Ava Reid has created a fantastic dystopian world that carries similar vibes to The Hunger Games trilogy and the Uglies series. I enjoyed the world building and getting to know each of the characters as the story progressed.

A YA sapphic dystopian romance that's a cross between "The Last of Us" and "The Hunger Games," and what what? Doth I detect a hint of influence from Taylor Swift's "Ivy" in here? Don't speak another word, I am IN!

Whew, what a ride. I absolutely loved this hauntingly beautiful dystopian fable that's about - honestly, it's about a lot of things. The dangers of corporatocracy, how late-stage capitalism has transformed human connection into a transactional hell, the ubiquitousness of social media giving rise to a toxic and dehumanizing culture of spectacle, memory as identity, the things we'll do or won't do to survive, the limits of familial bonds and community, and possibly Yin and Yang. But mainly it asks about love - whether or not, like survival, it can be enough.

The love that unfolds between Melinoe and Inesa is just so pure and simple and so heart-achingly happy-sad. As I read about them slowly falling for the other, I kept recalling what Hayao Miyazaki said about love: "True love is two people inspiring each other to live."

I thought both girls were very well developed characters, so when they finally got together, it just made so much sense. Reid's writing is, as always, a great balance between efficiency and poetry. The pacing was pretty balanced as well, perhaps a bit fast or maybe I am just a fast reader. The concept is not wholly original - a brutal televised game to punish the poor and their children in a dystopian world with such gaping wealth inequality, def have seen that before. A couple times, perhaps. But the author calls out these similarities in her address to readers at the start of the book, and Fable's Hunger Games fanfiction origin is no secret. I think it rather makes me enjoy it a bit more actually, knowing that the book intentionally plays in the same sandbox as Suzanne Collins' beloved dystopian series, drawing inspiration from it but endeavoring to deliver a different, maybe slightly smaller-scaled but equally powerful and inspiring message about queer love.

Wavering around 2.5 stars

I feel the need to preface that I very much admire Ava Reid as an author and human being, and appreciate the way she speaks out about issues in real life, including many of the issues and themes touched upon in this book. This is a fast-paced, YA story based in a dystopian landscape, with some relevant themes on corporate -government takeovers, climate change and environmental disaster. While I have some major beefs with this book (see the rest of this review), this may still be a good story for younger readers as an introduction to the dystopian genre, and I think there are some poignant moments and thoughts sprinkled throughout.

That said....I did not really enjoy this book. Even without seeing her notes on the inspirations, this is very obviously inspired by Hunger Games and I think the comparison lessens the impact of this book - it feels more like fanfiction than an original story in terms of plot points, background and characters.

Both Inesa and Melinoe have promise, but I feel like their character arcs stagnate as the book progresses. This characters feel a bit like the parodies of YA characters I've seen online before - "My name is Avocado Basket, and my parents are dead. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I have lush eyelashes and long hair, but I'm not beautiful". There is a lot of this sort of description - we are constantly reminded about how Melinoe is cold and calculating, the cool, calm, assassin, but nothing about what we learn here besides what we are told makes me believe that.

The relationship arc feels rushed - while I understand trauma bonding, these events take place over only a few days? Not nearly enough time to justify the way the relationship plays out, in my opinion. It again gives echoes of Katniss and Peeta, but in their case, they had known each other for years, if not well.

More nit-picky, but as wildlife biologist and evolutionary ecologist, I have major issues with the way Reid depicts and talks about the natural disasters and evolution of the forest animals. None of it makes any sense - I'm sorry, but deer cannot grow scales or webbed feet. At one point, Inesa finds a dead deer mutant, who's feet are "partly developed" - not how evolution or natural selection works. at. all. The world building feels lacking for a story that is supposed to be commentary on corporate development, pollution and climate change - was it climate change? was their nuclear war? The landmarks used in the story are real places in the US, but we have very little context for how they are positioned in this story. Why is New England an entire country? I'm not saying we need a full explainer (I hate infodumps), but it just feels like a disconnect.

