Phenomenal app with even greater potential!
4
By Shadow Daddies United
Loving the app so far! I recently switched from Goodreads, and as a software engineer, I really appreciate the cleaner UX and collaborative feel.
One feature I’d love to see is a collaborative TBR list for book clubs—where members can add and manage potential reads together. It would make planning and suggesting books much smoother and really enhance the club experience. Hopefully this is already on the radar, but if not, I’d love to see it come to fruition :)
Thanks for all the thoughtful work on this platform—excited to see what’s next!
More Work Than It’s Worth
1
By 7BooksOr3?IDK
I’ve tried using this app so many times, and every time I run into the same problems people have with Goodreads—if not worse.
I synced everything from Goodreads to Fable, only to end up having to manually fix so much because nothing transfers correctly. For example, it says I have seven books marked as DNF, but when I click on the list, only three show up. Make it make sense.
And don’t even get me started on the search function. Trying to find the book I’m currently reading feels like I have to type in some secret code just to get it to show up. It’s clunky, inconsistent, and honestly frustrating.
Now, I do appreciate the half-star rating system—that’s a nice touch. But it’s not a game-changer for me. What would be a game-changer? The app actually working smoothly.
Right now, it just feels laggy, buggy, and way too difficult to use for something that’s supposed to be helping me track and enjoy books.
Could be improved
3
By Tvjotdsa
The app is great. The UI is well thought out, the reading streak makes me more motivated to read, and the social aspect of it feels surprisingly not as annoying as traditional social media, but like an actual reading community.
I have to say, there are things that could be improved upon. Firstly, the app overall feels like it favors more pop literature, like young adult or fantasy novel series. I have never read them before, but my feed consists of just those. And not only feed, but recommendations algorithms and the whole app feels like I’m going in places it wasn’t programmed for. No hate towards the genres, but books should by nature expand your world, and I really think there needs to be a lot more space for versatile literature – from classics, art and philosophy to politics, sciences and business.
Secondly, some of the user experience hadn’t been thought out enough. I have no way of leaving a review for a book I already rated (or I haven’t found it, which in terms of UX is just as bad). When I finish a book, I want to log it as finished, but I need to think about it for a couple of days to form an opinion and a rating. Now the system forces you to rate and review at the same moment as you finish it with no user-friendly way to edit and add a new review.
Thirdly, it may seem not a big issue to some, but it really is to me. The covers. There is only one choice of a book cover and it almost never is the edition I have physically in my hand. I would love to change a cover of the book so my profile has exactly the same books that I have in my home library.
I also noticed the search of the app behaves unpredictably. Now, there is no way to search a book by an author – if I write an author name, their books aren’t the ones that are shown. There needs to be a more optimized search and author pages, so users can visit their page, see what books they have, which ones are the most read, save some authors as favorites.
Overall, I love the app. That’s why I took the time to write this long review in hopes someone from the Fable team reads it. But the issues above and some I don’t have time to mention make me think of switching to another app that might answer my needs better. Thanks!
So clever!
5
By Nynenette
I had been on for 3 days, and I have already recommended it to friends and family. Love the ease of us, and that they transferred my things from Goodreads.
Quick response to book request
5
By Emily Lichius
I found a book I wanted to read, and Fable had yet to add it to their library. After a little bit of digging, I found the form to request new books. Within 48hrs, it was now available for me to add to my TBR list! I was very impressed with their response time; thank you Fable!
Waste
1
By kbalsy
I have 171 notifications and not a single one is relevant. Every single one is just an ad.
The book quizzes all point directly back to the same top 3 books.
It’s clear they care about their content creators but not the average user.
Almost there
2
By Supportingcow
The app has a wonderful interface as well as social clubs and more. The only problem is the actual book catalog they provide. The books are not done in like good reads or StoryGraph. You can’t look up books by isbn, the more from this author is lacking, and some books are plain missing, some books are even duplicated when searching, no different editions of the book as well. This app is amazing but lack of isbn lookup as well as book editions and isbn are terrible.
I read 8 books this month?! Thank you, Fable!
5
By ashleehitchcock
I’m SO proud of myself! The Fable app has made me visualize my reading progress in a way that’s so fun!
I love checking in for my daily reading streak. The free ebook classics within the app are awesome. It ensures I always have something to read as long as I have my phone on me.
I’ve REALLY enjoyed the book clubs. There’s something very encouraging about knowing your fellow peers are reading along with you. It’s such a fun feeling writing a note and someone reacts or laughs at my joke.
I have tried starting so many in-person book clubs that ultimately failed because people weren’t as committed or passionate. But everyone that is here really wants to be! Truly, this is my favorite social media platform, and the only one I’m spending much time on. Because otherwise I’m probably reading! 😝
I’m really committed to my goal of reading 100+classics and this app has propelled me forward like nothing else. Thank you, Fable!!
Signed,
A lifelong English major
Fable
5
By Sella_
Niche up to date books’ community
Word limits frustration.
3
By claydeincleveland
Ok but am I crazy for finding it INFURIATING that an APP designed to be SOCIAL MEDIA for READERS and presumably also WRITERS has WORD LIMITS on both posts AND reviews ??? Like what in the actual guys