Thank you so much to HarperCollins Children's Books for the opportunity to read this book in advance of it's release March 4, 2025!
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Fable for the End of World is Ava Reid continuing to show off her amazing capabilities at creating the most enticing relationships between characters. I was so invested in Inesa and Mel. Their yearning and how they begin to care for each other despite their circumstances is really special. Two girls who had to go through really different but both very difficult circumstances being able to open themselves up to each other... My heart was theirs. I really enjoy this and found the universe and stakes it was set in to be just realistic enough that it had me feeling uneasy because I can imagine how the world gets to the place they were in. My only tiny gripe is that the blushing of their faces was mentioned enough that I got a bit annoyed by it but I also recognize it really underscores their youth and the tenderness they have for each other. That ending was brutal and middle school me would have been crying for days. All in all a great book and I have my fingers crossed for this being a series???? Who knows!!!

Overall the book was very engaging. I loved how she made points on how women are viewed in society. It was a little YA and predictable and I don’t know how I feel about the ending. 3.5/5

Fable for the End of the World is dystopian YA novel. It does have a sapphic romance between our two FMC’s. Ava Reid has created an amazing dystopian world that has hints of Hunger Game vibes, but is definitely a new twist and wasn’t just regurgitated themes. Inesa lives in a world where due to climate change and war, water levels increasing, radiation mutated animals, her and her family are struggling to survive. Amidst this is the corporate conglomerate known as Caerus which essentially have control over everything from doctors, groceries, and technology. They offer x amount of credits to be used to purchase these items, and if the debt exceeds the allotted amount, they hold a “Gauntlet” to repay the debt. This means that the family members can choose someone in their family to became the “lamb” who has to run/fight the “Angel”. This is live-streamed to the world and usually ends in the chosen lambs death. Our Angel is Melinoë. After suffering a mental break from killing her last lamb, she is forced to enter a new gauntlet where Inesa is the chosen lamb. This begins a journey of self-discovery on both sides, and such love and hope. The world building is so well done. I did cry at the ending. I just love them both so much. Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper publishing for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for proving an ARC for review.

Being fully honest, I felt disappointed by this. Ava Reid’s prose is beautiful as always, and I felt excited with the setting. It felt very reminiscent of 2010s YA dystopian fiction, and I loved the lore of the world.

The plot is where I struggled. There are moments where it feels like the dystopian horrors inexplicably pause in order to grow the relationship between Inesa and Melinoë. For instance, a key character goes missing, with their survival unknown, and for some reason there doesn’t feel like there’s any urgency to find this character. This laxity is also never explained. Instead, the plot tension pauses to build the romance between the characters.

By the end, this book was seriously dragging for me. I still feel mystified by where the story ended. Is there a sequel coming? Is that it?

I enjoyed parts of this but ultimately I feel stumped. The romance felt like Hunger Games fan fiction that was messily blended into a unique and interesting setting. I feel frustrated with this book and where it left off, but I also want a sequel.

3.5!

The concept is chilling and immediately hooks you into its bleak reality. While the characters are engaging and well-written, the world-building feels a bit thin. There were moments when I wished for a deeper explanation of how things came to be in this society.

Also, it is clear that Ava Reid intended it as an homage to old school dystopian stories, and while it nails that nostalgic vibe, occasionally leans a bit too heavily into familiarity.

The writing itself is beautifully crafted as we know is the strength of Ava.

Overall, if you are nostalgic for the dystopian era/ book where survival is on the line, I will be recommending this.

What a book to start in the wake of this election…


“Fable for the End of the World” by Ava Reid was a very enjoyable read. I was a little confused by the beginning of the book, but it very quickly picked up. Reid’s upcoming novel takes place in a world where a person can go into debt for material goods, whether it be fads or basic goods. If a person goes too into debt or wants to spend past a certain limit, they can be entered into the gauntlet, which is a fight to the death against an “angel” a cyborg like human entity that has been altered to become a killing machine.

This is going to be a book I think about often. Both Melinoë and Inesa have impacted me. I wish they lived in a different world, one where they could live freely.

