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.

I love Ava Reid’s writing so much. This book starts out a little slow and then builds to an amazing climax. The way she pulls on hope and survival and makes you believe in even the worst characters. *chefs kiss* The ending honestly wasn’t what I expected and made this book so much more heart wrenching that I thought could be.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an E-ARC to read and review.

Fable for the End of the World is a gritty, emotional dystopian romance that mixes survival with sacrifice and love in a world controlled by corporate greed. Inesa and her brother scrape by in a broken town, unaware that their cruel mother has offered her as a sacrifice in Caerus’s deadly spectacle, the Lamb’s Gauntlet. Melinoe, the cold assassin sent to kill Inesa, is ruthless but tormented by her own past, and as their paths collide, both women are forced to confront their beliefs and their feelings for each other.

The world-building is hauntingly vivid, and the characters are complex and engaging. Inesa’s fierce will to survive and Melinoe’s struggle with her role as a weapon make for a captivating dynamic. The tension between them builds as the story unfolds, and the romance that develops feels both tender and inevitable.

I’ve rated this book 4.75 stars. I loved the futuristic design and the care in the characters development. I loved the relationships that were built and crafted it was the perfect slow burn

4 ⭐️ Ava Reid has done it again with this dystopian hunger games inspired sapphic YA fantasy with enemies to lovers and dual point of view.

We are put into a Hunger Games style gauntlet with Angels which are like basically like enhanced humans that function like robots / machines who are set out to kill “lambs” the poor humans in this world. This gauntlet is live streamed just like in the hunger games with everyone watching.

The lines between coproration and government were crossed after New amsterdam was in a recession / depression era and everyone was drowning in debts not able to afford to buy anything anymore. This huge corporation Caerus stepped in and bought all the debts to create their new dystopian world where you have rely on them in order to live and you HAVE to compete in these gauntlets in order to pay off your debts to them.

It also The Last of Us in the sense that this is a dystopian world for a reason… Not only because of everyone’s debts that they’re were put into a depression but because the land, animals, and humans have mutated. The humans turn into basically zombies if they eat any of the mutated animals.

So there’s a lot going on in this world outside the gauntlet that I would have loved to have gotten more of.

I think Ava Reid presented a strong message of what could happen in our world with climate change, consumerism, and advanced technology that could eventually lead to our downfall. She speaks of nature and how it resonates with us as a community and how we need each other the same way plants need water and animals need plants.

Fable for the End of the World was an immersive, anxiety-inducing, and compelling read. I loved Melinoë and Inesa, the two main characters. The book alternates chapters between the two girls, allowing us to get close to both. The root of the book is the Lamb's Gauntlet, basically sacrificing a family member for debt-forgiveness in a televised event where they are hunted by an Angel.
This book has a ton of comparisons, but stands on its own. The world is interesting and easily pictured. The characters are flawed and sympathetic. If you've been craving more Hunger Games, then this is a great book to pick up. The themes of televised violence, a looks-obsessed ruling class, a floundering lower class, a televised fight for survival are all there. If you, like me, absolutely love The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid, then you need to read this book. Melinoë is her own character, but the traits that made me love Nemesis in The Diabolic are also there in this new cyborg anti-heroine.
I truly hope this is the first in a duology or series. Not only is there more story to tell, but there is so much more to this world that I want to explore.

Fable for the End of the World - A dystopian (YA) sci-fi/fantasy that was described as a The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes that did NOT disappoint. This book is a dual POV story of Inesa and Melinoë. Inesa's awful mother sacrifices her to the Gautlet, where the Angel Melinoë is tasked with killing her. This was a beautifully written sapphic enemies to lovers story; I could feel the connection between Inesa and Mel. I'm a sucker for good side characters and loved Inesa's brother Luka. Fable had pretty good pacing throughout and ended at a place that left me sad, but hopeful. Ava Reid knows how to write.

"It's a privilege, really, to desire, to imagine, to believe." One of my favorite quotes from Fable. 10/10 recommend this book.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5!!! First of all big shout out to NetGalley and Harper Collins for letting me read the e-arc!
This was devastating, beautiful and kept me in the edge of my seat.
There are hunger games elements mixed with fighting to survive the elements! Like many hunger games style books, there are eat the rich vibes and lots of underlying themes of classism, and the nasty behavior of the one percent.
I love our two main characters who are both in devastating situations for different reasons. Each of them have had to fight to survive in this awful system in different ways.
Also, ITS GAY HUNGER GAMES.
This book screams about the power of queer woman from the roof tops and I LOVED THAT!!

Pitching this as Hunger Games x Annihilation x West World. In dystopian, drowning Upstate NY, a cute, doe-eyed girl named Inesa is making ends meet by selling taxidermied animals that will go extinct. Inesa gets put into the a 1 on 1 Hunger Games by her Munchausen’s afflicted, QVC addicted mother and must survive an arbitrary number of days to win ~the Gauntlet~. If she wins, her loans will be forgiven, which as a post-grad student, I can get on board with.

Melinoe is a cold-hearted, part-tech, part-human killer Angel who is sent to hunt Inesa to prove that she’s still got it because at the ripe of 17, she’s old news and is up to get decommissioned and sold as a tech mogul concubine. Will Melinoe be able to break that cold, hard exterior to make sparks fly with Inesa? Hopefully. If they can get away from the cannibalistic mutant humans and other horrors of the wasteland!!

