Author Ava Reid on ‘Fable for the End of the World’ Ending, ‘A Study in Drowning’ Sequel and Which of Her Books Is Being Adapting Into a Movie

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Ava Reid‘s new novel “Fable for the End of the World,” released March 4 by HarperCollins. “A Study in Drowning” and “Lady Macbeth” author Ava Reid is back with her latest novel, “Fable for the End of the World,” which Reid describes as “the most YA of all my YA books so far, because it is like a love letter to the dystopian fiction of the 2010s.” Promoted by publisher HarperCollins as a cross between “The Hunger Games” and “The Last of Us” franchises, the dystopian book centers on a fictional future version of our world that is controlled by a government run by the corporation Caerus, who keeps a firm hold on society by charging them for anything and everything needed to live in their environmentally ruined world until they go into massive amounts of debt.

This leads to Inesa, the young owner of a taxidermy shop in a half-sunken town, being thrown into Caerus’s solution for its most debt-ridden citizens: a livestreamed assassination spectacle called the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

During the one-on-one battle royale, Inesa is up against cyborg Caerus assassin Melinoë. In a twist, the two end up needing to rely on each other to survive to the point where they form a romantic attachment.

Here, Reid breaks down the idea for “Fable for the End the World” and why she chose to conclude the story on a more bitter than sweet note, as well as telling Variety about the upcoming sequel to “A Study in Drowning,” her next adult book, and which one of her novels is being adapted into a movie.