Finally - this book is missing Reid's signature lush and thoughtful prose. I think in this case, the 1st person present tense does Reid no favors. While I can understand the reasoning of why that would be the choice, I feel like it stunts Reid's writing and doesn't let her play to her strengths as a writer.

Thank you to HarperCollins Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this story.

Thank you so much to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review!

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“She grows like ivy on the insides of my eyelids. The roots of her are in my rib cage, winding up around my heart.”

4 stars - a love letter to the YA dystopian books of a decade past, filled with nostalgia, fear and glimpses of light in between the action

“Nothing dooms you quicker than desire.”

I had a fun, and heartbreaking, time reading this. It’s relatively fast paced, with action and twists, with pockets of calm to process and somewhat get to know the characters. I do wish we’d gotten to know the characters even more, as I struggled to feel much of any emotional investment in the love story, but the world and plot were intriguing enough to keep me hooked through the whole book.
I would love to see more of the Angels though, as they were the most interesting part of the story by far for me and I’d love more of a look into their (inner) lives.

“As long as it’s always somebody else, it’s easy to blame them, easy, even, to cheer for their deaths.”

Vibes:
Badass killer influencer teenage girls
Strong sibling bonds
Complicated bonds with parental figures
Irradiated nature and animals
The… Latest stage of capitalism?
The internet will stay toxic to the end of the world and streamers will outlive us all

A song that reminded me of the book:
Hunter by Paris Paloma

Fable for the End of the World is a sapphic enemies to lovers dystopian romance that follows main character Inesa, a 17 year old taxidermist trying to make ends meet. Inesa and her younger brother Luka work hard to support their mentally unwell mother. They live in the drowning Esopus Creek where citizens are perpetually in poverty. The entire setting of this book was giving me full body chills because of how plausible it all is. The world is radioactive and there have been extreme mutations to most wildlife. A large corporation named Caerus basically bought out the government and its whole economy functions on debt.

To make a profitable spectacle, Caerus has an event called the Gauntlet. Once a person reaches 500,000 credits in debt, they have the option to nominate a family member (or themselves) for the Gauntlet. This event puts an Angel, surgically altered battle women that Azrael manages, against the Lamb in a live streamed fight to the death.

Melinoë is the main Angel that we get to know, and we quickly learn about the abundance of shady behavior behind Azrael and Caerus. They continuously try Wipes to erase memories that trouble Angels. When Melinoë is sent on this Gauntlet, she discovers so much more about herself and the world that she lives in.

Ava Reid did a beautiful job of weaving this story into a gripping and captivating romance in an eerily plausible dystopian landscape. I was immediately hooked and could not put this book down!

Beautiful, imaginative & haunting, Ava Reid once again has crafted a gut wrenching tale that will leave readers even more obsessed with her writing than before!