Ava Reid is amazing at writing character-driven novels, with interesting fleshed out characters who have intriguing backstories. For an action focused dystopian fantasy novel, I wish the world was more fleshed out and we got more information on how everything worked. The things we did find out didn’t necessarily add up. Like why are Inesa & Luka killing endangered animals, someone call WWF. Or why is the world set so far in the future that animals and climates dramatically evolved, but we're still relying on Amazon Prime (albeit via helicopter)?!? There are issues like the objectification and violence against women, the harm of social media, climate change and government institutions that the novel didn’t take the pages to explore. There were beginnings of so many great ideas that needed more page time to truly shine and make a statement. Overall, an interesting and solid read and I'm interested in seeing whether there will be sequels!

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid (e-ARC)
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

This book is exactly what it presents itself as: it truly is a fable for the end of the world as we know it. Inesa and Melinöe live in a future dystopia that has an eerie amount of parallels to the state we are in now, here in the US.

The government has been overrun and absorbed by a single corporation (*cough*) named Caerus that controls society through a cruel credit system, creating a massive divide between the upper and lower classes.

Inesa is sent to the Lamb’s Gauntlet; she is the lamb and she will be hunted down by one of Caerus’ assassins to pay for her mother’s debts. Melinoë is the Angel praised for her ruthlessness, sent to hunt down Inesa. This sets off a gripping sapphic enemies to lovers game of cat and mouse.

Ava Reid says that this is her love letter to The Hunger Games, and it certainly shows. But where THG was a bold statement of rebellion, Fable shows itself in its quiet moments of tenderness. Fable is a heart-wrenching book about hope and I loved every moment of it!

The setting was gritty and sunken and absolutely perfect. I knew of course that Ava is the master of ambience, but I didn’t expect such a vivid and realistic look at a future following war and nuclear disaster. Absolutely brilliant in the details on world building!

I loved the pace of this book, and I really feel like it was the PERFECT length which is a compliment I hand out very rarely. This book leaves you feeling somber hope, which after the last few days is something that feels pretty good.

As always: if she writes it, I will read it! ♡

Thank you Ava for such a tender love story and to Netgalley and HarperCollins Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.75 rounded up.

The cover alone had me hook, line, and sinker.

Fable for the End of the World is a Sapphic YA that follows all of our guilty pleasures; the Roman gladiator-style fight to the death before the ever-eager crowd. Ava Reid doesn't shy away from her obvious inspiration from the YA Dystopian à la the Hunger Games and the cultural impact it and fanfiction had on (internet) society.

I could complain about the world-building and our main relationship but as I'm not exactly coming from a young adult standpoint, I'm going to stay in my lane.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for this eARC in return for an honest review.

3.75 🌕🌕🌕🌖🌑 (rounded up)

This is absolutely the love letter to the late 2000s/2010s dystopian novels most of us grew up on it’s claiming to be. But it’s so much more than that too.

Family struggles, sibling highs and lows, the struggle of not feeling good enough. The pressures of growing up in a digital world. First loves. This book packs so much into its pages.

The world building is what stands out the most to me, it’s a world ravaged by the climate crisis and radiation and Reid still finds spots to make it beautiful. The growth our two FMCs go through is also something I really enjoyed.

Overall this story is an excellent bit of nostalgia that I absolutely enjoyed fully.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Ava Reid for this eArc!

This book has truly changed my perception of the world and the future and I will never be the same. Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid follows Inesa from Lower Esopus Creek and Caerus assassin Melinoë as they are forced to perform in the streamed ritual of the Gauntlet to entertain the citizens of New Amsterdam. While Inesa and Melinoë could not be more different in their situation and what is expected of them, they are forced to discover the bonds that string everyone together. Inesa and Melinoë are burned by the expectations of people and perceptions of the world around them as they fight for themselves and the future they deserve. While New Amsterdam isn’t a real place, every moment, feeling, and situation in this book is rooted in reality. Reid has proven herself to be a master at writing meaningful social commentary in fictional worlds. This book is dark and explores the horrors of humanity while highlighting what it means to come together as people who share a world. Through the evolution of Inesa and Melinoë’s relationship, you are forced to reconcile what humanity truly means in a world that is hyper-focused on individual differences and survival. In addition to the powerful content of the book, the writing is exceptional and transports you into the destroyed world that Caerus controls. Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid is a must-read.

Thank you sincerely to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishing for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

AMAZING COVER ART!

The concept of being so in debt to a massive corporation that you can just sign a family member up to be hunted by an assassin in a reality television show is…well, it’s pretty far-fetched. I love it BUT unless you have some excellent world building to get me to buy in, it just seems so unbelievable that I found myself struggling get into it.

With regard to the world building I kept thinking… why? Why is it like this? And then not really getting a satisfying answer. I think there were some really cool elements (climate issues, mutations of animals, extinction, neighborly debt, etc) but it felt just a tad sparse. I’d love to see it fleshed out even more because it really intrigued me.

The characters independently were interesting, especially Mel. I was expecting more tension between them as Angel and Lamb, but the romance seemed to happen so fast, that it felt a little too forced.

Despite that I am intrigued to learn more about the corporation. And Dad was mentioned so much, so I feel like I need answers on what happened to him?

I think the ending suggests there may be a sequel. I am interested to see what happens next! I have a lot of questions!