I didn;t read carefully enough and didnt see it was teen. This book was SO CLOSE to something I would love... but for my personal tastes it just lacked that little UMPH that adult books have. I will sell this to a few teens, however.

Coming from someone who read far too many YA dystopian novels int he 2010s, this just isn't holding my attention fifteen years later. I was super intrigued by the premise and really commend the author for tackling the topics of capitalism and climate change, but I think I have grown out of young adult. I have also noticed some plot holes, like why does the female protagonist not think there are cameras when she wakes up in the same spot where there were cameras? It really pulled me out of the story, and I haven't been able to sink back in,

After a reread of this book (the first read through was a bit rushed due to my schedule at the time) some of my opinions have changed. There are a few plot holes that I was unhappy about and some things that just didn’t quite add up. I feel like the reader kept getting threads of hope only to have them yanked away. I’m not a fan of insta-love which is basically what happened between the FMCs. I also noticed how many big issues were just swept away and under the rug to give us a not-that-cohesive ending and it frustrated me. So for that reason I’ve downgraded my rating a bit. I still think the dystopian world that Reid built is really fascinating and the political tensions were very easy to believe.

I was surprised and delighted by this sapphic romance set in a Dystopian future where the Earth is waterlogged and the wealth hoarders are using robots and AI to scare and exploit the general population. They televise the hunt for a debtor, and family can nominate family members to run the gauntlet on their behalf from a heavily robotically augmented woman who's been trained to make this a show. The love that grows between hunter and hunted is unexpected and doomed but still it persists.

The commentary about connection to self, others and our home planet is eviscerating. We all deserve better than this future we're hurtling toward. I enjoyed this book, very thoughtful.

Ava Reid lays out in her author's note that this novel is inspired by The Hunger Games, which is readily apparent in the Gauntlet, where a biologically modified and enhanced Angel hunts down a sacrificial Lamb to pay a family's debts. However, this is also a commentary on consumer culture, big corporations (Amazon, anyone?), and climate change. While I enjoyed other books by Reid more, I thought this was a good addition to the YA dystopian romance pantheon, and I liked the world building of Esupus Creek and character development.

This book was very interesting! I enjoyed the similarities it had to hunger games but Ava Reid also did an amazing job at making it different in many ways. I really enjoyed the sapphic story line, I am loving the sapphic representation in books I have been reading lately.

Thank you Ava Reid and NetGalley for the ARC

I will always love Ava Reid’s writing, the way that it is able to reach into me and grab a hold of my soul is unmatched. This is the best modern YA dystopian novel out there right now. It feels so poignant for current times.

4.5 stars. This book was quite good. I really enjoyed the ship and how their romance built. The plot and worldbuilding felt meaningful and made a great point (specifically about capitalism and lack of care for the poor). Melinoë was my favorite character. I really liked her progression and her story. I can’t tell if this book is supposed to continue with that ending, but I really hope it will. I’d love a continuation of this story and to continue watching these characters develop and expand.

Just to start, I love that this is a stand alone novel. As much as we all love an amazing series, it does sometimes feel nice and refreshing to have some resolution. I really enjoyed this book, as chilling as it was. While being very dystopian, it somehow also feels like a potential path we will take as a people, lending to the feeling of suspense and anxiety. Inesa & Melinoe were wonderful. We deserved a lesbian Hunger Games, and we got one ladies.

Fable for the end of the World is the YA dystopian romance I didn’t know I needed in my life.

The story follows two young women living in a world ravaged by climate change, mutant animals, and a social media/entertainment obsessed society that is organized around debt. Caerus is the corporation that controls this society.

Inesa is a young woman who lives with her younger brother and her seriously in debt mother. Inesa and her brother have their own taxidermy business that helps them scrap by and take care of each other. Their father left them years ago. Their mother’s debt leads to Inesa becoming the “Lamb” in Caerus’s game of sending an assassin to the poorer area to kill the lamb in exchange to get debt wiped out. This assassination is live streamed and a large portion of society tunes in to watch the killing of the Lamb.

The other perspective is a young woman named Melinoe, an “Angel” modified from a young age to be one of the assassins in Caerus’s games. Melinoe is suffering from a previous game in which she had to kill a young girl. Inesa’s assassination is Melinoe’s chance to show Caerus that she is still ruthless and suitable to her role as an assassin.

Inesa and Melinoe are expected to fight each other to the death, but they find themselves weary of the roles this world has put them into. They begin to question their role in Caerus’s game, if there is more to the world they live in, and also how they feel about one another.