In terms of critiques of the book, I feel like not that much happened in the matter of plot. However, this book did deliver in terms of sapphic love (that I wish was a little more fleshed out, but it is YA), conversation of capitalism, feminism and the consumption of the female body, humanity, and violence.

Thank you to NetGalley and EpicReads for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Absolutely stunning!! A triumphant entry into the dystopian space.. I felt so connected to Inesa and Mel. I found strange comfort in reading this around the election. Terrible, atrocious things will happen. Things that cannot be forgiven and cannot be forgotten. And also in the midst of all that terror, there can still be small moments of love and hope and beauty.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid in exchange for review.

4.25 stars

Not only was this book delivering on some Hunger Games but also a bit of Repo! The Genetic Opera which I LOVED.

What’s a little bit of debt? Definitely worth losing yourself or a family member over. This book hit deep on toxicity and family drama, from a mysterious disappearance to mentally ill cruelties.

I also love the dystopian setting, we’re somewhere in the future where the government owns all and the rich live in peace away from pollution meanwhile you average everyday person has a pod or shack in a flooding wasteland with mutated animals.

The kinship between our FMC Inesa and her brother Luka was so wholesome and heartfelt. He really stepped up, though they’re both used to doing so for their family. Luka took on Inesa’s problems as his own in order to help his sister. They were both extremely likable characters.

Melinoe. An angel. A cyborg? Partially robotic super human aka the governments assassin and plaything was also 10/10. She defied all odds and broke the mold she was created and boxed into.

All around this book was just a wonderful and thrilling adventure, what’s going to happen next???? We did leave off on somewhat of a cliffhanger but it wasn’t one that upset me. It was peaceful and made sense. If there’s no book 2 I will gladly accept it (though book 2 would be great I love a sapphic story). Did I mention it was sapphic? Wonderfully sapphic while showing how disgusting humanity can be at the same time.

Thank you so much for the lovely read!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this!! I love capitalism being the enemy. And that really comes through in this. This book will make you want to hate people, hate everything really. But I think this has a lot interpretations that are going to be hard to miss or clouded due to the way it has you focusing. I would honestly love to hear what people think of this when it comes out.

OK!!! on to the more pleasant matters. Characters are great, honestly. It was really easy to get drawn into the parts said and unsaid as well as the alternating POVs.

I absolutely adore Ava Reid and this book knocked it out of the park for me. The author has said that they were really inspired by classic YA dystopian novels, like the Hunger Games, and this absolutely pays homage to that era while giving it a modern twist. When people talk about dark damp moody atmosphere this is exactly what they mean. Reid is a pro at creating the perfect atmosphere for her books. Each book has a different vibe that is executed perfectly for that book.

There's a really interesting backstory for how the city/world became covered in water and turned into a Corporatocracy. A company similar to Amazon reigns supreme over the country and sponsors and encourages the gauntlets. There's a lot of exploration of debt and what you owe to others, not just in monetary terms, which is a big theme, but also in acts of kindness towards others and what we owe to society.

The moralizing at the end gets a little heavy handed but overall I really loved the ending. I know this is a standalone but I would read the sh*t out of any sequels.

This was a solid YA fantasy.. I liked the enemy to lovers troupe and how it played out. While the book was dark this cat and mouse game was enduring. The dystopian world was well written, the writing was top notch.

Lesbian longing is my favorite genre.

PLOT SUMMARY:

Inesa is a seventeen-year-old girl struggling in a sinking county under the control of a dangerous company called Caerus. When Inesa’s mother accumulates too much debt to pay off herself, she petitions for one of her children to participate in a live-streamed assassination spectacle called The Lamb’s Gauntlet.
On the opposite side of the Gauntlet is Melinoe, one of the many Careus-controlled assassins dubbed “Angels.” When she receives her assignment to kill Inesa, she believes it will be a chance to redeem herself from the disastrous results of her previous Gauntlet.
But when Melinoe and Inesa find themselves lost in the woods, with Melinoe cut off from Careus, they both form a tenuous deal to keep each other alive, But only until the cameras come back on.
Will this Gauntlet redeem Melinoe? Will Inesa survive? Or will the sudden attraction tugging them together be too much to resist?

