Ficbook: Read Fictions Anytime

Review by eFreeware

If you read serialized fiction in long sittings and want the page to look the way you like it, Ficbook is built for that habit. The app comes from Infinite Stories and gathers novels across a spread of popular genres, with new selections appearing every week and recommendations shaped by what you have already opened. It is a reading app rather than a writing or social platform, and the whole design points at getting you into a story and keeping you there.

The appeal is the combination of volume and control. You get genre filters and tags to narrow the catalog, a feed that refreshes weekly, and reading settings that let you change text size, font, background and scrolling mode. Comments sit on individual paragraphs and chapters, so a story can be discussed in place rather than in a separate forum. For someone who reads a chapter or two most evenings, that mix covers the basics well.

It is free to install and offers in-app purchases. The content rating is Mature 17+, which tells you something about the material you will find. The app has been on Google Play since December 2018 and was last updated in February 2025 with bug fixes.

Who tends to get the most from it

The clearest fit is a reader who follows ongoing novels and checks in regularly, because the weekly selection and the interest-based feed reward repeat visits. If you like browsing by mood rather than by title, the filters and tags do the work of narrowing a large catalog down to something manageable.

The second group is readers who care about typography. Being able to set text size, font type, background and scrolling mode matters over hundreds of chapters, and it is the sort of thing that decides whether an app stays installed. Anyone who reads in short bursts on a phone will notice the difference.

Offline reading widens the audience further. The app lets you download subsequent chapters, so a long flight, a commute without signal or a weekend away from reliable Wi-Fi does not have to interrupt a series. Readers who plan their chapters ahead will get more out of this than those who open an app and hope for the best.

Finding something to read without hunting

Discovery is handled in two ways. A fresh selection of novels arrives each week, which gives you a reason to open the app even when you are between series, and recommendations are tuned to your interests. The developer describes the feed as personalized, and the mechanism is straightforward: the more you read, the more the suggestions reflect your taste.

The smart lists go a step further. Rather than making you search, the app can build book lists automatically from your clicks and reads. I would expect this to be most useful for readers who do not arrive with a title in mind and would rather be shown a short set of options than scroll a catalog.

Genre browsing covers a range of popular categories, with filters and tags available to locate specific kinds of stories. Between the weekly refresh, the generated lists and the tag filters, there are several routes to a next read, which suits readers who finish series quickly and need a steady supply.

Reading settings and the comment layer

The reading experience is adjustable rather than fixed. You can change text size, font type, background color and scrolling mode, which means the same chapter can be set up for a quick phone session or a longer, more comfortable read. These are small controls, but they are the ones readers actually touch.

Comments are attached to paragraphs and chapters. You can leave your thoughts on a passage you liked or disliked, and read what other readers have said in the same place. It is a light social layer rather than a full community, and the developer pitches it as a way to read alone without feeling lonely.

Offline reading rounds out the feature set. Downloading subsequent chapters lets you keep going when a connection is not available, which is the practical counterpart to the adjustable page. Together these features describe an app that assumes you will read in long stretches and in places where the network is not guaranteed.

What it costs and how the rewards work

Ficbook is free to download, which is unusual for a catalog this size and makes the reading itself the focus. The app does offer in-app purchases, so there is a paid side to it.

There is also a rewards system. New members are promised gifts, and the app sets small tasks such as a reading challenge, a daily check-in and sharing comments. Completing those tasks earns vouchers. The developer presents this as a way to get more from the app, and it gives regular readers a reason to open it daily beyond the next chapter.

The practical reading is that you can install Ficbook and read without paying anything, with vouchers available through the task system if you want them. Anyone who prefers to avoid in-app purchases altogether should weigh that against what the paid options provide.

How it compares with other reading options

The closest alternatives are dedicated e-reader apps that focus on purchased or borrowed books, and general fiction platforms built around a single subscription catalog. Ficbook sits somewhere between them: it is free to install, organizes reading around a recommendation feed and weekly updates, and adds a comment layer that a plain e-reader does not have.

Against a paid fiction subscription, the trade-off is the reward system and the in-app purchases in place of a single monthly fee. Against a general-purpose e-reader, the difference is the discovery machinery: smart lists, tags and a feed that changes weekly, rather than a library you bring with you.

The offline feature is worth noting in any comparison, since downloading subsequent chapters is not universal. If your reading happens in places without a reliable connection, that capability alone may decide the choice for you. The Mature 17+ rating is also a factor if the app is going on a shared device.

A reading app worth keeping for series followers

Ficbook does a focused job. It gives you a large catalog of novels, a feed that refreshes weekly, recommendations and auto-generated lists to cut down the search, adjustable reading settings, paragraph-level comments and offline chapters. It is free and carries in-app purchases alongside a task-and-voucher rewards system.

The app suits readers who follow serialized fiction, read often enough to benefit from recommendations, and want control over how the page looks. It also suits anyone who reads away from a connection and wants chapters ready in advance. With more than a million installs and a 4.2 average from over three thousand ratings, it has a sizable readership behind it.

If you prefer to buy individual books and keep a permanent library, or you want a service where a single payment covers everything, the model here is different. For everyone else, Ficbook is a reasonable free starting point for finding and following fiction on a phone.

What's new in version 1.5.0

Known issues fixed