The world's dystopian nature and attributes felt a little too real at times and felt like something that could realistically happen to our world/country in the future.

While I also loved the two main characters and the growth and humanizing that the Angel goes through I do feel like the relationship was a bit too insta-love for the situation but it still fit the story and made for a dramatic ending. I'm not sure if this is a standalone or if there will be more books in the future but I think there's a lot that could be explored in additional books.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend for people who enjoy dystopian novels or are fans of the Hunger Games.

Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins for the E-ARC!

Where are my OG young adult dystopian lovers at? I’m talking Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Giver. This one is for you. Inesa and her brother struggle to survive in a world that is too wet, full of mutations, and runs on the greed of one corporation called Caerus. It has taken over the government and basically every aspect of everyone’s lives and lets people buy whatever they want off credit. But once your credit becomes too high, you are forced to participate in Caerus’s live-streamed assassination spectacles where you are the prey. This is what happens to Inesa and the resulting story is a compelling tale of survival, sacrifice, and the lengths we will go to to protect the people we love. It was beautifully written, poignant, and will break your heart just a little.
🦌
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🦌
Read if you like:
▫️YA dystopian fantasy
▫️enemies to lovers
▫️sapphic romance
▫️live-streamed deadly games
▫️dual POV
🦌
Thank you to Epic Reads, Harper Collins, Ava Reid, and NetGalley for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Fable for the End of the World is a chilling, dystopian tale that feels so eerily timely that it’s truly uncanny. Reid weaves a brutal yet tender story of survival, sacrifice, and forbidden love in a world where debt is deadly, and entertainment is a bloodsport. Inesa and Melinoë—hunter and hunted—find themselves trapped in a cruel game, their growing connection an act of rebellion against a system built to destroy them. With nods to dystopian classics, like The Hunger Games, yet wholly original in execution, the novel explores mental resilience, the price of survival, and the fragile hope that lingers even in the darkest of times.

I expected nothing less than fantastical perfection and I am not disappointed. Ava Reid never fails to display how masterful she is with words while still making the stories enjoyable rather than homework-esk. The way she forces you to root for realistically imperfect and occasionally unlikeable characters is addicting. Everything about the world she builds here had me itching to paint the scenery she forced me to imagine. Another book I need to force everyone I know to read.

Fable for the End of the World has firmly secured Ava Reid's place as a must-buy author for me. While the book carries a clear homage to their love for The Hunger Games it carves out its own unique space in the YA dystopian genre.

Reid masterfully builds a world devastated by climate change, entrenched wealth inequality, and a ruthless corporatocracy that turns deadly gauntlets into public spectacle, further stripping humanity from those already suffering. The story's stark reflection of our current global struggles added an almost unbearable weight to my reading experience, making the story feel at times, a little too relevant.

Yet, amidst the struggles, Reid offers a beacon of hope through Inesa. Her journey reminds us to continue seeking out the good in people, to embrace compassion, and to show love even when the world feels unforgiving.

What I appreciated most is that while love is a transformative force in the book, Reid doesn’t lean on it as an easy fix. The story acknowledges love's limitations, balancing hope with realism. This nuanced approach made the emotional impact more intense for me.

Fable for the End of the World is definitely going to be one of my top reads of the year. Reid’s storytelling everything I want in a book, and I eagerly await whatever they chooses to share with us next.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC Copy! 4.5 Stars

I was not really sure what to expect going into this book. I am a huge fan of Ava Reid and have never read a book of theirs that I did not love, but I also have not read a lot of dystopian. Now all I want to do is read dystopian.. I had no idea what to expect and honestly I am really glad because I went in completely blind and was absolutely blown away.

The amount of highlights I have in my kindle for this book is probably more than I have ever highlighted ever. I would just sit back and reread lines over and over because they were just so emotionally impactful and beautiful, even when they weren't.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Ava Reid cannot write a bad book and this book is no exception. This book is a love letter to ya dystopian and girls who are just looking to love. It has been a while since a book has made me cry and this book definitely made me tear up.