PLOT REVIEW:

This was a genius plot.
Not only do we get a world slowly sinking below the surface of the water, we also get a country completely under the control of a high-tech company focused on debt-collection and gruesome spectacles.
This was truly fascinating world-building, and the society depicted is starkly unsettling yet so similar to our own society now. We consume media to the point of madness, finding the most vicious forms of barbarity “entertaining.”
That’s not the end of it, though.
Reid also snuck in several discussions about the fetishization of lesbians and the sexualization of women. As someone who identifies as both a woman and a lesbian, it’s important to me that more people spread awareness about these issues.
Thank you, Reid, for doing that.
Continuing with the review, I found the plot of this book to be enjoyable but not completely perfect. There were times when I wanted more action but also more time for the characters to get to know each other.
Several plot points were also completely dropped at the end of the book, including the plot about Inesa’s father. I was curious about him throughout the whole book, wondering if he had made it out of Caerus’ control like she thought. But this area of the story was never fully explored, and I was left unsatisfied, feeling as though something was missing.
Another thing I was disappointed in was the lack of discovery about who is controlling Careus. Who is the person pulling all of the strings? Why did we never find out who they were?
It was just really annoying to be left with more questions than answers, especially when I’m pretty sure this is a standalone novel.

CHARACTERS:

I adore the characters that Reid designed.
They’re fully fleshed out, with contrasts and similarities that make them endearing and perfect for each other.
My favorite character was Melinoe. Her development throughout the book was so satisfying and meaningful. The fact that she discovered her humanity through her days with Inesa was simply beautiful. Her protective nature also really endeared her to me, especially when she focused on covering Inesa from the watchful, grotesque eyes of the camera.
Her character was simply gorgeous.
And Inesa was much the same.
I enjoyed her slow growth as well, especially when it came to the realization that her empathy, something she was often berated for by her mother, was actually a strength and not a weakness. I love getting to see young girls in books realize what makes them human and powerful are the things they are often told are “weak” or “wrong.”
It’s a delicious storyline to follow, and I adored seeing it here.
Even more delicious was the longing between Inesa and Melinoe. Lesbian books just hit different when it comes to yearning, and this story was no exception! That ending had me crying and desperately hoping that Inesa and Melinoe would be reunited!
Concerning the other characters, they were not as fleshed out as Inesa and Melinoe. I was hoping we might have a few explorations of the other Angels and their respective character arcs. It seemed we were heading in that direction, but then things took a turn, and we never really made it there.
Disappointing, but at least we got two powerful and queer characters to enjoy in this book!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

When it comes to yearning, the lesbians just do it better.


Big thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to review this ARC!

Ava Reid has written some of my favorites and some books I could barely finish - I NEVER know what to expect from her, but I'll always have a strong opinion on it. "Fable for the End of the World" is an homage to the dystopian reads Reid grew up on - one can see the bones from such series as 'The Hunger Games' and "Divergent' peeking out from beneath her able prose. I appreciated that unlike most of the dystopians of yesteryear, this one was happily sapphic, but Reid's world suffers from being a little too vague for my tastes. It's clear she has Big Ideas but has fumbled a little in the execution. That said, this is a fun read for anyone who wants a nostalgia hit.

This was just okay.
I loved the premise I was seeing from other book reviewers. A dystopian, sapphic fantasy hunger games type of book. But ultimately it fell short for me in a lot of ways.

The world building and writing just felt awkward, like didn’t really make sense but was trying to be complicated. The plot was nothing I found exciting because I’ve seen it before.

