A sapphic enemies to lovers dystopian stand-alone? And with Ava Reid’s lyrical writing and nuanced themes? Utter perfection.

This book is inspired by the Hunger Games, but I think this book is much darker (in a good way!). I also loved her portrayal of sibling bonus. Inesa’s story in particular really hit home as someone who also had a narcissitic mom. Her circumstances were heartbreaking, and I think Ava Reid used her character to create a very honest depiction of parental inflicted trauma.

I would give this book 4.5 stars only because I wanted more from the worldbuilding, which was still impressive for being a standalone.

** spoiler alert ** This book was a callback to a lot of the dystopian novels I remember being popular when I was younger. It contained an interesting world that I wanted to know more about (even if the mutations let something to be desired in terms of science). I wish we had the chance to discover more about how the world got to its current environmental state, but that is likely just the interest in ecology in me shining through.

I generally liked the characters but felt that the romance between them came on far too fast given their situation and experience. They went very quickly from zero to a hundred so quickly that it took me out of the story. I liked them together, but I wish they had gone MUCH slower.

One thing I loved was that Reid didn't force a happy ending. She didn't shy away from leaving things feeling hollow but with a touch of hope and defiance reflecting the world in her story. I think it made for a fitting ending, and despite the lack of "happily ever after," left me satisfied.

Finally, I felt this book suffered from consistency issues. We went very quickly from panicking over killing a deer because the blood would attract the Wends (wendigo/zombie-like beings), to having open wounds but taking the time for intimacy with no care for the blood attracting attention. The same could be said over concern for Luka.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for reviewing it.

Ava Reid has cemented herself as an author I will read every single book from and still be left wanting more. Fable for the End of the World was dark, dystopian, and did not provide a happy ending wrapped up in a bow- but it was also hopeful, and romantic. I was thrilled to read Ava Reid's first foray into sapphic fiction and she did not disappoint. Melinoe and Inesa got their happily-ever-after in my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book. As a fan of Hunger Games and an even bigger fan of Ava Reid, I had really high hopes for this unique sapphic dystopian YA book and it did NOT disappoint. I loved that Reid went outside of her usual genre and revisited her old fan fiction with her current story-telling abilities and skill. This was definitely reminiscent of a certain dystopian series while also being so incredibly unique and fresh. As in her other books, there are heavy interpersonal and systemic abuse themes that were handled well. She also pulled in capitalistic overreach, surveillance, misogyny, and climate change to create this very believable dystopian world that was unnervingly close to our current reality. The other common themes in her books like the lore, atmosphere and flawed but relatable characters were also perfectly done. Melinoe and Inesa were nuanced, relatable, and I was genuinely rooting for them throughout the book. Even the side characters were well written and multi-dimensional. This is probably not a huge spoiler, but even though the story was complete, if this book doesn't have a sequel I will riot.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for letting me read an eARC!

I was super excited to read Fable, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to my high expectations. I did enjoy the reading experience, but the story didn’t impact me the way her first 3 books did.


Fable for the End of the World takes place over an extremely short period of time—a few days I believe—so there’s very little time to get to know any character, their relationships, or their world. Ava Reid’s lush atmospheric writing usually sucks me in quickly, but because of how little time there is to sit in this world before the fast-paced action starts, I found this book much less immersive. I generally don’t get invested in romances that take place over just a few days, and this short timeline also limited the thematic impact. It’s hard to make give meaningful commentary on such expansive issues as climate change and the ways more vulnerable people are abused by a corporatist system, with a story that is so limited in scope. 


I also found the characters’ ages to be a bit confusing. This is a YA book and the two main characters are both teenagers, but neither of them seems to actually live the day-to-day life of a teenager. Inesa is working full-time running a business alongside her even-younger brother, while Melinoe is an assassin. This isn’t a coming-of-age story that significantly centers their youth, and I think these characters would have fit well as young 20-somethings. I expect the decision to make them younger was (1) because this genre and type of story fits more cleanly in YA and (2) to include some commentary on how even children aren’t spared from these abuses. The latter point didn’t really land for me specifically because they read as adult characters.