This is a book about people trying to thrive in the face of a buisness-run government and a world that is dying around them. The characters are beautifully written. The world is amazing. The prose is heartbreaking. It’s just an amazing book that has such deep themes. The decisions that the characters make are understandable based on their characterization.

This might be on of my new favorite books. I would recommend this to absolutely anyone because I think there is something to learn and enjoy in this book for everybody.

Fable for the End of the World will be published March 4, 2025. Much thanks to HarperCollins Children’s Books for the ARC. All views are my own.

Rounded up from 3.5 ⭐️

Fable for the End of the World is a post-nuclear, post-apocalyptic book where creatures have mutated because of climate problems and society is indebted to a corporation that gives out credit that is impossible to repay. When it’s time to collect, the debtor must give a name. That person has to enter the Gauntlet as a Lamb that an Angel has to slaughter. The angels are superhuman, reinforced with metal and programmed to forget their humanity. The lambs hardly ever win. Society watches these televised matches.

Inessa’s mother turns her in and she becomes the Lamb. Her Angel, Mel, must kill her to make up for her last Gauntlet. The problem is they must work together, and fight their connection - can the human beat the machine? Is the machine human?

This book was different from the others I’ve read from Reid. I’ll review what I liked, what I didn’t like, and why you might want to read this book.

What I Liked:
- Mel’s character and her arc were the most compelling. I thought that the concept of wiping memories and then them slowly seeping back to be really intriguing and would have loved to see more of that.
- As always, I liked Reid’s writing style and appreciated her trying her hand at something new with dystopian themes versus the gothic fantasy I’ve read. The themes were very apt for today’s world. They were a little heavy-handed, but I think fifteen-year-old me would have liked this book a lot.
- I was in my feelings towards the end of the book. Without giving away spoilers, I needed tissues.

What I Didn’t Like:
- The romance angle wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. I’m all for sapphic, enemies-to-lovers sci fi, but I didn’t think the connection between Mel and Nessa was developed enough. It was a little too insta-lovey without the necessary buildup. Perhaps that was a function of the shortened plot (limited days of the Gauntlet), but I wanted more. Even more small moments to show their pull together.
- I think the ending will polarize people who may find it hopeful, some depressing. I’m part of the second camp, but would love to see a book two even though I think this is a standalone.

Overall, check this out if you liked Hunger Games where the lovers are the hunter and hunted, books about dystopian and crooked regimes, and books about human nature. While I think there are some that do this better, this was still a solid book.

A gorgeous dystopian sapphic romance with a touch of Hunger Games. In a world where the the poor can clear some of their debts by selling someone into the televised hunting game show called the Gauntlet, created by an evil corporation known as Caerus, where they are marked as "lambs" and hunted for 12 days by "Angels", girls who have been modified to be killers, one girl finds herself completely thrown into chaos when her mother sacrifices her. All Inesa has ever done was try to survive, by day she works as a taxidermist who creates beautiful taxidermy from the animals that her twin brother hunts and sells it to the wealthy class by night she returns home to her home in a half-sunken town where her mother spends her days wasting their money and putting Inesa down. Inesa's mother's latest act of cruelty is to put Inesa into the Gauntlet... and now inesa has 12 hours to get ready before the hunt begins. Melinoë is an Angel, a girl who was sold by her parents as a child and the altered through many procedures to become part machine but fully one of the best most merciless killers of the Game. Melinoë has a problem though, her last kill haunts her, no matter how many times she tries to get her memory wiped of it... its stuck on a loop in her head and she hasn't been the same since. Her handler assigns her to the newest game and it is her chance to make it up or else she will be decommissioned and wiped to become an empty husk and sold off to become the wife of some politician with her entire mind being empty. Melinoë wants nothing more than to win the game but things take a turn when the moment the game begins she begins to get more flashbacks and when monstrous creatures attack both Melinoë and Inesa in the woods, they have to team up to survive.... but can they trust each other long enough to survive the deadly creatures outside the woods or the society that is bent on twisting them into something neither girl wants to be. A soft romance built on survival, on finding someone who sees you for your worth, and in the midst of chaos is born through this story. I had so much fun with this story and need a whole second book because the way this ends is just too heartwrenching, too sad, for everything that they go through and everything that is done... please I am begging send me some kind of extra epilogue because I don't want Melinoë to suffer more. I have always been a fan of the way Ava Reid writes and the way she builds her romances and worlds is just so beautiful. The story is just so compelling and the world building was fantastic. I love the way Ava writes enemies-to-lovers and this was just so good!

