02764cam a2200409 i 4500 2151534945 TxAuBib 20250423120000.0 240710s2025||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2024940889 9780063211551 hardcover 0063211556 hardcover (OCoLC)1464690899 TxAuBib rda Reid, Ava, author. Fable for the end of the world / Ava Reid. First Edition. New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2025] ©2025. 371 pages ; 22 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier 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. Melinoe 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 Melinoe, 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. 20250423. Dystopias Fiction. Social classes Fiction. Debt Fiction. Siblings Fiction. Reality television programs Fiction. Assassination Fiction. Survival Fiction. Mutation (Biology) Fiction. Sexual minorities Fiction. Young adult fiction. fast TXKIP