I was excited to hear that Reid was writing a YA dystopian novel, because while her adult stuff has been a little hit or miss for me I enjoyed her previous YA book. While I did enjoy this one I'm not sure I enjoyed it quite as much as her other YA title, and I think that mostly came down to some plot holes and the ending. First off I'm sure there are going to be some people who say that this is just a Hunger Games rip off, and while there are certainly large Hunger Games elements (Reid herself even says in the introduction and acknowledgements that HG was a huge inspiration for this) I do think it's different enough that it's not really an issue. Now, as far as my issues with this book. First and foremost I think overall there were some rather large plot holes in the world building, enough so that it's bugging me more than it should. My main one being with the idea of the Gauntlet as a whole. I don't want to go into a ton of detail, because it's explained in the book, but basically if you rack up too much debt you can put up a family member to take your place in this game of assassin to erase said debt. It's an interesting idea, and I can see the social ideas at play behind it for the audience, but it seems a little...opaque to me exactly why this should be allowed. First, apparently you can offer up your kids at any point in their life. Like, what? I get the idea behind using kids in THG, but here why should kids have to pay for their parent's debt. And you can just use them at whatever point. So, babies? But also if they're like 35 and you don't even live with them anymore. Or I guess more accurately they don't live with you. Does that mean their kids could also be used in place of you? I just...I have so many questions about why this should be allowed. Sure, it's horrible, and I get that, but it also doesn't make a lot of sense. And apparently these Gauntlets happen like every week or so, but they're specially picked out. What about all the other people who read the limit but aren't picked? What happens to them? And why would killing someone else erase your debt? I just feel like there's more information I need for this to make a solid amount of sense when you really start thinking about it. My second, much slighter gripe, is about the ending. It just feels so abrupt and unfinished. If you told me there was a sequel that would make more sense, but this is billed as a standalone, and so it doesn't feel like it fulfils the requirements of a dystopian novel. You have the makings of one, but especially for a YA dystopian you then also kind of need that system of oppression to be brought down at the end, and that doesn't really happen. Maybe the seeds are there, but they've more or less just been planted. Like, they haven't even sprouted or taken root. They've just been put in the ground and left there to live or die. It's kind of like if THG stopped after book one. It would feel rather unfinished, based on the rest of the genre. I think it's also important to note that one of our main characters is supposed to be really good at survival (per the synopsis) but literally only survives because of other people. She has other good qualities, and her willingness to see the good in people is an important thing, but since she's billed at being good at survival I feel slightly misled since she's...really not. She's so bad at it. And sure, one could argue that's a nice change of pace for a book like this, but then why add that to the jacket copy? I did really like our other main character, the assassin. She was an interesting character to follow around, and I found her more compelling than the "Lamb". So while I did enjoy some aspects of this book, and as a whole enjoyed it, I can't rate it a full five stars, because I found it slightly lacking. That being said, I will still be happy to recommend it to teens and adults alike, because overall I think it says some important things, and I'll most likely end up writing a shelf talker for it as well.

Following Fable, a young girl navigating survival in a broken society, the book blends magic and harsh reality in a way that feels timeless. Reid's writing is lush, and while the pace can be slow at times, it allows the emotional depth and environmental themes to really sink in. The story makes you reflect on the choices we make and the stories we tell to cope with crises. If you love thought-provoking, lyrical fiction with a touch of magic, this one’s a must-read.

This book truly is a love letter to the early days of YA dystopian.

The best way I can describe Fable for the End of the World is if The Hunger Games and Uglies were written by Marie Lu. It's one of those traditional dystopian novels that plays off of the ones that came before, but I just enjoyed the vibes in general. I've seen other reviews saying the social commentary was a little shallow, but I honestly enjoyed it - especially how the internet, AI, and climate change were highlighted.
Inesa is a taxidermist living in the slums and barely scraping by. Melinoë is an Angel, a living weapon created solely for assassinations and entertainment. When Inesa's mother signs her up for the Gauntlet - a televised bloodbath where Angels hunt down Lambs - to pay off her death, Inesa and her brother Luka must team up to survive. The story itself was fast-paced, and while there weren't any crazy plot twists, I really enjoyed learning about Melinoë's backstory and seeing the worldbuilding expanded out. I do think there could have been a better build-up for the main relationship and the climax. And I know it's a standalone...but I think the ending is going to live rent-free in my mind, and not in a good way.
I'd like to start my character rant by mentioning Inesa and Luka's mother...I can't remember the last time I had this much beef with a character. She's so hateable, it's insane. I liked Inesa's character and enjoyed seeing her resourcefulness mixing with her background to create a strong protagonist. Melinoë intrigued me as well because the lab-made living weapon trope is one of my all-time favorites, although her character arc felt a bit rushed. The romance between Inesa and Melinoë was fine. I thought it could have spent more time developing, but I grew to appreciate it very quickly. I also enjoyed how Luka's character was addressed (the criticisms on masculinity and conventional attractiveness), but I wish he got a bit more closure.
Fable for the End of the World is a YA standalone dystopian story that features the vibes that brought the dystopian genre to life with a sapphic twist.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!

