14 Dystopian Books For Those Of Us Itching To See A Corrupt Government Crumble

Four siblings — Ursula, Alvin, Jen, and Duncan Nguyen — are in their primes. They’re starting careers, playing on the high school football team, and living their American dreams. But their young adulthood is interrupted when a series of violent attacks terrifies the nation, and the U.S. begins sending Vietnamese Americans to internment camps. It’s a reality only slightly different from our own, “informed by real-life events, from Japanese incarceration to the Vietnam War and modern-day immigrant detention.”

You may have seen this book circulating on Tik Tok recently, but it was actually published 30 years ago in French. It has recently taken off in the States, and a new generation of readers are gobbling it up. The book is narrated by a nameless child who is held in a massive underground cage with a group of 39 other women. Those women remember a time before the bunker, but the narrator does not. They are guarded constantly by men who never speak, until one day an alarm blares, and the guards leave the keys in the door and flee.

The perfect novel for fans of Black Mirror, Oh’s work uses the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus as a starting point. In London, it has become all the rage for people to get a small implant that augments reality with social media, bringing it into every experience. But the British government begins overseeing it for “safety,” and things take an even more dystopian turn.

The U.S. Department of Balance enforces the law differently. Instead of serving time, those who commit a crime are given an extra shadow for each offense. These Shadesters are othered, deprived of civil rights, and treated as outcasts. Kris is a new mother to a baby born with two shadows who is grieving the loss of her wife. The book’s description says this story “examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.” Sign me up.

This novel is described as The Handmaid’s Tale meets Get Out. Nelah has everything she could ever want: fame, money, and a baby girl growing in a government-owned lab. But behind the scenes, her police officer husband microchips her to follow her every move. One night, under the influence, Nelah is in a car accident and someone dies, so she hides their body in an attempt to keep her life together. It seems like it may work, until her victim’s ghost begins hunting down Nelah’s loved ones, prompting Nelah to finish investigating the government conspiracy her victim was close to exposing.

Lalami’s novel asks what life would be like if we were guilty until proven innocent, and our thoughts alone were enough to make us criminals in the eyes of the state. When Sara lands at LAX after a work conference, she’s detained by agents from the Risk Assessment Administration. They tell her she’s at high risk of harming her husband, and for his safety, she’ll be kept under their watch for 21 days. There she meets other women whose dreams have landed them in detention, and whose sentences keep getting extended without explanation. When a newcomer enters the facility, they’ll band together to find out what, or who, is keeping them inside.

In a not-so-distant future, the wild has essentially disappeared, and most species of animals have gone extinct. The last remaining zoo on Earth occupies Alcatraz Island, and that’s where keeper Camille spends her days caring for a jaguar, chimps, and more. Outside resistance groups clash with cartels, but inside the zoo she feels safe — until a new keeper arrives suggesting they smuggle one of the zoo’s most prized animals to freedom.

For any mom who’s ever felt judged, I give you this novel. Frida Liu is a hardworking mother, whose Chinese immigrant parents and wellness-obsessed husband have such high standards she never seems to meet. But with her baby girl, Harriet, she finds joy and love. Until one day, she makes a mistake. You see, in this not-so-distant future, the government sends mothers who make mistakes, like looking at their phones, or letting their kids walk home alone, to reform school where every move is monitored and judged. If she wants custody of her daughter back, Frida will have to learn to walk the line.

If you missed this book when it came out, it’s time to circle back — it’s an award-winner for a reason. In it we meet Candace Chen, a millennial corporate worker whose Chinese immigrant parents have just passed away. So, she busies herself at work and sticks to her routine. And then a “plague of biblical proportions” hits New York, and normal life grinds to a halt. Wanting to keep working, she agrees to a deal to be part of a skeleton crew in her office with the promise of a big payout at the end of the plague, and she blogs her journey anonymously. But then a group of survivors en route to start a new society, led by IT tech Bob, who may uncover a secret of Candace’s.

Another popular release this year, Silver Elite is a great read for anyone who loves deadly trials and a strong romance element. In Wren Darlington’s world, her psychic gifts are a death sentence, but she supports the rebel Uprising where she can. The Continent views being Modified as a crime, and her Mod is among the most powerful. Then she falls into enemy hands and is forced to train for their special forces, known as Silver Block.

If young adult dystopian fiction (a la Divergent and The Hunger Games) is more your speed, this book may be for you. One single corporation, Caerus, has made its fortune by encouraging the accumulation of massive debt from the lower class. Inesa and her family barely make ends meet by running a taxidermy shop, until she finds out her mother has offered her as a sacrifice to the Lamb’s Gauntlet to get her own debt forgiven. It’s an annual Hunger Games-like contest livestreamed to the masses.

Melinoë is a trained assassin for the corporation, and it’s her job to find and kill the Lambs. She has never failed until last year, when she broke down on camera. The two will be pitted against each other, but they may find there’s more to life than killing and surviving.

Jordan’s novel examines what would happen if the separation between church and state was no more. In this America, those convicted of crimes have their skin’s pigment genetically altered to match their charges before being released back into the population. Hannah is a Red, meaning she was found guilty of murder for having an abortion. And Reds are not treated kindly.

This book is seeing renewed attention because it was just adapted for film this year. In it, we see a dystopian America plagued by poverty. Each year, 100 boys compete in an annual contest known as the Long Walk. Contestants must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour day and night, never stopping. There’s no destination; they walk until only one boy remains. The last boy standing earns the Prize — it’s anything he wants for the rest of his life.

This book is one of the most talked about new releases and is indeed incredibly dystopian, so it can’t be passed over, but it is embroiled in controversy.

Author SenLinYu first published their work Manacled, a Harry Potter fanfiction starring Hermione and Draco. Alchemised is the reworked, traditionally published version with all the HP intellectual property removed. In it, Helena is a captured healer for the rebellion, which has been crushed by the Undying. But her memories have been hidden within her mind, so she’s sent to the High Reeve, a powerful and ruthless alchemist tasked with finding out what she knows at any cost.

Fans of Manacled and those reading Alchemised without knowing its history say it’s an incredible work that highlights how war impacts survivors. But there are many critics saying the work only serves to keep J.K. Rowling relevant and palatable at a time when she is funding anti-trans programs.