Book Review | Fable for End of the World

In Fable for the End of the World, Ava Reid crafts an intriguing dystopian world. The inhabitants of Lower Esopus live in a flooded city where they must navigate by raft and take decontamination tablets to survive. Mutated wildlife roam the woods, and citizens who accumulate enough debt must participate in a deadly cat-and-mouse game called the Gauntlet.

I also adored Melinoë as a character. She's an Angel—an augmented cyborg who's raised to be a weapon. However, she must grapple with the guilt of killing people and repeatedly have her memories erased (think along the lines of Bucky or Caleb).

When she’s assigned to hunt a girl named Inesa in the Gauntlet, she becomes conflicted. However, it’s the relationship itself where the story falls apart for me. For someone who vehemently despises the government, I feel like Inesa is far too quick to trust her would-be assassin. Likewise, Melinoë is far too quick to discard all of her programming to protect Inesa. In essence, their enemies-to-lovers dynamics don’t actually feel earned or believable.

It’s a shame, really, because the story’s initial pitch of being a sapphic Hunger Games sounded so good to me.

Thank you, HarperCollins and NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Manga Review | Blue Period: Why We Create Art

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