Release Date: March 4, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

Tour : https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | HarperCollins for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review and thank you TBR and Beyond Tours for having me as part of the tour!*

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via TBR and Beyond Tours in exchange for an honest review!
Fable For the End of the World is a story that takes place in a dystopian version of Earth. Inesa lives in a half-sunken town and after her mother offered her up as lamb for the Gauntlet, she meets Melinoë, the assassin sent after her.

“Maybe I’ve survived this long so I could know how it feels to hold her. Maybe all my life has been one long gauntlet, running, fighting, searching for her”


I have a great love for dystopian books and always found it a shame they aren’t really written anymore like they were a decade ago! Learning this book was coming and it’s a love letter to those books I’ve read and loved, I couldn’t wait to dive in!

The opening of this book is gripping and addicting! I loved seeing this half-sunken town Inesa and her family live, the struggles they face due to the global warming and radiation that ruined so much of the world they live in! It was super intriguing and fascinating. At the same time, I kinda wanted more depth and atmosphere to be created.

I really liked the idea of the Gauntlet and how, when you have too much debt, a ‘lamb’ is offered up and needs to survive the Angel for 13 days for a chance to win. At the same time, the plot was very guessable and didn’t really keep me on my toes. There was this lul in the second third of the book which made it a bit boring, but after that the characters really showed the growth and I was once again fully invested.

Inesa is the literal lamb in this story and at the beginning mostly survived on luck. I do like her character arc and how she can still see the beauty of the world and manages to break Melinoë’s walls. Mel is an assassin that has been conditioned to do Caerus’s bidding by killing the lambs in the Gauntlet. Seemingly cold and unfeeling, her character arc was the most satisfying to me. I loved seeing her slowly come to the realisations that she did.

I liked the feelings that bloomed between Mel and Inesa, which grew under duress but steadily and gradually despite it all. At the same time, it did feel like they developed rather quickly.

The ending did take me by surprise! I kinda didn’t expect the book to end in the way that it did! It also made me want more. It almost felt like an open ending, and I just needed those 2 or 3 pages extra to really finish it.

Overall, Fable For the End of the World is a great homage to the 2010s dystopian books that I loved so much!

Inesa was from an almost-sunken town that thrived on credits handed out by corporate monopoly, Caerus. Anyone crossing the red debt line would be hunted and killed by Angels.

Angels were mutated humans specifically designed to hunt those who crossed their credit limit. Their hunt would be streamed live, as a deadly game called Gauntlet, for millions to watch. Caerus, the mastermind behind the twisted game, reaped profits through these streams.

Inesa and her brother ran a taxidermy shop that catered to the upper class in the City. They barely made ends meet with their shop’s sales, but their mother never cared for her kids plight and was delusional to blame her problems on Inesa.

Inesa gets nominated for Gauntlet by her mother. She is blindsided by this, but deep down she knew her mother would throw her under the bus and spare her brother if push came to pull.

Inesa has twelve hours to prepare before the Angel arrived at their legal residence; twelve long hours of dread and helplessness to map her escape route.

She and her brother escape into the woods to get an head start in the game. No matter how far she goes, the tracker chip in her neck would reveal her location to the Angel and the viewers.

Melinoë is the Angel tasked to kill Inesa for Gauntlet. She can’t afford to lose since it’s a matter of her survival at test too. She has been through a rough past. With her previous Gauntlet echoing her of failures, she is determined to see this one through.

Mel is half human and half machine. Her human side was always at war with her machine side. Although she was programmed and honed to be a weapon, she becomes more vulnerable and humanised as she gets trapped in an abandoned woods with Inesa.

Angels were forbidden to behave human like. Their only purpose was to kill, but with Mel hesitating to kill Inesa, it became an anomaly in their prey-predator dynamic.

Drawing heavily from the Hunger Games, the plot is ultimately about survival of two people, from extreme end of the spectrum, fighting for love and family.