4/5

I haven’t read many dystopian books, I was never a hunger games or maze runner girlie, and I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book. Thankfully, I really enjoyed it.
I immediately felt connected to the characters and the world building was well done in my opinion. I wasn’t left with a million questions about how things were supposed to work in their society.
The ending did feel a little unsatisfying, but I think it makes sense for the genre and direction that the book was heading towards.

Sapphic dystopian is a genre I didn’t know I needed. Ava Reid’s writing is always stunning and her characters are always so well written. If I had this book as a teenager it would have influenced my personality in a huge way.

This is pitched as sapphic Hunger Games and it is… very much not that. The inspiration is clear, but this book lacks any of the substance that made the Hunger Games so special. From the beginning, there is a lack of narrative tension. The set-up is: in a dystopian world, anyone who falls into substantial debt is either entered into or can nominate a family member to be in the Gauntlet, a live-streamed event in which a cybernetically enhanced assassin known as an Angel hunts them down for sport. The game is so heavily rigged towards the Angel succeeding that I couldn’t understand why anyone, even in some weird dystopia, would find it entertaining. More so, the middle of the book sags so heavily. By some series of unlikely events, the Angel, Melinoë, and the girl she is meant to kill, Inesa, end up working together. Why? No idea. Towards what? That’s also unclear. They do very little besides blush and bite their lips at one another. There was no thoughtful commentary on the world, no meaningful character development, and no significant change from the beginning to the end. The only question I had once I finished the book was: what was the point?

My sincere thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and Ava Reid for the opportunity to read an eARC of Fable for the End of the World. This review does contain spoilers!

The Gauntlet features a Lamb (someone to be sacrificed to repay one's debt) and an Angel (the one sent to kill the lamb). In this story Inesa is the Lamb, being chased by the a recently "reformed" Angel Melinoë. Each Angel has their own method of killing and their own type of targets; one is very maternal and peacefully kills the younger Lambs, one is a spitfire, always sent after the toughest and meanest. Melinoë was crafted to be the flawless cold and brutal killing machine.

During her last Gauntlet, Melinoë was sent to kill a young innocent girl, Sanne, who was only paying for her father's debts. This was unusual for Melinoë and she suffered severe PTSD from killing Sanne. After time off, being reprogrammed by her handler Azrael, it is determined that sending Melinoë after Inesa will make for the most entertaining show. Melinoë is threatened that things must go perfectly or she will be decommissioned; her memories will be wiped and she'll become a trophy wife for a Caerus executive. Melinoë is passionate to prove herself and remain an Angel; it is the only place she feels she truly belongs after Caerus and Azrael had her body and mind altered to become the Angel of Death.

However, what she doesn't account for is Inesa's ability to survive. Inesa comes from a very poor village that's almost always flooded. She and her brother run a taxidermy shop to keep themselves from drowning; they can't afford electricity most days and both the house and the shop are constantly leaking rainwater. Her mother believes that she is sick and does nothing but shop and spend money they don't have. One day, as Inesa is working, she is informed her mother has put her up as a Lamb to pay off 500,000 credits of debt. Inesa isn't as surprised as she should be; she's always been her mom's least favorite and she views her brother Luka as "more worth saving" than her. Luka is furious and decides to help Inesa get as far away from civilization as possible. He credits their deadbeat dad for survival skills that he believes can save Inesa. She's still resigned to die, believing that she isn't possibly strong enough, fast enough, smart enough, to survive.

Luka and Inesa set off into the unknown, and hope to get to someplace where Caerus and the Angels don't exist. They are so close when Melinoë finally catches up to them. The rules of the Gauntlet restricts her from killing anyone but the Lamb, and he definitely uses this to his advantage and is able to shoot Melinoë in the shoulder, buying them just a bit more time before Inesa's demise. Eventually Melinoë catches up to the siblings again and uses a knife to pin Luka to a tree as she starts strangling Inesa. While Inesa is on the brink of death, it starts to rain catching Melinoë off guard and her trauma from Sanne comes back, releasing Inesa. For good measure, Luka slams the butt of his hunting rifle against her head, knocking her out. Unfortunately, it also knocks out all of Melinoë's comms, isolating her from Azrael and Caerus.