This dystopian world felt very unique to me. I loved the ideas this novel takes on. Debt, social media, climate change, and violence as entertainment are all very real and relevant ideas in society today and I think this book explores these ideas in a very interesting way. I felt like this story was different from anything I’ve read, but this book really did remind me of the dystopian books I loved as a young reader. The romance was also so cute! I love that Inesa and Melinoe's relationship transformed in a realistic way. YA romance can be somewhat cheesy at times, but I felt like the romance here was well done.

I would highly recommend this if a dystopian romance appeals to you!

I wanted to love this—dystopia? check. sapphic slow-burn? check. rage at capitalism? triple check. And for a while, I was hooked. The vibes? Immaculate. But then…it just stalled. The pacing dragged, the romance didn’t hit emotionally, and Inesa kind of faded into the background. Cool concept, important message—just didn’t land fully for me. Still glad I read it, though.

gays + capitalism + romance = fable for the end of the world

while not my favorite ava reid book, i'm a sucker for her and all things gay. i enjoyed the aspects of future plus present ideas and can totally see where she was going with this. unfortunately, the book overall fell a little short but i will still eat up anything she writes.

Fable for the End of the World is a searing commentary on climate change, class warfare, and propaganda, humanized by the two main characters. The Gauntlet pits femme fatale assassin Melinoë against sacrificial lamb Inesa--all in the name of distracting and entertaining the masses. When their Gauntlet goes offline, the two enemies are forced to team up for survival. As feelings between them grow, they both wonder if there's more to life than what they've always known. But only one was ever meant to survive!

I always try to give books a chance so I hardly ever DNF. But if I hadn't been listening to the audiobook for this one, I might have DNFed it.

The concept seems pretty cool but I just didn't like either leads. The romance felt too convenient and "clean" considering the circumstances. Everything felt very superficial (their feelings, the plot) and somehow both fast-paced and slow-paced (a lot of time passed but nothing actually happened until the last few pages).

Hard pass.

I was really looking forward to reading Fable for the End of the World, but I have to say it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was hoping for more intimate conversations and depth, but I feel like they didn’t get to know each other well and the story took place over a short amount of time. There was also no trust building between them, which made the romance harder for me to believe. There was so much potential, but it needed to focus on a few ideas and develop them more.


This is a good read if you want a sapphic romance in a Hunger Games/Battle Royale-esque world, but keep in mind it won’t be as fleshed out as HG.

I love Ava Reid and have read all of her work. She was able to once again write something that was so meaningful, a fabulous throw back to The Hunger Games, and also something unique and new added to the dystopian world. Mel and Inesa both have a special place in my heart and the ending of this will sit with me for a long time.

Thank you Harpercollins and Netgalley for the ARC!

This is not my favorite of Ava Reid's books, but I still loved it. I think the concept of the Gauntlet and the destruction of the world, along with the way it is approached like a reality TV show was interesting. I also think it is intersting but perhaps not intentional of Reid is the commentary on how parents often feel like they "own" kids.

I know a lot of people didn't like the ending, but it was the only way it was going to end. Unless there is a book 2, they weren't going to bring down the system in one go. I do wish it hadn't ended up Mel being SA'ed, which is why I took of the star, without a potential end/safety in sight. But otherwise, I enjoyed it!

This sapphic YA dystopic novel is like the Hunger Games but if your loved ones nominated you to be hunted down by a genetically enhanced sniper.

I found this book to be pretty action packed right from the start. In a fantasy/dystopian story, it can be tough to do much world building in a standalone, but I think the author did a pretty good job here. In addition to the world and story building, there were also characters that were easy to cheer for. I did find the romance to be a little odd/felt a little forced at the beginning but it got better! Overall enjoyed it, easy to devour quickly.

the gays vs capitalism

Ended up using this one for my summer reading book talks this year and once you get past explaining the world building a little bit, the kids were super invested into the plot. I really feel that interest in dystopian title is coming back around especially with the current state of the world. Reid does a good job of balancing both past and present, the how we got here and where we are going of it all. While it did feel a bit like a rush to the end, Inesa not getting a perfectly happy ending felt right. We are currently living in a world where there may not be a happy ending but keeping things hopefully and worth fighting is the message that will hopefully keep our younger generations engaged with fighting for a better future or at least I hope it will.

Lesbian Hunger Games. This was nostalgic YA dystopian at its finest. I do wish the romance was more fleshed out and slow burn. Really enjoyed.