Only redeeming qualities for me were the characters. I liked both female leads a lot. Inesa and Melinoe can’t be more different in their life circumstances but both end up in this game that like the Hunger Games is a representation of their bad governments / politics (another too close similarity for me)

Overall it’s nothing original at all. It’s a decent read the characters were the most intriguing but don’t expect much more

Inesa lives in a half-sunken town trying to keep afloat (figuratively and literally) alongside her brother. However, everything changes when her mother enters her into the Gauntlet to pay off her debts. She is to be hunted down by Caerus’s Angels - weapons created by the corporation that controls everything through their credit system.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. She is a living weapon, human parts, hormones, and reconditioning. She will do anything to avoid the being decommissioned and Wiped to become a corporate concubine.

Caerus uses the Gauntlets to keep New Amsterdam both riveted and cowed. Entertained and subjugated. They promise advancement, but through restriction and subjugation.

I think the blurb basically tells you the entire story. What is on the package is what you get, so there wasn’t as much tension and stress which is what you want with a story like this.

This sounds all negative - it shouldn’t be. I binged this in under 3 hours and I think Reid made very valiant points about humanity’s future and our attitude. It was just very guessable. More young adult than I had thought it would be. It also lacks Reid’s also usual beautiful, stunning prose.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me an arc in exchange for a review.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC of this book.

Fans of Ava Reid's books and/or The Hunger Games will love this dystopian story. In a world that feels like our not so distant future, people who go into debt must pay with a life. The person is then hunted by one of the elite killers and it's broadcast for entertainment.

This book is a standalone and is possibly the most open ended of all of Ava's books. I loved the characters but for me it didn't hit as hard as her books usually do. Still an excellent read.

3.5 stars! This was a fun nod to the old dystopian, battle royale-type books. It was very similar in some ways to the Hunger Games, but it a good way. I loved Reid’s beautiful writing style among the tense situations the characters were in. This does have trigger warnings similar to those of many of the old dystopian novels. So if you didn’t’mind the trigger warnings in those, this will be fine. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good dystopian. Let’s bring that era back!

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins Children’s Books for allowing me to read an eARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

This was the perfect homage to the dystopian books I grew up with. The Hunger Games will always be a staple in my re-reads and now so will Fable for the End of the World. It was a beautiful sapphic love letter to the story I grew up on. I will cherish this forever. And secretly wish for a sequel…

Thank you to NetGalley, Ava Reid, and the publisher for allowing me access to the e-Arc.

4.25 stars

Lesbian Hunger Games was not on my bingo card. I am so glad that I got to read this arc. It was such a great read. It’s a perfect dystopian novel that talks about climate change, technology, corporate corruption, and the haves and have-nots. There were so many great quotes.

TW: Murder, Medical Content, Suicide Attempt, and Emotional Abuse.

✨ Sapphic
✨ Enemies to lovers
✨ Hunger Games vibes

I highly recommend it!

Ava Reid is becoming one of my auto buy authors and books like Fable for the End of the World are why. Reid tells us at the beginning that this book is a love letter to the 2010s dystopian books that raised us all, setting up us to make comparisons to our favorites from ten plus years ago. She definitely took her inspiration from things like the Hunger Games and Divergent, but Fable is its own entity. It opens with a similar feeling as the Hunger Games, being dropped directly into the story without much warning, but from there Fable turns into something completely its own. The same feelings are there, that familiar hopelessness and the desolation of it all. Reid knows how to make us feel like we’re reading a book from the dystopian renaissance of the 2010s without making us feel like we’re reading a poorly done remake of those books. Fable is poignant and painful and beautiful, using thinly veiled comparisons to our current day situations as a kind of wake up call. These things are happening all over, and Reid wants you, needs you, to remember that. Their characters are easy to root for and root against all the same. Melinoë is reminiscent of the careers from District One and Two, carefully crafted killing machines made solely to compete and kill. While Inesa is something different entirely. A young girl whose kindness is almost nauseating because of just how much she’s suffered. How can someone be so good after everything she’s gone through? They make a powerful pair, filling in the pieces the other is missing, and maybe they’ll be powerful enough to burn the whole damn thing down. The pacing makes for an exciting story you’ll want to finish in one sitting. Coming March 4, 2025, make sure to add Fable for the End of the World to your tbr lists! Thank you to Netgalley for early access to this title!