This was still an enjoyable book, and I appreciate it for what it is, but it won’t stick with me in the way other books of hers have.

Ava truly never misses. What a wonderful book and such a beautiful love letter to dystopian stories. If it weren't for the open ending, with too many loose ends, it would've been perfect.

“And maybe that’s all it takes—at least at the beginning. Just a few people who care. And that caring matters, even if it can’t cool the earth or lower sea levels or turn back time to before a nuclear blast.”

Overall rating: 4 stars
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Pub Date Mar 04 2025

Thank you to the author, HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperCollins and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to the publishers + Netgalley !

I love Ava , everything she does is so beautiful and poetic , so when I saw she did a sapphic - dystopian- enemies to lovers I was all in .

As someone who loves The Hunger Games , this book was everything to me . It’s definitely a love letter to us HG babies .
This was dark , and full of desperation, sadness , gore , and just adult themes .
I love the tone that this sets , in a world where oppression , climate change , and debt has altered our world into something very scary ( that can totally happen ) . Also , the use of media and commentary on women was such a strong aspect that I very much enjoyed because it made the story feel more real !
I enjoyed this so much , and I hope we get a second !?
Ava as always does everything so beautifully, I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy !

I am... completely baffled by and obsessed with this beautiful story. This is my first Ava Reid book and I'm honestly completely shook at how gorgeously this was told. It made me FEEL things the whole time. I don't even entirely know what things, but the feelings are just overwhelming for sure.

In the reader's note, Ava called this book "a love note to The Hunger Games and dystopian novels from the 2010s" and that's honestly a great description. But I'd call it the distilled essence of those novels, and frankly dystopia at its best. From the eerie "wow this could be us one day" vibes to the almost easter egg moments where you see something that you recognize.

The romance adds to the story rather than distracts from it, a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers forbidden love.

In Fable for the End of the World, Ava Reid pays homage to the dystopian genre with a fascinating novel that takes all its own tropes and key elements but re-written in her unique lyrical and evocative narrative style.

(full review to come)

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a solid 3.5 stars for me! Its biggest strength is without a doubt Reid's writing style and the world that she set up here. Her prose is always gorgeous in my opinion and this book was no exception. I also think this world we're reading about is super interesting and a cool newer take on the idea of a dystopia compared to some of the staples of the genre. It definitely brings something new to the discussion whilst also paying homage to the stories that this story takes inspiration from.

Frankly I found the beginning of this book prior to the beginning of the Gauntlet to be the most interesting and engaging. The familial dynamics Inesa deals with, along with Mel's interpersonal relationships were super interesting and had a lot of depth to them, and I think there was also a lot that could be explored about each of their own day to day lives. Once the Gauntlet started, I found the plot a big less engaging. I think that Inesa and Mel's relationship moved at such an odd pace, and had trouble buying into their change of hearts toward each other with how quickly it seemed to happen. It felt so shoe-horned in for me. I also didn't ever really feel the stakes for Inesa, despite how high they are on paper with her life hanging in the balance. It was engaging enough for me to keep reading, but at times it felt like I was doing so begrudgingly just to see where the story would end even if I didn't particularly care how we got there. I also found the ending to be a bit lackluster, given I am under the impression that this book is a standalone. Were there to be a sequel announced someday in the future, I would not be at all surprised.

Overall an interesting new take on the dystopian genre for a modern audience with sapphic representation which we ALWAYS need more of, and though it may not be for me I absolutely understand why someone would love this book and hope it finds the adoring audience it deserves!

Ava Reid. I have yet to be disappointed me with your books. What more could I want in a book, rich story telling, unique dystopian world, SAPPHIC. The list goes on. Absolutely devoured this one and so grateful I was able to get an arc of this.

