Fable for the End of the World
Ava Reid
The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything. 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.
I was not expecting the kinda sad ending to be honest. Will need some time to see how I feel about it. This book was addicting.
0This was a strong opening chapter! Im immediately hooked into this world. I also immediately dislike Inesa’s mom. Shes quite insufferable already.
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0 0"I wish I had paid more attention to the things he told us, but that's the way it always is: You never really understand what's important until you lose it."
Thank you to Edelweiss, Ava Reid, and HarperCollins for the E-ARC!
You know you're excited for a book when you start it only hours after getting approved for the E-ARC, and then sit unmoving until you're at least 50% through. I knew just based off the description of this book, described as a combination of The Last of Us and the Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, that it would be right up my alley, and I was definitely right!
Told in dual POV this is the story of Inesa and Melinoë, the hunted and the hunter. While Inesa has been pawned off by her mother to be the Lamb in a Gauntlet, Melinoë is forced to be the Angel that kills her.
This is how you do enemies-to-lovers! The tension, the distrust and the unease between the two characters is so well done. Although neither really detests the other, they're on opposing sides and there's nothing either can do about it. Both just wanting to survive, to escape this horrible situation, no matter how much it may cost them to do so.
The atmosphere in this story is also really well written. I always felt a bit uneasy whenever the characters were walking through the woods, never really sure when something or someone, might pop out at them. The Wends creating this new worry for the FMCs, as if they didn't have so much already on their plate.
Minor spoilers about the ending, so read at your discretion. I know in the description of this book it says it's a stand-alone, but I do hope there's a sequel. I feel like there's so much more story to tell, and still mysteries that I want solved.
All of this to say, if you're a fan of the dystopia genre, you should definitely pick this up when it releases!
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