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Dystopia Books


A: And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ (1970). In a future where the world is grossly-overpopulated, another world is discovered, with little population. The people on the other planet, cherish nature, and have opposite qualities as future Earth.

B: The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn (2004). Kayla Reed is almost 17. At 17 all the kids go get their bar code tattoo. Which stores all a person’s information including, genetic history, bank accounts, and all personal files. After Kayla’s dad commits suicide, Kayla refuses to get the tattoo. She has very good reasons not to.

C: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (2009). Katniss and Peeta return home to District 12 after winning the 74th Hunger Games. President Snow is mad at Katniss and threatens to kill her family and friends. Once again Katniss and Peeta must join the 75th Hunger Games.

(The) City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau (2003). The city believes their town is the only place in the world with any light, and their electricity is about to fail.

D: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) by Philip K. Dick (1968). The world is mostly destroyed by war, in order to try to save what remains of the planet people are sent to off-world colonies. As an incentive to go they are given android servants. And the remaining people on earth get animal robots so they don’t have to raise real animals.

E: Elvissey by Jack Womack (1993). A multinational corporation wants global domination. The weather and climate is deteriorating. There is time travel and alternate universes.

F: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1951). Written about a future America, reading and books are banned, and firemen start fires just to burn the books.

(The) Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (2009). Mary lives in a village surrounded by fences; they are her only protection from the mudo/zombies. When something very bad happens to the village, Mary must leave and take the fenced paths to a place unknown.

G: Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry (1994). In the future, society has lapsed back to animal type behavior and primal behavior. A little cripple girl escapes her village where children are beaten and kept in pens.

Gone by Michael Grant (2008). In a small town in California, everyone over 15 years old suddenly vanishes, leaving 14 year oldest as the oldest civilians. All the kids left to try to figure out what has happened, when some of the kids start to get special powers, the rest of the town either follows or rebels against the “freaks”. Powers are needed, because they are up against something very evil hiding in the darkness.

H: (The) Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985). The country is taken over, and all rights are stripped away. By male chauvinist, racists.

(The) Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008). Every year, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected at random and forced to participate in the Hunger Games. The participants are viewed on television as they fight to death in an outdoor arena to survive.

I: Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes (1990). The year is 2154. A group of friends, recently graduated from a private school are deemed unemployable, they are sent to live together as a group in a certain area. They soon become part of a government created and ran human game.

J: Jennifer Government by Max Barry (2003). Corporations rule the United States, and the United States is actually the whole world.

K: (The) Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (2008). Todd lives in a world where boys become men at 15, women are no longer living because a germ has killed off all females. The germ has also given all men the ability to hear each others thought. Todd’s adoptive parents make him run away, and he soon finds out his little town is very different from the rest of the world.

L: Logan’s Run by Michael Anderson (1967). In the year of 2116, it is required for every human at the age of 21 years old to report to a Sleepshop in which they are willingly executed. Those who refuse to are called Runners and those who chase them are called Sandmen.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954). A plane crashes into a deserted island, with the only survivors being a group of 13 years older and younger, boys. They soon form 2 separate “tribes” and without any adult guidance, fear takes the better of them.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer (2006). A meteor hits the moon and throws it off a little, resulting in tsunamis, earthquakes, and constant volcanic eruptions. The volcanic ash covers basically the whole world, blocking out the sun, weather is completely wrong, and the tsunamis knocked out whole coasts. Miranda and her family try to survive.

M: (The) Maze Runner by James Dashner (2009). Thomas wakes inside a box without knowing how he got in there or where he is. He remembers his name, the smell of food and certain other things, but nothing of his own past or family. When he finally reaches his destiny he is welcomed by a group of boys into the Glade.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (2010). Katniss is rescued by the rebels and agrees to become the Mockingjay. Her new mission is to kill President Snow but this time Peeta has been brainwashed into hatting Katniss.

N: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949). The year is 1984, the whole world has experienced a global atomic war. The story is of life in Oceania, and one man’s rebellion against the government.

O: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003). A novel that takes place after an environmental catastrophe.

P: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (2005). Second in the Uglies series. Tally got what she wanted, to be pretty. She thinks she is happy, until someone from her past shows up, and has her take a pill that cures her from the lesion the government put in her brain. Tally then returns to the Smoke and begins to rebel again.

(The) Postman by David Brin (1985). After surviving the Doomwar, Gordon Krantz finds a USPS uniform and takes it trying to keep himself warm. He later uses the uniform to comfort people with Restored United States of America, and having mail coming back and forth helps motivate them. More men become postmen in hopes of rebellion and restoration of the country.

Q: (The) Quiet Earth by Craig Harrison (1981). John Hobson is a geneticist, who wakes up to everything in the world stopped, including the clocks. Everything is stopped at 6:12, there are no other signs of life, and nothing is working.

R: (The) Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006). Years after something has destroyed most of earth and all life, a father and son realizes that they can no longer stay here they are. They set out down a highway, trying to reach the ocean and possibly better environment and food. They run into many disturbing things that the world has succumbed to. Including cannibalism.

Rash by Pete Hautman (2006). The year is 2074, it’s the United Safer States of America, and everything is unsafe and illegal. Almost a fourth of the population in imprisoned. The main character is imprisoned, but this eventually turns to his favor.

S: (The) Sheep Look Up by John Brunner (1972). Corporation-sponsored government has ruined the United States. Too much pollution has ruined the environment and everyone is at very poor health. In the deteriorated nation, rebellion and riots begin, until the whole nation is destroyed.

(The) Scorch Trials by James Dashner (2010). Thomas, Teresa and the rest of the boys barely escaped the Maze. Although now they remember certain things, they still don’t understand what was their purpose inside the Glade and why this new people need them for. Thomas who thought he could trust Teresa is now uncertain after seeing the new word given to her, “Betrayer”.

T: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895). A story of a man journey he experiences after building a time machine capable of carrying a human, and the trials he goes through while traveling.

Truancy by Isamu Fukui (2008). Truancy is a group of rebels, trying to overthrow the city, in a world where school is everything. Any trouble at school means expulsion, which really means death. After a tragedy, Tack joins truancy in hopes to revenge his sister’s death.

U: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (2005). It’s set in a world where on your 16th birthday, you must undergo an extreme surgery to turn you pretty, which also includes a lesion to change the way you think. When Tally’s friend Shay runs to rebel the surgery, Tally’s whole life is changed.

Utopia X by Scott Wilson (2004). In a future where a tyrannical regime hands down the ultimate penalty to anyone accused of politically incorrect actions or attitudes, one man is just trying to get through day by day. He is mistaken for someone else, and trying to protect himself, leads him to a path of rebel.

V: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (1982-89). The novel is set in a dystopian future London, where one man who calls himself V, wants to bring down the government. He breaks many laws, including murder in his process.

W: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1924). One State is an urban nation, almost entirely constructed out of glass. This very design is so the secret police can keep track of the people more easily. the nation wants to rebel, but there is an operation that removes the imagination.

World War Z by Max Brooks (2006). A series of interviews, from people all over the world during the Zombie outbreak.

X: X Isle by Steve Augarde (2009). In a future where the world has been destroyed by floods. people dream of getting off the mainland. Baz and two other boys think this is finally going to happen, until an ambush and they are no longer headed to where they thought they were.

Y: Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (2009). A group of survivors living after an environmental catastrophe.

Z: Zazen by Vanessa Veselka (2011). In a parallel America on the verge of collapse, the world is a very messed up place. War and battle have destroyed a lot. This is the story of a girl living in this time.



Are you a fan of the Dystopia genre? Have you read any of these books? Which are you favorite?