Dystopian

Chain Gang All Stars: A Novel book cover

Chain Gang All Stars: A Novel

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

OverDrive Audiobook
Diverse Characters, Fiction, LGBTQ+, Dystopian

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTELLER • Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE “Like Orwell’s 1984 and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Adjei-Brenyah’s book presents a dystopian vision so…illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we’re capable of doing.” —The Washington Post “This book will change you!...A masterpiece.” —Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show’s #ReadWithJenna She felt their eyes, all those executioners… Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.     Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).

Annie's picture

A very informative and gripping dystopian novel that will make you think about the U.S. prison system and how we consume modern-day professional sports. -Annie

Pet book cover

Pet

Emezi, Akwaeke, author.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION Emezi Akwaeke
Diverse Characters, LGBTQ+, Dystopian, Fantasy

There are no monsters anymore. In the city of Lucille, Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. Then Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood. Pet has come to hunt a monster-- and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? -- adapted from jacket

Bailey's picture

This book features a non-verbal teen who lives in a world where there are no more monsters--until her mother's painting comes alive and tells her that's a lie. This is fast-paced, whimsical, and emotional, with a healthy of balance of some dark themes alongside radical depictions of trans joy and autistic joy. -Bailey

Alone book cover

Alone

Megan E. Freeman

jFICTION Freeman Megan
Kids, Dystopian

Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town. When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten. As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie's most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie's stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

Mari's picture

I love reading survival stories, and this children's fiction book was particularly intriguing with an eerie science fiction element. An "imminent" but unknown threat forces the entire western United States to evacuate, leaving behind a 13-year-old girl in the confusion of sharing homes with divorced parents. I also love novels written in verse, and this story keeps you hooked with this unique storytelling style and the constants threats she encounters as she learns how to live in a completely abandoned town with little survival experience and no way to contact the outside world. -Mari

The lightest object in the universe book cover

The lightest object in the universe

Kimi Eisele

FICTION Eisele Kimi
Dystopian

What if the end times allowed people to see and build the world anew? This is the landscape that Kimi Eisele creates in her surprising and original debut novel. Evoking the spirit of such monumental love stories as Cold Mountain and the creative vision of novels like Station Eleven, The Lightest Object in the Universe tells the story of what happens after the global economy collapses and the electrical grid goes down. In this new world, Carson, on the East Coast, is desperate to find Beatrix, a woman on the West Coast who holds his heart. Working his way along a cross-country railroad line, he encounters lost souls, clever opportunists, and those who believe they'll be saved by an evangelical preacher in the middle of the country. Meanwhile, Beatrix and her neighbors begin to construct a cooperative community that suggests the end could be, in fact, a bright beginning. Without modern means of communication, will Beatrix and Carson reach each other, and what will be left of the old world if they do? The answers may lie with a fifteen-year-old girl who could ultimately decide the fate of the cross-country lovers.

Hanna's picture

At first, this dystopian book hit uncomfortably close to home during the covid-19 pandemic. However, as the characters found hope and community after a flu pandemic and the destruction of the electric grid, it gave me hope for our real-world future. -Hanna

Solo leveling book cover

Solo leveling

author Chugong

MANGA Chugong Solo
Fantasy, Dystopian, Adventure

"The weakest of the weak, E-class hunter Jinwoo Sung has no money, no talent, and no prospects to speak of. And when he enters a hidden dungeon that fateful day, he ends up being left to die in the aftermath of a horrendous tragedy. At death's door, Jinwoo is suddenly invited to be a "player" by a mysterious voice. Desperate to live, Jinwoo jumps at the chance...but what is this strange new leveling system that only he can see?"--

Mykle's picture

The art is amazing and the story is good. -Mykle

The Marrow Thieves book cover

The Marrow Thieves

Cherie Dimaline

YOUNG ADULT FICTION Dimaline Cherie
Young Adult, Dystopian

"In a future world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's indigenous population - and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world. But getting the marrow - and dreams - means death for the unwilling donors. Driven to flight, a 15-year-old and his companions struggle for survival, attempt to reunite with loved ones, and take refuge from the "recruiters" who seek them out to bring them to the marrow-stealing 'factories.'"--

Victoria's picture

Gripping dystopian climate change fiction where the mass populous is unable to dream making them mad. The only ones capable of dreaming is a group of Indigenous Americans and the only method? Harvesting their marrow. A slow read in parts but so worthwhile. Ages 14+ -Victoria

The last kids on earth: june's wild flight : The Last Kids on Earth Series, Book 5.5 book cover

The last kids on earth: june's wild flight : The Last Kids on Earth Series, Book 5.5

Max Brallier

eBOOK
Graphic Novels, Kids, Adventure, Dystopian

Anne W's picture

If you liked the other Last Kids on Earth books or the Netflix series, try this bonus story told from June's point of view, full of plenty of action and adventure! -Anne W

Eventown book cover

Eventown

Corey Ann Haydu

jFICTION Haydu Corey
Fiction, Kids, Dystopian

To Elodee, eleven, things seem a little too perfect in Eventown when she moves there with her parents and identical twin, Naomi, especially since forgetting the past is so highly valued.

Anne W's picture

Kind of creepy but with mouthwatering descriptions of creative cooking and baking projects! -Anne W

The testaments book cover

The testaments

Margaret Atwood

SCIENCE FICTION Atwood Margaret
Dystopian

The theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets. Each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes. -- adapted from jacket

Becky's picture

I would recommend The Testaments to all fans of Atwood's 1986 work, The Handmaid's Tale, and/or to all those who have enjoyed the Hulu original series. As a sequel to the original work, I think it is important to have read (or at least watched) The Handmaid's Tale in order to fully appreciate and understand the testimonies given about the world of Gilead in this latest work. This story is narrated by three individuals with very different perspectives and experiences in/surrounding Gilead, fifteen years after the original story takes place. Another great work by Atwood! -Becky

The giver book cover

The giver

Lois Lowry

YOUNG ADULT FICTION Lowry, Lois
Dystopian, Classics, Kids, Fiction, Science Fiction

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

Anne W's picture

A dystopian classic about a haunting world of total conformity, in which a 12-year-old boy begins slowly to uncover the secrets of the society with no discontent but also no choice or feelings. -Anne W