Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Dystopia novel recommendations

55 replies

ElvenElf · 26/11/2024 00:22

Hoping for some help with dystopian and/apocalyptic novel recommendations for my DD15.
She has read and enjoyed the following (which I think fit this):
Hunger Games
Handmaid's Tale
The Road
1984
Brave New World

There will be more I am sure but those are the ones I can recount off the top of my head.
Argh just noticed error in thread title!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Original poster
ElvenElf · 26/11/2024 20:52

Wow thank you so much everyone. Going to work through all these suggestions and make a list to buy.
Will let you know what I decide on although I am sure I will come back to this list again in the future to get more.

OP posts:
BloominNora · 26/11/2024 20:36

Wool trilogy - Hugh Howey (currently being adapted by Apple TV as Silo)
Divergent trilogy
Maze Runner
I am Legend (way better than the film adaptations)
The Power - Naomi Alderman
The Passage Trilogy - Justin Cronin
The Host - Stephanie Meyer

Depending on how mature a reader she is:

Handmaids Tale and the Testaments
The Stand
The Bachman Books - Stephen King's novellas under the Richard Bachman pseudonym - particularly The Long Walk and if you can get old of an old copy Rage (Rage was removed from print after Columbine)
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

JuliaLivilla · 26/11/2024 20:36

A lot of 1950s/60s "hard" SF depicts a dystopian future - writers such as Philip K Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, etc.

Guardup · 26/11/2024 20:27

This is my favourite genre (teen dystopia) and I highly recommend ‘The quiet at the end of the world’ by Lauren James

BlueFairyBugsBooks · 26/11/2024 20:23

The Truth Sister Trilogy by Phil Gilvin. It like Handmaids Tale. But women are in charge. So the opposite really.

Fizzadora · 26/11/2024 20:21

You could read any thread on the feminism board in the last couple of years if you want dystopian.

Bigredcombine · 26/11/2024 20:19

Thirsty Animals is very good. It's set in the near future and imagines a time where the water has run out. It's set in the Scottish borders and Scotland has just closed its border to england (Scotland has more water than england). It was a gripping and quick read.

Weatherwax · 26/11/2024 20:19

Flawed and Perfect by Cecelia Aherne were both good and despite being marketed at YA I loved them both.

Robertplantgoddess · 26/11/2024 20:17

Julia by sandra newan. It's based on 1984 and the woman's (julia's) story that goes a bit deeper than Winstons. I loved it and 1984 is easily my favourite book.
Maggot moon by Sally gardener

HelterSkelter224 · 26/11/2024 20:13

Oh and Neuromancer by William Gibson

HelterSkelter224 · 26/11/2024 20:11

Maddadam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake, year of the flood, maddaddam) - brilliant.

1Q84 Books 1, 2 and 3 by Haruki Murakami

Iamblossom · 26/11/2024 20:03

hazeleyednerd · 26/11/2024 03:00

Adding to the suggestions - Wool, Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey.

Loved these.

Adding The Last one at The Party, really good

Supersimkin7 · 26/11/2024 19:43

Philip K Dick.

Obviously.

bellocchild · 26/11/2024 19:43

Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'Brien

potplantsinparadise · 26/11/2024 19:39

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (very good but also very very distressing in places)
Severance - Ling Ma (about a pandemic, but published in 2018)
Uglies - Scott Westerfield
The Power - Naomi Alderman (raises the question of, a dystopia for who?)
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
The Dispossessed - Ursula le Guin
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Prophet Song - Paul Lynch (again brilliant but genuinely distressing in parts)

Janella · 26/11/2024 19:35

I who have never known men.

This leaves you with lots of questions!

BasiliskStare · 26/11/2024 19:35

I would also say John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids or Midwich cuckoos very good

Pieceofpurplesky · 26/11/2024 19:32

The Grace Year. Absolutely amazing book.

The forest of hands and teeth series by Carrie Ryan

The Vega Jane books by David Baldacci

EasternStandard · 26/11/2024 19:32

BasiliskStare · 26/11/2024 02:33

@ElvenElf

On the Beach by Neville Shute

It is a bit chilling but would let a 15 year old read it any day of the week . It's well written . I'd really recommend this - apocalyptic more than dystopian in a 1984 way - but so good. It doesn't slap you in the face with anything but my goodness a fabulous read.

If DD does I hope she enjoys it.

One of the best books

JazzyJelly · 26/11/2024 19:31

Echobelly · 26/11/2024 19:00

'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin is very 1984-like, but was actually written before Orwell's book.

The misogyny in We is very 1984, though both were unintended I imagine!

Vox was good, if very simple.

Bernadinetta · 26/11/2024 19:27

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

LadyCatNap · 26/11/2024 19:19

Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm

mayhayway42 · 26/11/2024 19:12

I love dystopian books, but if you want a "lighthearted" one. Try after z by js Patrick

tarheelbaby · 26/11/2024 19:09

The Stand by Stephen King starts with a super-flu - if that doesn't chill your bones ...

Not a horror book like most of his canon (can a paperback best seller have a canon?) but full of food for thought, a little bit of mysticism and excellent characters and engaging, riveting writing.

Echobelly · 26/11/2024 19:00

'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin is very 1984-like, but was actually written before Orwell's book.