My new favourite read!

Ava Reid’s writing will forever amaze me and forever leave my brain reeling. When I grow up I want to be Ava Reid so I too can write a masterpiece. Her prose and world building in this sapphic dystopian is like no other.

I loved the sapphic enemies to lovers love story. It was refreshing to read about, and also indescribably beautiful.

What you can expect:
-Sapphic Romance
-Enemies to Lovers
-Hunger Games & Dystopian Vibes
-Epic Family Dynamics
-A Beautifully Atmospheric Read

This is a book I know I will return to often!

“So here we are, hating each other, repulsed by each other, both standing to gain from the other’s demise. And yet—I owe her my life.”

Ava Reid get’s the gears moving in your brain, and it’s one of the things I truly love about her writing. She wrote about topics that felt real, and despite this being a piece of fiction, I can’t help but focus on the fact that so many elements felt like things our world is harbouring on the precipice of. So many of the topics at hand are things that could be our potential future, and I applaud Ava Reid for doing such an exceptional job writing about all of these topics and elements.

If there is one book I can convince you to read, let it be this one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publishers and Ava Reid for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. My gratitude cannot be expressed enough!

“Sometimes I think that’s what love is, really- giving each other matching scars.”

“Fable for the End of the World,” by Ava Reid

This book completely blew me away. If The Hunger Games and Uglies had a baby, it would be this book. It had the poverty side of hunger games but with an emphasis on social media, the hunters were made to look and act in a certain way to create this show type thing for entertainment dealing with the hunting of the chosen poor person. I loved the light romance that was F/F and the family emotional problems. Above all else though, I loved the end so much. I want more books to end this good for sure. 5 out of 5 stars, perfect.

-F/F
-Dystopian

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

“Maybe enough fear can add up to love.”

“You can hate the person who imprisons you, but you can’t hate the person who sets you free. So what do you do when they’re one and the same?”

“I once told her it took strength to hurt, to grieve, that it was braver than feeling nothing at all. I’m grieving for the living, though. It feels different than mourning the dead.”

“All our lives, there’s been nothing but leaving.”

I really enjoyed this book. Although the plot seemed v familiar, it was a great read. Characters were built really well!

If you were young and queer in the mid 2010s, this book will make you feel so seen. The romance hits in all the right ways and the ending made my chest ache. Reid manages to make an archetype that has been done so many different ways feel fresh and the story grips you from the first chapters. Recommended for fans of VE Schwab and Tillie Walden.

3.5 stars

I really love Ava Reid's writing style - it's easy to read and has a flow. I love her character studies; they're always dynamic and interesting, and the end-of-the-world fable is no exception. I really liked her take on dystopias; this felt like a love letter to the genre, with strong inspiration from the world of The Hunger Games, which I really enjoyed. This book has a really strong beginning, I thought the climate change story was really compelling, and I love an open ending.

This is a solid 4 star read! I really enjoy Ava Reid's writing style—it's compulsively readable and flows flawlessly. I love her character studies—they are always dynamic and interesting and Fable for the End of the World is no exception. I really liked her take on dystopian. This felt like a love letter to the genre with heavy inspiration from the Hunger Games world that I really liked. The book has such a strong start, I thought the climate-change narrative was really compelling, and I love an open-ended closing. I'm sticking with a 4 star review for this one because things fell a little flat for me in the middle, but overall really enjoyed this story and would recommend it to a wide variety of readers in my life.

