Writing this review of mine is going to be a pain. This was a book that I felt for sure I was going to love. Because I loved one of the books by Ava to pieces. And so I had high hopes for this one as well. I used to love reading dystopia books back in the days. And this sounded so good. And it looks gorgeous. I love this artwork.
But that was sadly all that I loved about this book. Because it just kept getting worse and worse for me. I am going to have a hard time writing down all my thoughts. I'm ending up at a two star for this book, which do break my heart a little. It began at a four star. Then it just went down and down. Will try my best to share why.
This book began good. I found it to be interesting and exciting as well. I thought it would end up being so amazing. I was wrong, of course. But the beginning was pretty good. I was curious about the world and the characters. It is a book that takes place in the future. It tells the story of Inesa, seventeen years old. She lives in a poor town, in a way. They aren't doing as well as others, but they are surviving. I liked getting to know this town, how things worked there. How much of the town ended up under water when it rained, before the water went down again. I wanted to know more about this world, as I felt like it was pretty good. But yeah. We got too little world building, to be honest. I wanted more of the real world, less technology details and less problems.
Inesa lives with her younger brother, Luka, and their mother. Their dad left them a little over a year ago. And their mom is pretty crazy. I did not like her one bit. But she also should have been written better, in my opinion. Still. I did like getting to know Inesa and Luka. He hunted, and she stuffed the kills he made and sold them to the richer town. I liked learning more about their town, although I did not like any of the people that lived there, ha. Wish we had gotten to know more about how the climate in this world worked.
In this world there is a livestream happening every few months, called the Gauntlet. Where a person from the poor places are pretty much sacrificed by their family to pay their debts. This person is called a Lamb and is then on the run from an Angel. A young girl hunting them, always killing them within days in brutal ways. These events are always filmed and everyone in this world is watching. I kind of liked this, yet also not. Should have been done better. Then we also saw some comments; it was fully awkward. Shudders.
I'm not sure how much to share about this book. I know I'm going to write a whole lot about this book, but mostly about the things I disliked, and less about the actual plot. So I shall mention it a little. It turns out Inesa's mother had a huge debt. And she has decided to sacrifice Inesa. And so Inesa has twelve hours before her hunt begins. Her hopes of surviving are not high. But she has her brother with her. And he will try everything to protect her. I did like their relationship, though we got to see a bit too little of it, honestly.
Melinoë is the Angel that is sent to hunt her and kill her. We get to know this girl a lot. She's the same age as Inesa. She has been an Angel since she was eight. She is more machine than human, as they have changed so much about her body and insides. I liked reading about this part. Getting to know all that had happened to her, how she was changed. Until it turned too weird and not good. But yeah. I liked Melinoë. How she was supposed to be a cold killer with most of her memories erased. How she changed all that.
And so this book is about Inesa trying to run away from her killer, Melinoë. We get both of their point of views. I did like these girls, but I sadly did not love either of them. I liked the beginning of the book, while it was a hunt. Except for the part where Melinoë jumped on their car. First, where did she come from? Did she have a car as well? She was several hours behind them, on foot, yet suddenly she was on top of the car and it was never explained. It bothered me so. Then everything went downhill from that moment. Ugh.
I wish this book had been better. I wish I had loved it more. But I did not. I wanted it to be more of a hunt, like it was supposed to be. Instead it ended up being a book where Inesa and Melinoë teams up, trying to survive in the woods alone. So much of the book was about them just looking at each other. Staying in a small cabin for a couple of days. It was very boring. I wanted more action and excitement. Instead it was more of a love story. Which I could have loved, of course, but it was too rushed. Didn't think it was sweet.
And I do think the romance could have been great. I did like both Inesa and
Melinoë. And I did think they would have made a nice couple. If only it
had not been so very rushed. None of it felt real. It started with them supposed to kill each other. Then they just look at each other and all of that went away? What. It took them like two seconds to fall in love with the other. It made zero sense to me. They were supposed to kill each other. And now they suddenly love each other instead. I just. I wish it had been written better.
One of the things that made me dislike this book was how very similar it was to The Hunger Games. I get being inspired by it, which I like. But so very much felt like the same. And I haven't read the books in way more than ten years. Yet I noticed many things that just bothered me after a while. I do wish this book had been more focused on the dystopia parts. As I did not like the technology things or the real world parts, to be honest. I wanted less of that. There were also so many random words everywhere that I did not know.
Small mention of some weird creatures in this book called the Wends. They were some type of zombies, from eating changed animals. It was so weird and they were only there for a few scenes, then fully gone again. Did not make much sense to me. I did like reading about the changed animals, but they also only had a small part in this book. This story focused more on the romance. For almost all the book. And it just made me a little angry. Because the romance was too rushed for me and it just bothered me very much.
I feel like this book could have been done better. It should have had more details about the world and the city. We got to see small glimpses of how some of the things worked, but not enough. I wanted more of everything. Sigh. Then I highly disliked the ending of this book. I guess it is supposed to be hopeful, in a way. But it just pissed me off. It was not a happy ending at all. And we got no answers either for anything. And nothing was made better about this world. It just made me feel like everything was a waste of time.
Then I went and read the deluxe exclusive story from Luka's point of view, when he was taken. And ha. It made me even more angry. I didn't like it one bit. Of course he was instantly attracted to the Angel, Lethe. Of course she wanted him too. There was even a very detailed sex scene, which was a little disturbing. The whole short story was rushed, just like the book. It was a couple of days. Luka thought like it was at least two weeks. I just hated how quickly both he and Inesa fell for the girls. It was just not natural at all.
I wish I could have loved this story. I really tried my best to. But it just made me angry at times. The world was pretty great. I wanted to know more about certain things. But there was so very much that I wanted to know less about. The abuse of the Angels from their creator. It was never actually written down, but it was heavily hinted at a bit too many times. How these Angels were honestly just created to be playthings and murderers. It bothered me a bunch. I did not like reading about it, as it got to be a bit too much. Sigh.
And that whole creator person, Azrael. I did not get him at all. And just wanted to read less about him. It seemed like all he did was abuse the young girls and then remove their memories of it. It was disgusting. And like, if there had been a good ending, then maybe all of it would have felt a little better. But there was not. And so it all felt like a waste of time and that bothered me even more. All the pain for nothing. And it honestly made me regret reading this book. I had hoped it would be epic. But for me, it very much wasn't.
I also really disliked how it was only a few days that passed, yet the characters made it seem like it was weeks in their head. Because it should have been weeks, with how quickly their feelings moved. It truly annoyed me so much. How quickly Inesa fell for Melinoë and she for her. It did not feel real at all. At first they just kept staring at the other, noticing how beautiful they were and ugh. It happened too fast to feel good. And all of the feelings they all had. How they kept feeling their heart in different ways. It was weird.
Then there was another thing that drove me crazy. They are always almost puking. Feeling bile in their stomach and whatnot. It was so stupid and annoying. And a little disgusting too. Why did they feel this need to puke all the time? A bit over done for me. It even happened in Luka's story. There was a scene where one of the girls got badly burned. But suddenly they are kissing as if the burns did not matter at all. It made no sense to me. Kissing should have waited a little bit. Everything was so rushed. I did not like it.
I have already written way too much about this book. And everything in weird places, haha. Sorry about that. I had so many thoughts about this book and wanted to write them down. And yet I'm certain there is much that I have forgotten to add. It was easy to read this book. I liked the writing at first, but then it got too annoying and I grew to dislike the characters, so, yeah. I wanted more from this book. Fable for the End of the World was sadly a disappointment to me. But I am curious to know what others think about it.