The book is also a commentary on climate crisis, automation, virtual world, class divide and other issues affecting us this day. Through Caerus, it etches the length to which corporate companies would use their power to control common people. It’s a portrayal of a dystopian world that remotely echoes a future we are headed towards.

Thank you TBR and Beyond Tours for the review copy of the book!

This is my first five star read of the year. From the beautifully tragic prose, to the doomed narrative shadowing over the characters, it was hard to put this book down. I genuinely hope there is a second book!

This sapphic dystopian stand alone is filled with a Hunger Games-esque Gauntlet, a killing angel assassin, the chosen sacrifice prey, land that will kill without a thought, people just trying to survive, and a company which controls everything.

I enjoyed this very fast paced story from the introduction of Melinoë with her memory issues, and Inesa's selection as the new Lamb for the Gauntlet. Parts of this remind me of the Fallout video game franchise, mixed with water focused disaster movies/books, reminders of why you don't go off the trails in Appalachia (this takes place in the Catskills of New York), and all the what ifs when it comes to radiation.

Recommend for those who like fast paced dystopian fantasy, who want a lunch sized story rather than the 5 course meal series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This is my first book by this author. I’ve always wanted to read her books and this was a good one to start with. I thought the dynamics of this world were nightmarish. If your parents are in debt you can just sign up your kids to fight to the death? Over something they didn’t even do?! That is so wild. I liked the design of the Angels and can’t even imagine what they go through. It sounded very tragic. Inesa and Luka had such a sweet sibling relationship and I really liked seeing them help each other. My only thing was the Mom didn’t suffer enough. Like I wanted to see Inesa tear her a new one. The only other thing I didn’t really like about this was the insta love. It always seems more like trauma bonding and less like real love. It makes some of it feel unbelievable to me. The ending was so sad and I was so worried about how this was gonna end and it just hits you in the face. More of the story is id never survive in any of these dystopian worlds and I get anxiety just going outside sometimes. Televised executions? I could never.

This was my first Ava Reid and it definitely made me want to pick up their other works. I enjoyed the apocalyptic world and everything about it. It was fascinating to read more about it. I also loved the romance. It wasn't the main plot point and slowly came together. The whole read was slow but in a good way that made you want to keep reading to find out what was going to happen.

Another absolute BANGER from Ava Reid, who never disappoints. Hunger Games inspiration is clear, but Ava’s first YA book is unique, excellent, and a must read for young (and older) adults!

It has been quite awhile since I have picked up a dystopian book, but I saw a couple people comparing this book to the hunger games and I just had to see for myself. I don’t think this book is as good as I was hoping for though and maybe I had too high expectations going into it. This book tries to do a lot in such a small amount of time and it suffers for it. The commentary on the evils of our world ends up feeling heavy handed throughout and doesn't let us figure it out for ourselves. On top of that the romance felt rushed and I didn’t feel it was believable. The events of this book take place in just a couple of days and in that time they go from enemies who are actively trying to kill each other to lovers. It was not enough time for me to be invested in the relationship. I do think this was entertaining and enjoyable though, I just had some issues with it. If I was still into dystopian I think I would have enjoyed this more.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

In university, I was taught that media’s beginnings were rooted in one of two things: violence or perversion. Bonus points if it had both. And regardless of what you chose, it was always created for the eyes of men.

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid tackles this topic, among many others, in such a beautiful, eloquent way. Ava’s writing has a master quality, to the point where they can make even the most minute of scenes burst a multitude of emotions within me.

Fable is a dual-POV story. We first have Inesa, a compassionate, empathetic girl forced to don a hard exterior to help her family pay the bills by working at a taxidermy shop. Then, we have Melinoë, a Caerus assassin built and programmed to be heartless and ruthless, but really, has strong memories and emotions just waiting to break through. Inesa is selected as a Lamb for the Gauntlet, an assassination livestream event, to pay off her mother’s debts. Melinoë is the Angel who must kill Inesa in order to prove her worth to Azrael, her handler.

