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Original poster

Recommend to me - Dystopian edition

89 replies

Cazzovuoi · 03/01/2026 20:33

It’s my favourite genre and I’m looking for recommendations.

I’ve read the classics like Handmaids Tale and Testaments, The Road, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Station Eleven, Vox, The Power, Ender’s Game, The Stand, World War Z, The Mist.

I’m currently halfway through Children of Men.

I need more! Please recommend your favourite dystopian novels.

OP posts:
Defiantly41 · 04/01/2026 21:00

Lionel Shriver can also be great for near-future/alternative reality dystopia - The Mandibles, Should we stay or should we go (which has really stayed with me, as has Oryx & Crake) and The Post-Birthday World for current times Sliding Doors vibe

Original poster
Cazzovuoi · 04/01/2026 08:46

Thanks all!

I’ve read Vox and The Power and really enjoyed them.

OP posts:
FFSToEverythingSince2020 · 04/01/2026 06:21

Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland (the same guy who wrote Generation X). It really stayed with me.

Waawo · 04/01/2026 06:13

Last year I read and enjoyed A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr which is often described as sci-fi but actually I think is more post-apocalyptic dystopia

Notoironing · 04/01/2026 03:53

Another vote for Woman on the edge of time by Marge Piercy.

3flyingducksarrive · 04/01/2026 02:26

And she wrote The Strange Case of Jane O. And Oh Susanna.

I really liked the Book of the Unnamed Midwife and its sequels.

CorporaINobbyNobbs · 04/01/2026 01:41

Pianoaholic · 03/01/2026 21:06

Really loved The Age of Miracles and I keep checking whether the author has written any others but I don't think she has.

Show quote history

Hi piano she also wrote The Dreamers which is about a sleeping sickness.

Pieceofpurplesky · 04/01/2026 00:09

If I was to say one - The Grace Year - proper feminist dystopian fiction. Had a similar impact on me to when I first read the Handmaid's Tale

Pieceofpurplesky · 04/01/2026 00:07

English teacher so heavily young adult ...

The Girl with all the Gifts and it's sequel The Boy on the Bridge
The Grace Year (really thought provoking)
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)
The Vega Jane books by David Baldacci
The Gender Games
The Divergent series (not the films!)
The Shatter Me series

Fgfgfg · 04/01/2026 00:00

The Machine Stops - EM Forster
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

fartoomuchtoblerone · 03/01/2026 23:53

I’ve just finished What We Can Know by Ian McEwan and would definitely recommend as an arguably dystopian novel, but it’s really more a reflection on present day culture.

Shmoigel · 03/01/2026 23:42

Children of the dust

Defiantly41 · 03/01/2026 23:38

Cloud atlas by David Mitchell

and Oryx & Crake trilogy also brilliant

SheilaFentiman · 03/01/2026 23:22
  1. The Book of Guilt - Catherine Chidgey
set in an alternate near-present UK, three brothers in a children’s home are looked after by the Mothers.
Avalovelace · 03/01/2026 23:21

The Blindness by José Saramago

GargoylesofBeelzebub · 03/01/2026 23:20

Oryx and crake
vox
i who have never known men

Ricecrispiesatsix · 03/01/2026 23:17

I really loved “Julia”, which is 1984 retold by Julia. It puts a whole new spin on the events of the book, fleshes out the world and also is refreshingly feminist given that 1984 treats Julia appallingly and gives her basically no personality other than super hot and horny.

Wool trilogy, Madaddam trilogy, as recommended by others.

Anything by John Wyndham. Day of the Triffids is my all time favourite book.

Station 11 about a flu epidemic haunted me for weeks.

DustlandFairytaleBeginning · 03/01/2026 23:07

I love Domain by James Herbert. It's part of a trilogy and probably technically horror but you don't need to read any others. It starts off with a nuclear weapons strike on London and all these fascinating pockets of people in various shelters and stories about their survival and reactions to the disaster. And then on top of this there starts to be these shadowy attacks by giant rats who have come out of the sewers. The whole book was just gripping- I'd highly recommend it!

Starch1e · 03/01/2026 23:00

Hiptothisjive · 03/01/2026 20:53

I asked the same question a while ago so you may get a few inspired recommendations here :)

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5239746-post-apocalyptic-books-recommendations

Thank you! Great recommendations on that thread 😁

Starch1e · 03/01/2026 22:39

Without Warning by John Birmingham. Post-apocalyptic rather than dystopian. 1st in a trilogy, it's 'male' style - very heavy on military, fighting and action, less so on emotions. Lots of different characters/story strands. Fascinating idea behind the dystopia.

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. Opposite style - focus on one woman. Swedish version of Never Let Me Go but not clones, 50+year olds deemed economically disposable.

The Things We Leave Behind by Clare Furniss. This one's YA, bit too realistic considering Reform's poll ratings.

YouBelongWithMe · 03/01/2026 22:32

If you like YA fiction, the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman.

MaidOfSteel · 03/01/2026 22:28

Widowland by CJ Carey, and its follow up, Queen High. I’m not usually a reader of Dystopian fiction, but Widowland had me gripped.

JudyMoncada · 03/01/2026 22:23

Facial Justice by L P Hartley

Purplebunnie · 03/01/2026 22:23

Susan Beth Pfeffer in order:
Life as we knew it
The Dead and the Gone
This World we live in
The Shade of the Moon

Took me ages to go back through my Libby timeline but having found them again I may read again (I read them on Dec 21 and they have stuck with me)

TennisLady · 03/01/2026 22:21

DarkEyedSailor · 03/01/2026 20:48

The Passage- Justin Cronin. Vampires, post and pre apocalyptic. Very good, although it wobbles in the middle. First of a trilogy but I haven't read the other two yet.

This! The whole trilogy is absolutely brilliant.

Another I absolutely loved which rarely comes up…. Swan Song by Robert McCammon.