The Road by Cormac McCarthy is an apocalyptic dystopian novel, McCarty is able to present a bleak and death-ridden world like no other that uses vivid imagery and extensive world-building to create a real sense of hopelessness. A father and son travel across the desolate world following the road seeking a warmer climate facing the “bad people’ along the way with close calls and showing the true horrors of the wasteland, cannibals, marauders, and a constant struggle for supplies and safety.
After their mysterious appearance, the men in rat masks answer none of the questions given to them. No one seems to be keen to ask questions when they provide food and shelter though, in a secret city underground. But who can explain the masks everyone wears? Or the disappearance of everyone assigned maintenance duty? OR most importantly where have all the children gone?
Proloff was once a revered Explorer, one of the only ones allowed to leave the train. So important was their job that only once a year did the train stop and it was for them to deboard. After discovering some things he shouldn’t have, how does Proloff come to terms with his questions about the very world he lives in?
“Across the white immensity of an eternal winter, from one end of the frozen planet to the other, there travels a train that never stops.”
The prequal to the original series, this French graphic novel covers an apocalyptic future where the remainder of the human race lives on a never-ending train to avoid the desolate wasteland outside.
A Winter’s Promise features Animist Ophelia, a young girl who has the power to travel through mirrors and to see an object’s past upon touching it. However, she is soon forced into a marriage with Thorn, a stern and apathetic man from the faraway world of the Pole. As she accompanies her fiancé to the floating city of Citaceleste, she discovers rival clans and powerful families.
Taking place post-apocalyptic, this story follows a father and son’s journey to the sea, in an attempt to find something or someone who could help them. This was an interesting read, as McCarthy has a unique writing style with this book: no chapters, no parts, just ill-grammar words. Although those very aspects made it not my favorite read, it was vital in defining the story’s atmosphere.
In this gripping novel, Katniss Everdeen is a 16-year-old girl living in a hopeless world. Her father has passed away. Her family barely has enough food to survive. Then it gets even worse. Katniss’ sister Prim gets selected to be a part of The Hunger Games. Katniss takes her sister's place and has to fight for her life in a game of death. Katniss is competing in the Games when her fellow contender Peeta, also from District 12, expresses his fondness of her. How will Katniss balance the need to live for her family and the way she feels for Peeta?
This book is about a girl who loses her memory and becomes engaged to her father's enemy. However, she does not remember loving him. Doctors tell Aria that she has lost her memory. Therefore, Aria goes looking for answers, and meets a boy named Hunter. Can she find the answers as to why she lost her memory?
Steelheart takes a realistic look into a world of superpowers. Unlike most traditional stories of superheroes who are role-models that use their powers for good, these superheroes are corrupt, evil dictators who have transformed Earth into an authoritarian wasteland. Called Epics, they were created by a comet which flew over the Earth a few years prior to the story.