I received a free electronic copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The opening scene with Inesa providing supplies to a man from her community to preserve his 12-year-old daughter's body after his actions have caused her death was a compelling introduction to the world the reader is being thrown into.
The introduction to Mel humanizes her, even if the technological advancements made to her body has left her as something beyond. Both girls are shown to the reader as deeply human, despite the efforts of those in power to make Mel a vicious, technologically enhanced, merciless killer and to make Inesa pure entertainment in her role as the Lamb to the slaughter in exchange for her mother's debt.
Inesa being put up for the Gauntlet by her mother was obvious as the reader, but that makes Inesa's efforts to remain debt free even more heartbreaking because she was blindsided. Both by the realization that her mother was in extreme debt and the final reinforcement that her mother saw Inesa as less than her brother, despite Inesa being integral to the family's taxidermy operation.
Luka and Inesa's relationship was well built and complex, beginning with the siblings having a laundry list of topics they both unanimously agreed to avoid, without ever having had a conversation about it. As much as I appreciate the development of their relationship at the end of the novel, I think Luka being relatively unharmed after what should have been his deadly encounter with the Wens was a bit of a cop-out.
Speaking of the Wens, I really loved the inclusion. The idea of a wendigo-like species really upped the horrors of just how far society has come, between the animals evolving and outcompeting with the natural born creatures nearly to extinction, as well as humans having eaten too much of the evolved and irradiated animals' flesh that results on them turning into the Wens and then having a compulsion to feast of the flesh of humans.
I thoroughly enjoyed the sci-fi elements of turning Mel, as well as the other Angels, from human children into lethal and merciless killers.
The system of the Gauntlet was intriguing. If a member goes into a certain amount of debt, they must put up a family member to be hunted down by an Angel. Their execution wipes the slate clean for the debt holder. Inesa's mother is constantly seeing doctors and taking pricey medication for ailments she claims to have and has amassed enough debt to require her to put up someone for the Gauntlet. Rather than put herself up (no one ever puts themself up), she signs Inesa up and tries to justify her actions by calling Inesa useless rather than acknowledge that without Inesa, no one would be able to preserve the animals Luka hunts, and the family would sink into the water that constantly floods their streets.
The development of the relationship between Inesa and Mel was heartwarming and soul crushing at the end of the book.
Leaving the book off with Inesa trying to find Mel after Mel has been decommissioned as an Angle and married off to a much older man was a perfect place to leave the book. There's a sense of impending doom and determination left from Inesa refusing to leave the city until she can spring Mel from her carefully crafted prison.
The inclusion of Luka and Inesa finding the nothingness left beyond their community was great to break their hope that their father was out beyond the reach of the corporation running their lives. I wish we did get to see it on page rather than referred to after they have returned to their home.
I felt like the ending was a bit rushed, but aside from that it was overall a very compelling story.

Umm WHAT THE F***.
I honestly can't describe @avasreid writing. My friends know that I love the dark and twisty (Call me Meredith Grey) so Ava's writing was written FOR ME. No one else! You can't have her!

No, in all reality I love her books so much and I want everyone else to read and be enamored by her as well. I love reading stories that make you go "ew what?!" or just take you on a complete psychological trip. Ava is fantastic at both. Boy does #fablefortheendoftheworld take you on a wild ride! The opening scene alone is enough to make you go 🤢 gimme more!!!

If I had to sum up this story in one sentence it would be a darker, creepier Hunger Games but instead of a random choosing, the parents put up their own kids in exchange for their debt. Like I said, WHAT THE F***.

I loved this story's prose and the way that Ava's writing makes you feel things deep in your gut. She will always be an auto-buy author for me.

The greed, the hatred, the dehumanization, the family love, the sapphic love. It was just overall a really good read!

Make sure to pick up your copy on March 4th!!

Thank you Harper Collins and Ava Reid for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

3.75

A poignant dystopian tale of truly valuing and knowing what it means to be human. We meet Inesa, faced with a hunger-games-esque execution due to her mother's spending fueled by hypochondria. She has 24 hours. For Melinoe, our assassin, it's just another day, another kill, another episode.

The twist, gut wrenching. Their bond and connection, raw, and powerful. I wish their romance was better paced rather than just an essential "Stockholm syndrome", but the commentary on the capitalist dystopia pulled my interest so much to the point that I finished this in one go.