2.5/5 stars rounded up.

I don't know how to feel about this book.

On one hand, I really like the themes and ideas here. The horrors of capitalism, the dangers of one corporation owning and controlling everything, the long-lasting effects of climate change, even the implementation of misogyny was very well done here. But I also feel like it could've been explored a lot more in-depth than what was shown in the book. Taking all the good ideas from the Hunger Games without diving beyond the surface-level of that world you created feels like wasted potential.

The main characters were fine. Again, the idea of Mel was very compelling but didn't quite live up to the execution. Inesa being a taxidermist was an interesting angle, but her choices/beliefs were really questionable to me. I also found the relationship with her brother to be quite cold?? The book kept telling us they cared about each other, but Luka never explained/apologized for letting his sister be the scapegoat under their mom's eyes. Every other side character didn't really matter so much. Additionally, the pacing after the Gauntlet started got really rushed, and the development of Inesa and Mel's relationship was far too fast, especially when you consider they knew each other for a little over a week.

The ending was also so, so strange. I won't spoil it, but let's just say it ends in a realistic matter. It also seems like it's setting up for a sequel, too, and I don't know if I'd want to read it or not if/when it comes out.

Overall, I've got mixed feelings about this book, so mixed I can't tell if they're positive or negative. But I still like that Reid's attempt to tackle a story like this wasn't horrible; that much I feel certain of.

This truly is a love letter to the dystopian ya of the 2010s. You get the same feelings that you got when reading books like The Hunger Games but with more of the issues we face in the world today. Ava Reid excels at providing a compelling and thought provoking narrative while still giving a story that you don’t want to put down.

In a world, much like our own, where woman are valued for their looks before anything else Melinoë is an assassin. Part human and part machine she is the perfect weapon. She is also, however, extremely beautiful. The assassins, or Angels as they’re called in the book, are forced to undergo elective cosmetic procedures because who would watch the gauntlet and sponsor them if the killers weren’t beautiful? The perfect weapon in the perfect body.

Enter Inesa. The girl who was nominated to the gauntlet by her mother who just couldn’t stop spending money they didn’t have. She wants to live. She wants to live for herself, for her brother, and because she still believes in love and goodness in the world. You could really tell how strained her relationship was with her family. Her mom obviously didn’t care about her at all and her brother seemed almost indifferent towards her at the beginning. It definitely becomes clear throughout the story that he does, in fact, love his sister. Trauma can cause relationships to change and twist and that’s definitely something that you can see here. It was a little bit heartbreaking to see. It almost was like they were so busy just trying to survive and to get by that they just didn't have the mental capacity to check in with each other, especially after dealing with their mother, to make sure everything was okay.

Her brother really does a good job, though, of showing how much he cared the further into the book that we get. He's just a teenager himself and younger than Inesa, but he protects her so vehemently that it's obvious he wasn't able to be a child for long.

I really loved reading the relationship aspects of this book. Inesa slowly showed Melinoë that there were still people who believed in goodness and helping one another just because you want to and not because you’ll get anything out of it. When Melinoë finally decided that she wanted more? That she deservered more? Watching her fight for Inesa and the life that they wanted together was my favorite part.

Ava Reid is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her writing style is like a beautiful painting of ideas and emotions that produce a thought provoking story and fully developed characters. She immerses you into a world she has created to feel tangible and real even though it is fictional. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this story, and was pleasantly surprised as the plot unfolded and we got to witness the story through the eyes of these two characters. She is able to create a world that provides commentary on our own, and build these queer characters who are unique and have complex stories and perspectives. She is able to do this without it feeling out of place or contrived. To be lesbians trapped in a dystopian capitalist hellscape and find hope and love!!! *sigh*

Ava Reid is so atmospheric, and her stories that I've read have all been set in the past so I wasn't sure how well she could pull of a futuristic American setting. I had no need to worry because she spread in the perfect about of background worldbuilding for a YA novel, and that good old Ava charm.
I thought the end was gonna be something that it wasn't and I was very happy with how it turned out, so points for subverting my expectations.
I think my one complaint was that the connection was too instant, and I didn't super buy them both being willing to sacrifice family and friends for each other. Like, I get not wanting to kill someone, but it felt like the love wasn't as earned as I thought it should be. That could be because I'm well beyond that instant connection teenager age so its a trope that doesn't super work for me anymore.

