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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:
Notmymarmosets · 03/01/2026 22:19

Fantasticland - Mike bockoven

CampfireRebel · 03/01/2026 21:58

The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray. Thriller set in a world 40-50 years after the earth has stopped turning.

Bruisername · 03/01/2026 21:52

Mockingbird by Walter tevis

ManyPigeons · 03/01/2026 21:47

Vox (Women are given daily word quotas to silence them)

The Farm (Breeding farms)

The Girl With All The Gifts (Zombie/infection with a huge twist)

The Power (Women become the more dangerous sex)

All very good

NorthenAdventure · 03/01/2026 21:24

Vox
The Hunger Games!

EleanorPeck · 03/01/2026 21:24

I've just finished The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch and really enjoyed it.

Theredjellybean · 03/01/2026 21:19

The Wall
The ship by Antonia Honeywell
Thirsty animals
Maddaddam trilogy

Bruisername · 03/01/2026 21:15

Black No More
George S. Schuyler

I want to highlight this from the penguin series as it’s such an interesting read and written by a fascinating man

not dystopian as such but Four sides triangle is an interesting read given when it was written and what has come since!

Black No More

It's New Years Day in 1933 in New York City and Max Disher, a young black man, has just heard the news: a mysterious doctor has discovered a strange process that can turn black skin white - a new way to 'solve the American race problem'. Max, who is ti...

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/443345/black-no-more-by-schuyler-george-s/9780241505724

CoffeeandChocolateplease · 03/01/2026 21:14

The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin is phenomenal - I read all three last year and wish I could go back and read them for the first time again.

Original poster
Cazzovuoi · 03/01/2026 21:12

Fantastic, thanks. So many I haven’t heard of!

OP posts:
BandedSnail · 03/01/2026 21:10

Seveneves
Last One at the Party
Tbe End of Men
Moths
The Girl with all the Gifts
Wool, plus the others in the Silo trilogy
Hunger Games
Saltcrop
What We Can Know
Good Morning, Midnight
Juice
The Ministry for the Future
The Choice
This Fragile Earth

Some of these are not strictly dystopian as are more positive about the future, but are all good reads with interesting ideas.

efeslight · 03/01/2026 21:10

There is a sequel to Brave new world which is a reflection on the book and the changes in the years since the first book was written

Bruisername · 03/01/2026 21:10

Kurt Vonnegut has written some really good dystopian fiction

strugatsky brothers books

kobo abe

a lot of the dystopian books written in the sixties were very prescient!!

Pianoaholic · 03/01/2026 21:06

Hiptothisjive · 03/01/2026 20:51

A really good list! I would add How High We Go in the Dark and Age of Miracles.

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

Original poster
Cazzovuoi · 03/01/2026 21:06

Thank so much everyone! Lots to addd to my Want To Read shelf.

@FancyBiscuitsLevel I don’t mind YA, I read quite a few last year.

OP posts:
MNLurker1345 · 03/01/2026 21:06

Cazzovuoi · 03/01/2026 21:02

I have We on my kindle to read next actually!

I haven’t read any Octavia Butler actually.

Show quote history

Give it a go! I have read and re-read everything she wrote.

Sadly passed away too early!

SoScarletItWas · 03/01/2026 21:05

Woman On The Edge Of Time (Marge Piercey) is a combination utopia / dystopia story which highlights the horrors certain groups face in everyday real life against different potential futures.

FancyBiscuitsLevel · 03/01/2026 21:03

Songlight by Moria Buffini recently won some YA awards. is quite good.

a lot of dystopian does seem more YA in focus these days.

Original poster
Cazzovuoi · 03/01/2026 21:02

MNLurker1345 · 03/01/2026 20:57

I am re-reading “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin. I will say no more on it, if you haven’t read it, this is one for you.

Have you read Octavia Butler?

I have We on my kindle to read next actually!

I haven’t read any Octavia Butler actually.

OP posts:
student26 · 03/01/2026 21:00

Frank Tayell Zombie books. Incredible!

WinterFrogs · 03/01/2026 20:59

The Coldness of Objects by Panayotis Cacoyannis. Quite unnerving.

@Pianoaholic I read On The Beach as a teenager, and I've just borrowed it from my mum who still has it, 40+ years later!

MNLurker1345 · 03/01/2026 20:57

GlassofRosePorfavor · 03/01/2026 20:57

I who have never known men

You must read this!

NessShaness · 03/01/2026 20:57

I may be a 40 something woman, but I still love The Hunger Games series.

MNLurker1345 · 03/01/2026 20:57

I am re-reading “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin. I will say no more on it, if you haven’t read it, this is one for you.

Have you read Octavia Butler?

GlassofRosePorfavor · 03/01/2026 20:57

I who have never known men