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.

Was just not in the right mood for this book at this time. I am sure it is great, I'll have to come back around to it another time.

4.5 stars

I loved this one! It took me straight back to being a teen reading every dystopian I could get my hands on. Ava Reid’s writing always feels like drinking cool water, it just goes down so well for me. A half star off for some illogic in the world building, but as this is a YA dystopian and it’s practically a feature of the genre I give it a pass. While FftEotW doesn’t reach the emotional or political levels of if inspiration, The Hunger Games, it’s still very worth a read.

ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ net galley review
Thank you so much to HarperCollins Children's Books for providing me with the ARC of this book.

I SUPPORT ANYTHING SAPPHIC BUT ESPECIALLY SAPHIC HUNGER GAMES!!! This book was absolutely fantastic and that's saying something because I just finished my favorite book Fourth Wing and thought I would never be able to read anything else. This was a marvelous recipe for greatness it had everything I could ever want from a book and then some. It had enemies to lovers, sapphic romance, and dual-pov. I loved the writing in this as well the world-building was gut-wrenching as the book took a bit of a darker turn than expected but ultimately was just as sad and hopeful as a dystopian read needs to be. My world was crushed and then put back together just to be crushed all over again. I am definitely re-reading this book upon its official release because I need to annotate this and experience it again under a new lens. AVA REID the woman that you are!!

I was given the opportunity to read Fable as an e-arc, so thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for allowing me to read this incredible book early!

There are so many things to say about Fable and I know I won’t be able to share everything! Although this was a different kind of book compared to Juniper or ASID, it has the beautiful prose that Ava Reid always delivers so immaculately.

In the introduction to the book, Ava says, “But as much as Fable is about the horrors of climate change, wealth inequity, corporatocracy, and technology, it is also about love. It’s about the complex bonds of affection between siblings, which can so easily be tested and transfigured by trauma. It’s about the persevering, hopeful love for your world, even when it seems to be falling apart under your feet. It’s about that love that risks everything, love that proves the irrepressible spirit of humanity.” She also discusses how it’s “a love letter to the dystopian YA fiction” she grew up reading, including Hunger Games.

I know that was a very long quote to include, but given the state of the world right now… it feels important to note. And while there are a lot of scary things happening that feel out of control, there are things we can do, and being kind and loving to the people around us is a great place to start.

I love the influence of HG on this book - I felt like I could see how Ava was inspired by this idea (as well as by real world events) and found ways to make it completely her own. I felt a sense of nostalgia while I was reading - I’m a huge fan of dystopian texts - and I absolutely loved the way that Fable created a bridge from the stories I used to read, to the stories of today.

I loved getting to see the sibling relationship between Luka and Inesa, how they supported one another, and how they dealt with their "present" mother and absent father. The absent father was really interesting to me, because he represented the hope of escaping the drowned world, especially for Luka.

Melinoë is such a cool character and I’m so glad we got to see her POV. She has such an interesting struggle with the concept of “Wiping” that happens. It is so unsettling to think about how that could happen, and you wouldn’t even really know how often it had been done, or what you’d forgotten.

I wish that we could’ve had a bit more time with the two FMCs as they got to know each other and develop their relationship, but given the circumstances, it also makes sense that we couldn’t!

This book was so so good. Ava Reid is one of my all-time favourite authors. She has such a strong ability to craft gorgeous narratives through her prose and the way she develops her characters and plot structure. I will never be able to rave about her enough.

This is the closet to hunger games with trials I've read and dare I say, it's even better and more iconic?!

This was my first Ava Reid book and I was absolutely not disappointed. The author has a letter in the beginning of this book that explains how she came about writing this story, and how she took inspiration from the YA dystopian novels we grew up with - like Hunger Games. And that essence of kids having grown up in a corrupt society and what it means to be an a human being and the nature of man kind, is definitely captured in this story.

This story is in dual POV, following Melinoe (a trained assassin) and Inesa (just a normal girl who gets sold off by her mother who is in extreme debt) in the moments leading up to them finally meeting and their interactions thereafter. They live in a society controlled by the 'Caerus' corporation, and note that they are a corporation...not a government. Sounds familiar? After Inesa's mother gathers up enough debt and is basically in repo, she offers up Inesa to participate in what is known as the Gauntlet - where she must survive 13 days being hunted by 'Angels', in this case Melinoe. Inesa works with her younger brother Lukas and the lingering memories their missing father left behind to try to survive.

I will say that I was worried that Reid wouldn't be able to tell such an expansive story with a sapphic romance subplot in a stand alone book. And while I will say that there are still open questions at the end of the story, it feels purposeful. We as readers don't need to have every single answer wrapped up in a pretty bow. It leaves things open for the possibility of a second book, but it still feels like a complete read all on its own.

The problem that I have with other books inspired by Hunger Games is that the world is not flushed out enough for the main action to make sense. While you can see the inspiration of Hunger Games in this book, the story feels unique. We can see how Caerus managed to get ahold of the power in this world, and how the Gauntlet (which is aired like reality TV) is just one of many tools that they leverage. And besides just touching on the obvious that are the themes around a corrupt government, this story also focuses on things such as climate change and classism and misogyny - and it was woven into the story so effortlessly and just absolutely riled my feelings.