Fable for the End of the World takes the cake as my favorite Ava Reid book. Strong from the start, the plot hit the ground running, with quick worldbuilding worked seamlessly into the plot. The action started quickly and never lulled, which had me gripping my kindle for dear life.

The emotional stakes in this book were relatable and intense, which had me nauseous with anxiety a good chunk of the time (a sign of an excellent author), and I quickly fell in love with both of the characters. Mel and Inesa were beautiful opposites, the juxtaposition in their own internal conflicts like angels of life and death bringing such a beautiful element to this dystopian story.

Overall, there was great commentary on capitalism, environmentalism, and the treatment of girls and women as objects of entertainment. The ending pulled at my heart in ways that will always stay with me, and I will forever adore this book. (I wouldn't be mad about a sequel though lol)

Content Warning: Abusive parent, child grooming, child body modifications, death (people and animals), slut shaming, trafficking, distribution of child porn (i'm happy to expand on this one in the comments if anyone wants because it wasn't a major plot point, but still important to list, I just don't want to spoiler further)

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fable for the End of the World is an entertaining dystopian romance with elements of The Hunger Games. It’s a more futuristic/modern take and definitely has its differences in the story, but there were several moments or little “Easter eggs” that really brought back the Hunger Games and 2010’s dystopian vibes! Once again, I enjoyed Ava Reid’s writing style, her attention to detail, and the relevance this book has to what’s happening in the world today.

I only have two small things to note - one of which is that Fable felt too short to me. I actually liked the characters and their connection(s), but the romance felt a bit rushed because there wasn’t enough time to develop their feelings without it feeling unrealistic (what do you mean that the FMC falls in love with someone who almost killed her literally a day ago??). The second thing is that I was surprised to learn this book is a standalone. The ending wasn’t particularly satisfying for me personally, and I’m still left with a couple of questions about the plot or what happened to certain characters. With that in mind, I did enjoy much about the story, but I wish Fable could have been longer or extended into a series.

All opinions below are my own. This was my first Ava Reid book and she is very popular at my bookstore. It was exciting to finally read some of her work after much hype.

Inesa and Melinoë are the new Everlark with this tale reminiscent of Hunger Games and all your favorite YA dystopians meets Survivor. Inesa is just doing what she can to survive but she wishes for a world that could be kinder, even after shes nominated as a Lamb for a deadly competition called the Gauntlet. Melinoë is an Angel, the hunter sent out in the Gauntlet to hunt down the Lamb at all costs, and is quite literally made for this job. But things get complicated when the two of them get stranded without any reception and must help each other if they have any chance at surviving. But what will happen when the cameras are back? Will the show go on?

As a diehard fan of the Hunger Games trilogy I am always excited to read something inspired by it. It was fun to read the little bits I could tell had been inspired from the original trilogy. It was the author's first foray into YA after previous adult novels and I believe she handled the transition well. Ava Reid was a masterclass at weaving the inspired moments with her own original story that captured my attention immediately. This book is definitely for any fans of 2010s dystopians and anyone who enjoys critiquing reality TV shows and capitalism.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC and thank you the HarperCollins Children's Books for picking this story to publish.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing March 4th!

It's a bold move in the author's note at the start of the book to say you were inspired by The Hunger Games and spent years writing THG fanfic and then write a take on THG because you have to know it will be compared to the original, and this one does unfortunately fall short (which, I don't know that many if any books in this genre and general plot could live up to the original). Sapphic Hunger Games is an idea we love to see (!) but the plot itself just didn't work as well.

I think this book has good messaging around the state of the world, the way that individual compassion and empathy is at the base of affecting great change, and also the way constant surveillance has turned much of our lives into a performance for others. Unfortunately while she's likable I found the behavior and choices of our main character Inesa fairly unbelievable for a lot of the book-I didn't realize Katniss being extremely competent was such a key part of making THG successful for me but apparently it was! I also didn't find her brother to be particularly sympathetic-other reviewers have talked about their wonderful relationship and how much they cared for each other but...where? They barely interact for most of the book, he does absolutely nothing to defend her from their terrible mother, and he seems pretty emotionally removed from her. I felt no emotional connection to their relationship whatsoever. Having him disappear from a majority of the book honestly felt like one of the better authorial choices to me.