But when the cameras are off, something beyond love blooms between the two. The need for survival. The desire to break away from the corporate chokehold Caerus has on both of them. The hope that they are more than they had originally believed. But separating from a society so deeply rooted in capitalism and violence proves difficult.

I want to touch upon this last part more deeply, because it’s what really resonated with me the most. Melinoë fears that if she fails the Gauntlet, she will be decommissioned and sent to serve as a trophy wife to one of Caerus’ elite, just like one of her friends was. Caerus’ foundation is built upon this idea that women are meant to be beautiful and are meant to serve. Anything else is deemed undesirable. Melinoë, along with the other Angels, undergo numerous surgical experiments to “perfect” their bodies, and Azrael performs Wipes on their memories to remove anything unwanted. When they participate in Gauntlets, the viewers cheer on their demise. They want to see blood. They want to see bruises.

They want to see a woman beaten down.

Azrael frequently tells Melinoe that she is his perfect creation.

And when they can no longer perform to the degree that Azrael and Caerus wants them to, they perform a final Wipe--a permanent memory removal so that the Angel is nothing more than a doll, an obedient girl victim to the whims of her arranged Caerus-elite husband.

Returning back to my first paragraph, Caerus is rooted in two of man’s desires: violence and perversion.

Violence--Angels slaughtering Lambs, and Angels being beaten up by Lambs.
Perversion--Angels being deepfaked onto 18+ websites. How the cameras don’t cut, and rather zoom in, when an Angel is naked. Plastic surgeries to make an Angel more physically appealing.

Caerus doesn’t care if you’ve laid your emotions bare, that you were honest with them about how you feel and how much they’ve damaged you. They only care if you’re beaten bloody or if you’re beautiful enough for 18+ content. It’s what makes them money after all.

It’s incredible how Ava Reid is able to connect with something I feel about so strongly and something so deeply rooted in modern-day society. I had to set the book down for a moment to just process everything I read. It was such a rollercoaster. I feel so out of breath. I am broken, crying, yet feel so whole by the masterpiece Ava Reid has gifted us this year. They are proving once again why they’re my all-time favorite author, and why their books always rank so highly on my favorites.

Please read this book. I hope it touches you as much as it touched me.

The dedication called this a "love letter to early 2000's teen dystopian novels" and it did not disappoint. Giving this a 4.5 out of 5. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This is Hunger Games meets Fathomfolk meets Terminator and I am here for it. In a world ravaged by environmental disaster and political BS (much like our current timeline tbh), individuals rack up debts to the corporation running the country just trying to get by. And when those debts becoming too much, just sell off a friend or family member to enter The Gauntlet to be hunted down by a gorgeous, enhanced woman trained to kill.

The world is dark and the story and its protagonists try to find the little glimmers of light in this world. The world itself is described in such detail that it is impossible to not picture it in your head and want to cry for the loss of nature as we knew it. But Inesa also finds the beauty in the mutated nature that humans have brought on themselves. The mix of nature and technology is really intriguing.

The ending did give The Giver vibes, so I am hoping there will be more stories in this world.

Ava Reid is an auto-read for me — no questions asked, just take my money and my feelings. Her vibes? Immaculate. Her worlds? Usually so luscious and immersive I want to pack a bag and move in (despite the near certainty I’d be immediately cursed or eaten).

Fable for the End of the World, though, wasn’t my absolute favorite of hers — which, honestly, might be a me problem, because my expectations for Ava are sky-high at this point. That said, this queer, sharp-edged love letter to teen dystopian fiction still gave me a lot to chew on.

I’ll be real — reading this in gestures vaguely at the world around us was not easy. It holds up a mirror to our current political dumpster fire and then asks, “Hey, what if we just followed all this to its natural, oligarchic conclusion?” (Spoiler: It’s not great!) But even with that darkness, this story has sweetness woven into its bones — like if The Hunger Games and Dollhouse had a weird, tender baby who believes love and community might still save us, even as the world burns.

Is it hopeful? Is it devastating? Is it both? Yes.

It’s not the book that stole my whole soul the way her others have, but it’s still a smart, gutsy story that knows exactly what it’s doing. And I’ll still be first in line for whatever Ava writes next, no question.

A giant thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.