I absolutely cannot wait to read more of Reid's work and would definitely recommend this one to anyone, but especially if you are looking for those nostalgic YA dystopian reads that address themes we are seeing play out in 2025.

Ava Reid writes the most visceral anxiety that really sticks to your ribs. This book was upsetting, gorgeous, and really of the time. I both could hardly stomach parts of it, and could hardly put it down.
I’m not sure we need post apocalyptic books in this current political climate that feels very pre-apocalypse ..yet maybe that’s when we need them most?

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

fable for the end of the world is so sweetly reminiscent of the dystopian books i grew up with. it’s clearly a love letter to the genre, specifically the hunger games, but it holds its own and is unique in its exploration in capitalism, corporate greed, and climate change.

as always ava reid is so masterful at creating the landscape for her stories. in esopus creek it almost never stops raining, and beyond the city limits lies forests filled with mutated deer and once-human creatures who have succumbed to the poisonous environment.

i really loved both of our main characters. although they come from polar opposite ends of society, they both just have the desire to survive. they both have been hurt by the corporation, caerus, that controls all of their lives. i wish there was time to give them a little more depth, but they both had very satisfying character arcs. the romance was perfectly executed. it didn’t happen too quickly or abruptly, it had the perfect crescendo for an enemies-to-lovers standalone.

although fable for the end of the world feels so bleak and eerily similar to the direction our current world is headed, it’s also romantic and, ultimately, hopeful. the ending tore my heart apart, and there were many things that didn’t feel totally tied up, so i would absolutely love to see a sequel. it’s still satisfying, as i don’t think there was a way to finish this book any differently without being unrealistic about the circumstances, but id really enjoy seeing more from inesa and melinoë

”im seventeen, and i have a thousand brilliantly hued hazardous sunrises to spare”

This is a YA dystopia that will feel familiar to anyone who loves 2000s YA dystopia and I enjoyed it a lot because of it. It feels modern and adds enough new elements to make it different from the stories it takes inspiration from. 3.5 stars.

Fable for the End of the World is set in a world where a corporation, Caerus, controls every aspect of society and has built a credit system that encourages the lower classes to rack up massive amounts of debt. When the debt gets to its limit, the person is nominated to the Gauntlet, a live-streamed event where they get hunted and killed by an Angel. Angels are girls that the corporation modifies and trains as assassins from a very young age; they're made beautiful, lethal, and emotionless through a bunch of means. Here's the kicker, though: if the person who racked up the debt has family, they can nominate someone to replace them, essentially sacrificing them.

That's what happens to Inesa, a 17-year-old girl whose mother has gone into debt behind her and her brother Luka's backs despite their best efforts to avoid using the system to get by. Fortunately for her, the Angel sent to Inesa's Gauntlet, Melinoë, has had a lot of trouble recovering from her last kill. The trauma of it is fighting memory deletion and it's essentially rewiring her brain; she's having feelings, primarily guilt, and killing is no longer as easy as it used to be.

Like I said, I really enjoyed this and virtually read it in one sitting. The writing is nice and descriptive, the world is interesting, the dynamics between the characters are engaging, and though it's quite predictable for most of it, it still managed to excite me. This post-apocalyptic world felt very creative to me and the commentary on climate change, oppression, the vilification of needing/relying on one another in society, capitalism, and the commodification of violence/trauma is done quite well and makes the story compelling.

The issue for me is that the execution falls a little short and some things in the story are unsatisfying, like Inesa's confrontation with her mother, [spoiler]the way that Luka reappears after he's separated from Inesa during the Gauntlet, Melinoë's confrontation of her maker/handler[/spoiler], among other things. Characterization also felt surface-level overall. While we learn a lot about Inesa and Melinoë's lives through their POVs, I wanted to learn more about *them* as individuals. Secondary characters felt like cardboard cutouts when they shouldn't have because they had influence in the story.

I also felt that the relationship between Inesa and Melinoë moved a little too quickly. I wanted more development, more getting to know one another, more tension. And, omg, there are so many questions left unanswered. The last 20% of the book moved incredibly quickly, the climax felt rushed, and the ending was a little too open for my taste. Worst of all, I suspect it was done that way to leave room for a sequel if this does well. I hate that if that's the case. If you're going to make a duology, make a duology, have that be the plan from the get-go, and make sure the first book feels whole on its own. But I digress...

Overall, I liked quite a few things about this book, but it doesn't quite hit that threshold of greatness for me.

Lastly, I want to comment on this comparison the book description provides: "The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes." The Last of Us is maybe my favorite piece of media of all time, and I didn't find any of it here. Just cause two people reluctantly go on a journey together and end up caring for each other doesn't make it comparable. Terminator would've worked a lot better. I do agree with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, though. There are way more elements here that can be compared to that book and The Hunger Games in general.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the eARC!

4.5 stars. I missed the era of dystopian novels and I was elated to hear that one of my favorite authors was writing one. This felt both nostalgic and brand new as Reid took this Dystopian novel in a way I was not expecting while still reminding me of The Hunger Games and how impactful it is. It was incredible and I can't say that I didn't cry reading this. I can't wait for my preorder of the special edition so I can hold this book in my hands. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and the story within will be lingering in my head for a very long time.