If you like dystopian murder competitions, you may enjoy this one. It hits the expected notes and I will say it gained an additional star from me because the ending is pretty bleak-I do admire a book, especially YA, that isn't afraid to GO for it. The relationship between the two leads is pretty fast-paced so doesn't feel as deep as it might otherwise, but I did like them together and thought Melinoe's arc was well-done. Overall don't know that I would widely recommend this, but if you're a fan of the genre you can give this a shot (no pun intended).

DNF. This book was well-written but quite different from what I expected. It was not for me, but I would be open to reading another title by the author.

Fable for the End of the World is a slightly more modernized version of the YA dystopias that populated my youth. I’ve always been a fan of a good dystopia, but I think they’re genuinely just very hard to pull off. I don’t think Reid hit the marks she was attempting to. The worldbuilding just felt like a mess to me; there were so many complex issues for a relatively short novel so we never really skimmed past the surface of them. There’s a global warming conversation this book is attempting to have muddied by animals that are mutated and irradiated and mentions of nuclear fallout that never really get explained. The world just doesn’t make sense and I’m not sure that I buy the political systems within it either which is critical for a dystopian.

I’m also a little disappointed that Reid uses “Wends” for her off the grid - eating irradiated meat evolved them into monsters - cannibals. It’s clearly pulling from Native American myth/lore and as far as I’m aware it’s pulling specifically from something that the Algonquin people have asked others to stay away from and not use. Looking it up, it seems to be less common knowledge than I thought, but there’s plenty of other terms she could have used or created for this story.

The book hinges on a romance that wasn’t really necessary at all. It wasn’t given enough time to truly develop and felt a little out of place. Their relationship is complex and complicated, and it needs to be given their context, but there’s not enough space on the page to really go from enemies to lovers here. The story would have been just as meaningful if they ended it bonded and perhaps on their way to a romance. There just wasn’t enough space to make it feel believable for me.

That’s not to say there aren’t enjoyable things in this book. I can tell that Ava Reid is a great writer and I’ve enjoyed other books of hers I’ve read. There are a ton of side characters that I would have loved to see looked at more deeply. There were issues that really stuck with me and felt poignant and some genuinely beautiful conversations in this book. There are individual scenes I could obsess over or write a whole essay about. I just think that overall the plot and the worldbuilding were not as thoroughly thought out as they should have been.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions here are my own.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with this ARC!

I give this book a solid 3 stars. I think that this story had some interesting components, tackling big themes such as capitalism, corporate control of government systems, climate change, misogyny, and more. I really enjoyed some of the horror-esque elements, such as the mutated animals and other creatures that we see later in the book. I also think that having our main character, Inesa, work as a taxidermist was an interesting element, and I loved the relationship between her and her brother, Luka as they try to survive in this hellish world that Reid has created.

I think that Reid presented a lot of compelling ideas, but I would have liked to see them worked through a bit more in the text, as I felt like a lot of the components were a bit surface level. For example, I would have liked to see a lot more world building as far as the world that the Caerus corporation has “created.” We know that citizens work on a credit system and if they fall into too much debt, they must participate in a Hunger Games style game called the Gauntlet, and that there is a large socioeconomic class discrepancy. Other than that, I didn’t feel that the world was really as well developed as I would have liked.

I also felt like the romance between Inesa and Melinoë felt a bit one dimensional, and I would have liked to see a bit more developing tension. It didn’t feel very convincing since I wasn’t really sure why they started to have feelings for each other other than the fact they had forced proximity.

Overall I felt it was an interesting concept that needed a bit more refining.

This book was beautiful and heart breaking. The relationship between Inesa and Luka and their story was so sad and so well done. All of the characters were made of many layers and desires. I had such high hopes for this book, while it was well written and an amazing read I really expected more from the ending. It was done well but I just wish things could have been different. Overall an amazing book, amazing story world building and I would recommend only if you don’t mind having a broken heart.

**Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid (YA Dystopian)**

A brutal survival story where enemies become something more in a world on the edge of collapse.

"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.”

Read this for:

 🏹 a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, where survival means outrunning a corporate-controlled execution
🦌 dual POV, enemies-to-lovers, a ruthless assassin with a fractured past

💀 corporate dystopia, wealth inequality, climate horror, but make it sapphic

🦾 Hunger Games x Annihilation x Fallout x The Last of Us

In a world where debt is a death sentence, Inesa is thrown into the Lamb’s Gauntlet—a government-sanctioned bloodsport where impoverished debtors are hunted down for entertainment. Melinoë, a surgically enhanced assassin, carefully programmed to be the perfect weapon, has never lost a Gauntlet before. Only one of them will make it out of the wasteland alive.

