Fantasy and Sci-Fi Fanatics

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Tally can’t wait to have the surgery to become a Pretty when she’s sixteen. Then, all her dreams will come true. But when her friend Shay runs away, Tally must decide whether to find and turn her friend in or remain an Ugly forever.

The rest of the books in the trilogy (Pretties and Specials) are just as good. And they recently made a movie of Uglies which followed the book closely; I highly recommend it if you enjoyed the book.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Another popular dystopian book that came out in my youth (even before The Hunger Games). In a futuristic Chicago, the population is split into five factions: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Soon, Beatrice will have to decide her faction, which will change her life forever.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

This book’s a classic and a fast read. At the age of twelve, Jonas, a young boy from a seemingly utopian, futuristic world, is singled out to receive special training from The Giver, who alone holds the memories of the true joys and pain of life. Don’t forget the other books in the quartet: Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

We have to have this book on the list! It brought new life into the dystopian genre in the early 2000s, and is a story I’ll never forget. If you haven’t read it yet, go to the library or your story ASAP! There’s so much in this series to love: the bond between sisters, fighting against an oppressive regime, falling in love in the midst of chaos, and not giving up. I could go on, but I’ll stop there. 😉

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Have you read this book yet? This one follows Haymitch Abernathy, and it was enjoyable getting to know him before he became such a curmudgeonly character in the original Hunger Games series. This book will pull on all your heart strings, but also remind you why life and love are worth fighting for.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

This one of Collins’ didn’t do much for me, unlike her other two. It’s basically a villain story of President Snow and how he became so vicious in the prior books. There is a Hunger Games in this book, but it’s vastly different than the others, because its decades before.

Matched by Ally Condie

If you’re craving some romantasy in your dystopian books, especially love triangles, then Matched is for you. In the Society, officials decide who you love, where you work, and when you die. When Cassia’s best friend appears on the Matching screen, she knows that he is the one…until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

When the world has reached perfection and conquered death, taking life becomes an “art,” completed only by Scythes. Two teens must take on this role neither of them want and succeed or they will die.

I enjoyed this trilogy just as much, if not more so, than The Hunger Games and kept thinking about it for weeks afterward.

A Time to Die by Nadine Brandes

Three hundred sixty-four days, seven hours, and sixteen—no, fifteen—seconds left to live. Like everyone else on the east side of the Wall, Parvin Blackwater has a clock counting down the days until her death. At only seventeen, she has only one year left.

I received a beautiful 10th year anniversary edition of this trilogy for Christmas last year, and I can’t wait to dive in! The premise sounds so exciting and unique.

Legend by Marie Lu

This was another dystopian book I loved growing up and my first book by Marie Lu. In futuristic America now called The Republic, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles.

Meanwhile, Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

This book has fun Les Mis vibes and is an expertly-written enemies-to-lovers story.

The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew

In 2364, eighteen-year-old Liv Newman dreams of a future beyond her lower-class life in the Metro. As a Proxy, she uses the neurochip in her brain to sell memories to wealthy clients. Maybe a few illegally, but money equals freedom. So when a customer offers her a ludicrous sum to go on an assignment in no-man’s-land, Liv accepts. Now she just has to survive…

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall

In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History.

When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they’ve saved.

The Garden by Nick Newman

Two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. When a nameless boy is found hiding in their isolated grounds, their once-solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted. Who is he? Where did he come from? And most importantly, what does he want?

This book’s description, as well as its slight horror vibes makes me think of the movie, The Village.

Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler

A cybernetic novel of political intrigue, Where the Axe is Buried combines the story of a near-impossible revolutionary operation with a blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom.

Conform by Ariel Sullivan

Isn’t this cover enticing?! Unfortunately, this book doesn’t come out until October 16, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to read it. But the blurb is just as enticing as the cover:

In the far future, one young woman finds herself torn between two loves—and two sides of a rebellion boiling under the surface—in the first novel of a sweeping dystopian romance trilogy.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

In this first book of a trilogy, Essun comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter.

Meanwhile, the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. She doesn’t care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

This dystopian book follows Kirsten Raymonde twenty years after a pandemic destroyed civilization as they knew it. She travels with a group of actors and musicians who call themselves The Traveling Symphony. When they encounter a violent prophet, their group’s existence and meaning of humanity is threatened.

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

This is a weird story, but so are lots of dystopian books. 😆 It’s basically Peter Pan but without the mermaids and Captain Hook. In The Book of M, people can lose their shadows and when they do, they receive great power but at a terrible price: the loss of their memories.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

Eight ordinary people wake up to find a box on their doorstep that will supposedly tell them the exact number of years they will live.

If you enjoy magical realism, then you might like this book!

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

If you enjoy reading about time travel, then you may enjoy this dystopian book where a town is repeated in an endless sequence across the wilderness–each one twenty years apart in time.