Collins’s The Hunger Games changed young adult literature forever. The bloodthirsty nation of Panem served as an entire generation of adolescent readers’ introduction to dystopian fiction, setting imaginations across the globe ablaze with visions of alternate worlds where human civilization took a dark turn somewhere along the road.
Unfortunately, the next installment of The Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping, won’t hit bookstore shelves until March 2025. But don’t despair, my fellow Tributes! That means you have almost a year to read one of the many fantastic dystopian series out on the market before diving back into Katniss Everdeenās world for the fifth time.
Thereās no consensus on what makes a dystopian novel greatāto me, itās a healthy mix of vivid characterization and competent world-buildingābut the series Iāve picked out should keep that āHunger Games itchā weāve all got scratched until Sunrise on the Reaping comes out. Each oneās a classic in its own right, and once you’ve put them down, they may find a permanent home on your bookshelf.
10. The Divergent Series
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Divergent gets a lot of grief in dystopian literary circles, but that doesnāt mean the series isnāt worth a read. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, a post-apocalyptic Chicago has divided society into five castes, each based on a specific personality-type. āDivergents,ā people blessed with a bit too much independent thought, are public enemy #1, slated for execution as soon as theyāre discovered through the tests every citizen undergoes at age sixteen.
The personality-based caste system Veronica Ross creates and explores across the trilogy is a little sloppy from a world-building standpoint, but itās undeniably unique. The seriesā focus on emotions also compliments Rossā character-voice-driven prose, which grows with her protagonists as they make the turbulent transition from children to adults in a world that fears emotion, something young adults have a surplus of.
9. Legend
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Legend takes the āstar-crossedā loversā trope that defines many of the best YA books and mixes it in with some thrilling politically driven intrigue. Marie Lu sets the reader up for a wild ride by positioning her two protagonists, June and Day, on the opposite end of a deeply divided class-based society. When a brutal murder forces the two to work together, sparks fly and romance blooms.
Luās three-part saga takes a slower approach to pacing than most YA dystopia series, forcing the readers to soak in the suspense as the twists pile up and the odds against June and Day stack higher and higher. Luckily, Lu keeps the tone balanced by injecting a healthy dose of teen romance, enticing world-building, and cathartic action into her pages.
8. Uglies
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In the age of social media, manipulative marketing campaigns are working day-and-night to convince children and teens that looks are everything. Scott Westerfield Uglies challenges us to ask ourselves how important looking good really is by showing how devastating the pursuit of beauty can be.
The powers that rule Ugliesā world put beauty above all else, forcing those they govern to undergo mandatory cosmetic surgery once they turn sixteen. When Tally Youngbloodās best friend runs away days before theyāre slated to go under the knife, she finds herself on a journey that forces her to see the ugly side of the āperfectā world she grew up in and helps her discover all she needs to do to be beautiful is stay true to herself.
7. The Giver Quartet
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Lois Lowryās The Giver deserves a place on every ādystopia booksā list. A staple of middle school core curriculums worldwideāand paradoxically, a common sight on the American Library Association’s annual āMost Challenged Booksā listāthis seminal coming-of-age tale was a part of many readersā childhoods. But far fewer people seem to know that itās the first in a four-book series.
The Giverās sequels take quite a while to resolve the cliffhanger that ended the first book, but they do eventually come back around to finish Jonasā story. Along the way, we get to see a clearer picture of the dystopian world Lowryās built, learning about other isolated communities thatāve collectively agreed to turn their back on the most fundamental elements of the human experience in the name of āsafety,ā drawing clear parallels to the ongoing āfreedom vs. securityā debate.
6. Gone
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What if everyone over the age of fifteen disappeared from a small town on the California coast? What if the teenagers and children left behind found themselves trapped behind an insurmountable wall of psychic energy that kept them from leaving and caused them to develop superhuman abilities? These are the questions that Michael Grantās Gone sets out to answer.
Goneās what you get when you mix X-Men and The Lord of the Flies. Trapped in an inescapable prison for reasons they donāt understand, the young inhabitants of Perdito Beach find themselves locked in an endlessly escalating battle for survival, breaking off into factions that, more often than not, end up fighting for control over the town’s dwindling resources. Oh, and thereās also an ancient alien parasite lurking somewhere in the streets.
5. The Maze Runner
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If you’ve read the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, you know the idea of sending children into monster-infested labyrinths has always fascinated people. James Dashnerās The Maze Runner trilogy is, in every way that matters, a modern day adaptation of Theseusā story, one that takes everything that made the original myth so timeless and modernizing it for young readers.
Much like the titular structure, the story that ties The Maze Runner together is a puzzle waiting to be solved. Dashner knows how to keep readers on their toes, giving us just enough information about the world outside the walls of the maze to keep us glued to the pages, even as the echos of inhuman things creep closer and closer.
4. Red Rising Saga
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Scientists, philosophers and politicians have been arguing for decades over whether commercialized space travel will end or escalate class divide. Pierce Brownās Red Rising saga comes down hard in the latter camp, presenting readers with a terraformed and colonized Mars dominated by the āGoldsā the genetically altered top rung of a brutal color-coded caste system.
After heās forced to watch the love of his lifeās execution, the lowborn āRedā Darrow joins the ranks of an anti-Gold revolution, willingly undergoing genetic modification so he can infiltrate the Golds and destroy them from within. While Darrowās campaign against the Golds reaches John Wick levels of violent catharsis more than once, his increasingly violent methods leave readers to ask whether Darrowās suffering justifies the pain he inflicts on others.
3. Mortal Engines Quartet
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Few YA series reach the same level of scale as Philip Reeveāsā Mortal Engines Quartet. This four-part epicās set in a dystopian future where cities and towns have gone mobile and gotten caught in an endless game of cat-and-mouse, with larger settlements hunting down their smaller counterparts and devouring them for resources.
We see this epic world through the eyes of Tom Natsworthy, a young Londoner whose life changes course when he meets Hester Shaw, a disfigured girl with a murderous grudge against one of Londonās most powerful citizens. From that point on, Tom and Hesterās lives become irreversibly entangled, and the journey they embark on together will stay with you long after you put the last book down.
2. The Handmaid’s Tale
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Margaret Atwood is one of the greatest speculative fiction authors of our time, and few works show her talent better than The Handmaidās Tale. For decades, this genre-defining experience stood on its own, but that changed in 2019 when Atwood wrote a direct sequel,The Testaments, which like its predecessor, is going to be adapted into a show by Netflix.
The hooded cloak the Republic of Gilead forces the women who live under its patriarchal rule to wear has become a universally recognizable symbol of systemic oppression. Atwoodās empathetic prose seamlessly conveys the terror that the women of Gilead live in daily, and their struggle to beat back the forces that strive to keep them enslaved remains one of the most inspiring tales of our time.
1. Unwind Dystology
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Before there was The Hunger Games, there was Unwind. This series unfolds in a dystopian future in which a second American Civil War broke out over reproductive rights. Eventually, both sides agreed to a compromise, one that gave AmĆ©ricaās parents the authority to have their teenage children surgically unmade through a process known as āunwinding.ā
The Unwind series boldly explores challenging themes, touching on issues that have remained relevant long after the bookās initial publication. Neil Shustermanās incredible prose immerses you in the world the authorās crafted, making you live and breathe with the seriesā teenage protagonists as they fight back against the tyrannical government that decided their organs are more important than their lives.
Published: Aug 10, 2024 10:22 am