Tense, haunting, and filled with Ava Reid’s signature, razor-sharp prose, Fable for the End of the World is the perfect read for fans of high-stakes dystopian romance, enemies-to-lovers tension, and stories that aren’t afraid to explore the darkness before the dawn.
This novel marks a departure from Reid’s folkloric gothic horror, but instead it is an innovative remix of 2010s golden-era dystopian books. The concept is grim and compelling, but the other less favorable hallmarks of 2010s era distopian novels are there too— too-plot points, worldbuilding that was sometimes underbaked, and a romance that I really hope gets developed in future books… That said, I’ll love any characters Ava Reid writes, and this is such an impressive first step into a completely different genre from one of the modern greats. (I’m so lucky to be alive at the same time as Ava Reid!)

If you are tired of books that claim to be “enemies to lovers” (but really aren’t) and if you’ve been chasing that high you got from The Hunger Games for 15+ years, pick this one up when it comes out in March.

*Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Books for early access to Fable for the End of the World in exchange for an honest review.*

The Hunger Games meets Chain-Gang All Stars in this dystopian outing from Ava Reid where capitalism is the final boss. In this post-apocalyptic version of New York the credits are racking up. The Caerus corporation has created a lending model that allows the citizens of this drowning world the ability to dip into the red, purchasing clothes, food, and housing on credit. That is, until that number reaches 500,000 and the creditors come to collect. Inesa is a victim of her mother's debt. When her mother drops too far into the red, she nominates Inesa as her sacrificial Lamb for the televised Gauntlet. In the Gauntlet, it's kill or be killed, and that's easier said than done when the assassin hunting you is a cybernetically modified Angel.

Melinoë is an Angel, and perhaps the most compelling piece of this story. Presumably sold to Caerus as a child, her body has been taken apart and put back together, her brain combed through and her memories erased, in an effort to make her a cold-hearted killing machine. She is, in Hunger Games terms, a Capitol darling. The Angels, all girls, all beautiful, are paraded around the City on the arm of company men and either deified or harassed in the comment sections of the Gauntlet's chatrooms depending on their most recent performance. Unfortunately for Melinoë, the memory wipes she regularly undergoes are no longer working, forcing her to reckon with her remaining humanity. Her connection to Inesa further disrupts her supposed heartlessness as she realizes that she is falling in love with the girl she is destined to destroy.

I don't know if Ava Reid intends to write a follow-up to "Fable," but I hope she does. I think this would have worked better if it was a clear duology or trilogy. There is SO much here, but there could have been so much more. Reid's storytelling is compelling, but the worldbuilding often feels half-baked. Compared to the steady pace of the rest of the novel, the resolution felt rushed and the open-ended that wasn't entirely satisfying.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Ava Reid has become well-known these past few years for her amazing one-off stories that blend atmospheric settings with deep eerie lore. "Fable for the End of the World" is no exception, as Reid's take on a post-capitalist Hunger Games-world.

The Caerus Corporation controls all aspects of daily life in this futuristic version of Earth. Anything you could want is bought on credit to the company - until they decide the debt is too great and demand you sacrifice yourself, or a family member, to the Gauntlet: a televised bloodbath where the debtor is hunted down by a Caerus assassin known as an Angel. For Inesa, she and her brother have made a meager living running a taxidermy shop, preserving the last of the original animals left in the world and avoiding borrowing anything at all from Caerus. Yet, their mother has accrued a massive debt, and she's offered up Inesa to the Gauntlet. Meanwhile, Melinoe is a Caerus Angel, tasked with hunting down sacrifices in live television bloodbaths. After she faltered in a previous Gauntlet and is haunted by the ghosts of her actions, she can't fail. But when Inesa and Melinoe collide and have to depend on each other for survival, both will be changed.

The premise of this book is brilliant, and felt like something that, horrifically, could genuinely be a potential future for Earth. A single giant corporation controlling everything and allowing people to take on massive debts until they can't possibly pay them off? And then using people for entertainment in a world always attached to their tablets? All believable. And there is the eerie backdrop of a world that is just... off. The normal animals are going extinct or evolving in the face of pollution, becoming twisted and monstrous. There's talk of a divide between New England and New Amsterdam and a long-standing feud between them. There are maybe even whole communities out there that have learned how to live off of the Caerus grid.
Both lead characters are fascinating, both on their own and together, as they learn about the wider world and the other side of things that they hadn't considered before. For Inesa, she's forced to consider that maybe the Angels don't have it as perfectly as she'd believed and are living their own type of hell. For Melinoe, she has to confront the cruel realities of a world that demands she have no emotions, be perfect, and kill when there is so much more out there.