While on the run, the pair come across Wends (people who ate mutated animals and thus started mutating themselves). While fighting the Wends, Luka is separated from Inesa. Inesa runs, stumbling across Melinoë. She decides that in order to survive the Wends, she needs the lethal expertise of Melinoë and resolves to survive the Wends and then kill her in order to save herself.

Both girls are in rough shape, so a truce is formed because they decide dying at one another's hand is a lot nicer than being torn apart from the Wends. They come across a small shack where they can both recover and regain strength, both under the impression that with Melinoë disconnected from Caerus the Gauntlet is currently on pause and the cameras are off (the rules state that any death while the cameras are off are simply murder and that is still frowned upon in this society). With the cameras off, the two girls learn more and more about each other and wonder what life would be like if society was different. Unfortunately, reality comes crashing down and the debt needs to be paid with either Inesa's life or Melinoë's.

I loved this book even though then ending made me mad; it felt incomplete especially after everything that was so carefully thought through throughout the story. The themes of government corruption and climate change and the effects of media explored throughout this book really paralleled not just the Hunger Games which Reid draws inspiration from, but also real world situations happening now. Both girls touch on how AI is always used to create lewd images/videos of the Angels and the young female Lambs and how disgusting it is that those are shared all over the internet. There's no sense of privacy or security; someone is always watching and figuring out ways to monetize.

Ava Reid is always an author that I look forward to reading because she perfectly encapsulates feminine rage and how women are constantly underestimated. She is also a great world builder, every story she tells has a great immersive atmosphere. I do think Fable for the End of the World could have benefited from just a bit more world-building and history as to how we ended up with the Gauntlet.

Siri, play Spitting Off the Edge of the World by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The perfect song accompaniment for this book.

I’ve been an Ava Reid fan since Juniper & Thorn, her gothic fantasy horror retelling of The Juniper Tree. Easily my favorite by her (genre preference) and I was very curious to see what she could do with her ode to her love of the 2010s dystopian craze. It felt like Hunger Games meets Ready Player One but make it sapphic. There was a lot to love here and it made for an overall enjoyable read. I don’t think it quite lived up to its influences but it was very unique, something I greatly appreciated. And the political and social commentary was spot on. While I loved both characters, I wasn’t completely sold on the romance between the two. But if you take into account that they’re both 17, it’s much easier to accept.

Overall, solid dysoptian fantasy. I love a standalone but I think fleshing this out to a duology would’ve made for a story I could get more emotionally invested in.

Some of the main concepts of the book were hard to believe
1. The initial concept of the gauntlet. Why should you be able to sell someone else into public assassination for your own debt? Especially the daughter you already hate and don’t want around like this was kind of a win win situation for Inesa’s mom
2. I know it was explained but it honestly did not make sense for Inesa to keep working with Melinoë as long as she did. It seemed like Inesa had a much higher chance of ending up dead when she and Melinoë got back to civilization than being killed by the Wends she was keeping Melinoë around to kill
3. Inesa fully stopped worrying about Luka. She went through so much of the book not thinking about him.
4. Why Melinoë was interested in Inesa when the girl she had basically been in a relationship with had gotten deprogrammed and forced to forget her just a few days before. Like does it not take time to get over that kind of thing?

So basically I didn’t even understand why these girls weren’t actively trying to murder each other, let alone falling in love. When their first kiss happened I was literally rolling my eyes because there was no build up to their relationship. I am very much a slow burn over insta love girl so I’m biased but this was truly bad. I didn’t really like Inesa’s character and found her kind of weak and hard to root for. I thought Melinoë’s arc was a lot more interesting and she was a good main character, especially compared to Inesa.

This probably would’ve been closer to 2.5 stars if after all that there hadn’t been an open ending. So much was left unresolved and it made me so mad.

I have another ARC from Ava Reid and I’m lowkey dreading it now but I’m still going to read it obviously. This was my third book I’ve read from her and the others have been better, so I’m hopeful that how much I didn’t enjoy Fable for the End of the World was just a one time thing.

