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Fable For the End of the World

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( 9,842 ratings, 3,199 reviews)
Brief Description
The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in this stand-alone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything. The epic standalone dystopian romance from the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth. Perfect for fans... Read More
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in this stand-alone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

The epic standalone dystopian romance from the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and The Last of Us.

SURVIVAL
SACRIFICE
A LOVE THAT RISKS EVERYTHING


"Stunning . . . Among the dystopian greats." β€” Chloe Gong

"Brilliant and devastating, Fable for the End of the World will arm you with the strongest tools we haveβ€”both anger and hope." β€” Allison Saft

"Knife-edged and tender-hearted, I will be thinking of the final line for years to come." β€” Courtney Gould


By encouraging massive accumulations of debt, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town, barely scraping a living from their taxidermy shop. But their mother has secretly accrued enormous debtβ€”and the only way out is to offer her daughter up to be a sacrifice for Caerus's livestreamed assassination eventβ€”the Lamb's Gauntlet.

Melinoe is the assassin chosen for this spectacle. The product of years of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she's a living weapon, famous for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. But she's also haunted by her failure in the last gauntlet, when she broke down live on screen.

But as Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, each determined to claim victory, they begin to question what they've been taught. Could there be more to life than survival? Could they be capable of more than death?

Could they, against all the odds, be falling in love?


PRAISE FOR AVA REID

"A gargantuan hit . . . Dark and brooding, skillful storytelling and intricate character development breathe new life into literature. Dripping in atmosphere . . . One to order immediately." β€” Glamour

"A bewitching read with prose like gold." β€” Tasha Suri

"A knife of a bookβ€”blood-stained, sharply beautiful, and necessary . . . I couldn't look away." β€” Alix E. Harrow

"I was spellbound from the very first page." β€” Freya Marske

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529948318

Publisher: Cornerstone

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 04 March 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Del Rey

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 40.0mm

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 700g

Pages: 384

About the Author

Ava Reid is the Sunday Times and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning, Juniper & Thorn and The Wolf and the Woodsman. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College and lives in New Jersey.

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