The downside is that the ending seemed rushed. I hope there's a sequel coming, but so much of the ending was just a single chapter brushing over what happened after. There's Luka, Inesa's brother, who was soooo interesting but got (understandably) shuffled off to the side for most of the story and still seems like a giant question mark. And, sadly, the romance itself felt a little too insta-love for me. Two people as hunter and hunted meet and pretty much immediately fall in love? It could have used a bit more fleshing out to feel believable.

Overall, this was a fun dystopian story from the amazing Ava Reid! I absolutely have my fingers crossed for a sequel to hopefully repair the complaints I had for book one.

This gave me all the nostalgic feels of the dystopian nobles I read in my adolescence. Out of all of Ava Reid’s books I think this one is my favorites. It was eerie how in this world corporations and the debt they accrue run the world and society. I think readers are really going to appreciate this story especially.

this was sooo much fun. i read this on one sitting on a plane ride where i had probably too many movies and books downloaded, but this captured my attention over allll of that. this review has taken a while to write, for good reason. there’s so much here! attention is turned towards climate change, capitalism, beauty standards, commodification, the problem of debt, and the general horridness of oppressive governments. reid manages to wrap all of this up into a wonderfully engaging YA package.

i completely suspect a sequel is in the works, and because one of my two only wishes was that there was More from other characters and subplots i hope and am pretty sure that this wish will be answered. my second wish was that this would be slightly darker, a la juniper and thorn — but this is YA, and i think within the age constraints of this genre reid captures the horrors of caerus’ reach pretty well. i do think it could be slightly more scary, even within YA, so here’s hoping!

this is probably the most commercial of reid’s works so far and there are plenty of media calls—blade runner, the hunger games (duh), the handmaid’s tale, annihilation, west world. but i personally miss a lot of the gothic and folkloric elements of her work. the wendigos (wends) were the only thing i recognized as vaguely ‘folkloric’ but i wish they were generally More than they were. but this is a different type of work from anything else she’s done and approaching it with that mindset makes it make far more sense (and also makes for a much better reading experience).

generally, i just want MORE of everything. more story, more character building, more world building, just everything. if this was a little longer and slower i think i would have tacked on an extra .5 but i really do think that’s unfortunately the constraints of modern YA (alas). hopefully the pubs see how well this does (and i really do think it will do well because it’s very good!), and allow for the MORE that i’m taking about.

overall, a stellar read. its heaps of fun and fed my desire for dystopian YA nostalgia. 4 stars!

thank you to harper collins and netgalley for the arc, in exchange for an honest review!

3.5⭐️

This book presented an intriguing concept—a bit of a twist on The Hunger Games. A wealthy city exerts control over poorer communities through mysterious trials. However, rather than a group survival scenario, the story centers on a single individual being hunted by an angel, all broadcast live on TV.

What makes the story even more unsettling is the dystopian backdrop: the world appears to be unraveling. Animals are mutating, food is becoming increasingly scarce, and dangerous creatures roam the wilderness, ready to tear anyone apart.

While the premise was fascinating, the execution felt overly complex and at times confusing. I struggled to fully grasp the world-building or understand the true purpose of the trials. Why was there only one person chosen? And what was the significance of an angel as the hunter? These elements remained frustratingly vague.

Despite the convoluted plot, the writing itself was strong and immersive, demonstrating the author’s clear talent for storytelling. Ultimately, though, the lack of clarity and cohesion left the story feeling just okay for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

E-ARC generously provided by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

4 star. Containing a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with a surprisingly sweet sapphic love story, Fable for the End of the World is yet another compelling speculative tale from Ava Reid that examines similar topics to her previous work in a deft, appropriate for YA way.

Well, this was a fresh take on Hunger Games and I am here for it!!
Inesa is offered up as collateral for her mother's debts to survive "The Gauntlet"- where she is hunted by an artificially enhanced predator- Melinoe- a once human who is now part robot and made for killing those given up for payment. The only problem is, the human side of Melinoe is still there and is struggling with what she has been told to do. And neither she nor Inesa can fight what they are feeling.