This YA lesbain hunger games story features Inesa (the lamb), and her assassin Melinoe. Inesa lives in a poor, often flooded town, where her and her brother run a taxidermy shop together since their father left one day and never returned. Trying their best to stay out of debt so they don’t run the risk of being picked up by Caerus (the corporation that runs every aspect of society), they do their best with what they have, even when that means taking care of their sick (in the head) mother. Unfortunately what Inesa and her brother dont know is, their mother has secretly wracked up enough debt to where she had to nominate someone in the livestreamed nationwide Gauntlet. And that someone is Inesa. Forced to become a lamb in their games, she has 1 week to try and escape the Caerus made assassin Melinoe.

Melinoe has more body parts that were made then are real at this point. Trained to do nothing but track and kill since she can remember. Caerus has invested a lot in making her their top assassin. With her beauty, brutality, and psychology, she is their most dangerous weapon. But what Caerus doesn’t know is that no matter how hard they try to wipe Melinoe’s memories, she still remembers things. After her last Gauntlet, with a girl from the same town as Inesa, where she had a public breakdown, Melinoe desperately needs this next gauntlet to act as her redemption. Unfortunately what she doesn’t expect is for Inesa and her hunter brother to put up such a good fight. As the fight prolongs longer than Melinoe hoped, she begins to find herself inexplicably drawn to Inesa in a way that makes her wonder if there is more to life than just surviving. Against all odds, Melinoe finds herself wondering if the life she was trained for, a life full of killing and constant pricking and wiping, is what she was destined for, or if there could be another choice, one that involves spending the rest of her days with someone she may just be in love with.

Inesa really stole the show for me because no matter what was thrown her way she was not only able to survive, but find a way to make you feel like there is still hope left in the world. Even though humanity seemed to take almost everything from her, she was still able to show Mel that there was more to life beyond this struggle for survival. I really loved everything about Inesa and her growth throughout the story, but I especially loved every interaction and moment with Mel more. Her relationship with her brother was also very sweet and I could feel the deep love and support they had for each other. As for Melinoe, my heart just broke from everything she has had to endure. She is under constant pressure to perform, be Caerus’s definition of beauty, and programmed to be nothing but ruthless. And yet, just like Inesa, she finds a way to not only survive but defy her DNA and keep some of her memories intact. Even though she was designed to be a dangerous creature, I never felt she was beyond redemption. Despite her innate need to kill Inesa in order to redeem herself, she found a way to fight against it and go after what she truly wanted. Her growth was inspiring, which made the ending that much more heartbreaking. It was like all her hard work was for nothing, which made me sad. But overall the chemistry between the two was the perfect sort of slow burn and fall fast once they realized their true feelings for each other.

Not only did I love Inesa and Mel, but I loved the stakes and the world building. The not so subtle hints to climate change, government corruption, economic disparity, and media consumption/manipulation were spot on. The parallels to what is going on in today’s world, the hunger games universe, and what could happen in the future were all expertly intertwined. Especially being a woman I am glad that attention is being brought to the fact that women today are still seen as commodities, used and objectified for our beauty and bodies, and are thrown aside once we have proved our worth and have overstayed our welcome. It’s sad. Maybe one day things will change… Anyway, I loved the storyline and just hope a sequel is in the works so that the ending doesn’t feel so open ended and all the loose ends can eventually be wrapped up.

Overall, holy cow I was absolutely blown away by this story. I really did not know how bad I needed a lesbian hunger games in my life until now. I have not been so emotionally invested in a story in such a long time, especially one that left me so utterly wrecked. If there is not a sequel written I don’t know what I will do with myself. There is honestly nothing I would change about this story except for the fact that I wish it went on for longer, because I want to know so much more about this world! So in other words, I will be literally heartbroken if I don’t get to revisit this world again and get all the answers to my questions and closure for Inesa and Mel.

