I’m a big fan of Ava Reid. So you know I always have to read Reid’s latest release immediately. As a fan of the Hunger Games, Fable for the End of the World was a mixed bag. There were elements I enjoyed and some which I had trouble with. Keep reading this book review of Fable for the End of the World for my full thoughts.
Summary
By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.
Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.
Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.
When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.
For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.
As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.
And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Fable for the End of the World merges the horrors of climate change, increasing inequality and oppression, with the spectacles of social media. Heavily inspired by dystopias like The Hunger Games, Fable for the End of the World is another to add to the YA dystopia list. And that’s my first disappointment. I felt the world building was a bit hazy. There’s supposed to be this ultra corporation spectacle and oppression between classes – similar to Hunger Games disparity – and the threads are there. But when we needed a bit more to truly understand the stakes, the larger systems at play, I felt a bit unmoored.
I wanted to know more about past instances of the games, about the wealthy disparity, how power is corrupted and inherited. And because we were lacking that, I found myself not really understanding the scope, the stakes that landed our characters there. One of my favorite elements in Fable for the End of the World is the dehumanization and monstrosity of each other. Whether they’re the ones hunting or being hunted, there’s an element for each of them were they stop seeing the others as ‘human’. As potential sources of someone we could understand.
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Overall,
Fable for the End of the World has so many elements or vibes similar to pieces of media I’ve enjoyed like Dollhouse, The Hunger Games, and more. All in all, Fable for the End of the World has promise and maybe if there was just a bit more world in some parts, I’d have been unable to turn away. Fable for the End of the World just ends up shy from what it wants to be. I appreciated the exploration of realizing that the system thrives off our feeling like we have no choices, that we have to play the game. And in a world where we are encouraged to stop seeing each other, love is couragous rebellion.
Find Fable for the End of the World on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.