I don't normally wander into YA dystopian fiction and I've never read or wanted to read The Hunger Games, so I come to this story from my comfortable home in the adult fantasy genre and a curiosity about Ava Reid, having not read her before. I usually go into a book blind, and did so here, too. I don't enjoy climate fiction in any genre and at first I thought "oh no" but things quickly showed me that this story's themes weren't going to linger on how this world came to be. What I read was a story where love is the strongest force in the world, even if it couldn't win every battle. Reid built a vivid world and took me through an impossible situation with a storytelling ability that kept me reading, even though I fell into a plot hole. I tend to spoil the heck out of books in my reviews but with arcs, I try to keep things vague. I'll vaguely share that this is a compelling treatment of the resilience of humanity (not as a race but as an internal quality) and of loving under absolutely futile conditions. And that the ending was perfect.

Fable for the End of the World takes us through the Lamb’s Gauntlet, an alternative way of clearing family debt, through the eyes of Inesa, the Lamb offered up for slaughter, and Melinoë, the Angel assigned to kill her. As Melinoë chases Inesa into the dying wilds of their world ravaged by climate change and the corporation that set up the gauntlet, a fight for survival slowly turns into a search for answers.

Ava Reid’s prose is lush and gorgeous as ever here. I think Inesa and Melinoë are both really well explored, and I found both their character arcs satisfying. Once the Lamb’s Gauntlet kicked off, I did not want to put the book down for a moment. The pacing is fantastically done here, which is not something I find myself often thinking in dual POV stories. Every chapter break made sense and I was on the edge of my seat until the very last page.

So why isn’t this a five star? While I loved everything else, I found the the world building to border on completely nonsensical. It is still wildly unclear to me why New York has become New Amsterdam with so much Dutch influence while also being run by a corporation that uses entirely Greek names. I’m still trying to understand the point with calling out Inesa’s family as Lithuanian immigrants. I also think the set up of it being common for parents to sign their children up for the Lamb’s Gauntlet to be odd and not really explored upon much. I would hope that off the page Reid understands the why of this world better than I do, but I think the world building would have benefitted from most of it being excised or by the book being another hundred pages longer.

A through line for me with all of Ava Reid’s work is that these are stories about the threat of violence young women who live in misogynistic societies face. It’s here too in the way internet users will chew up girls and spit them out. (I think there’s a version of this book where Inesa and Mel are both Twitch streamers on a horrific downward spiral.) These themes are lightly touched on and I think go a long way in helping us understand the different neuroses Inesa and Melinoë have that shape their journeys. Community is a hard fought for ideal that companies like Cearus want to destroy more than anything.

I’m always going to pick up anything Ava Reid writes, but I think this is an easy recommendation for anyone who loved the 2010s YA dystopia era. It’s a well written love letter. The Last of Us is a great comp title for this book. It’s also for “the love was there” girlies (iykyk).

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the eARC.

Fable for the End of the World brought me back into the world of YA dystopian novels and I was here for it. This book was not only inspired by the Hunger Games with its Gauntlet, it touched on themes such as climate change, capitalism, and technology. The world was steeped in debt and how easy it is to fall into a corrupt world just to survive. I was immediately drawn to the world itself and the different mechanics behind the creation of the Gauntlet and Angels. It was truly haunting to think about how the Angel's memories were consistently wiped and their minds and bodies were not their own.

When it came to the characters, I loved the sibling relationship and how Inesa and Luka fought for one another. I wish we got more from them to add to their character depth, but I understand it helped to further the idea that they did not want to be indebted to anyone. As for Inesa and Melinoë, I enjoyed their build up to their relationship and those simple moments with each other as they fought to survive the woods. Their relationship did feel very YA and almost a bit rushed, but I love reading a good enemies-to-lovers trope.

The ending itself was open-ended, which part of me loves but also part of me does not enjoy. But the ending leaves the possibility of another book to further explore this world and also get a little more of Inesa and Melinoë. Like I need to know what happens next!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for gifting me a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book! It's my first Ava Reid book, ad it was great! I really liked the Hunger games vibe.