dystopia

The Darkest Minds has everything you want in a dystopian book and more: psychic powers, anti-government organizations, rehabilitation camps and constant struggles for survival.  Ruby is days away from turning 10, and in her society when you turn 10 you contract a disease that either kills you or gives you strange psychic abilities. As a result, Ruby has seen classmates die or be taken away before her very eyes.   On the morning of her 10th birthday, Ruby finds herself a survivor. Expecting her special breakfast of pancakes, Ruby is met instead by a mother and father who no longer know her. 

In Arras, society is tightly overseen and controlled by the government. The Guild keeps boys and girls segregated until they reach marrying age. Food is rationed, travel is restricted, and people are euthanized before they die of natural causes. Women are forced to work in subservient jobs, as secretaries and maids--except for the ones who have a talent for weaving, who are sent to an isolated academy where they are trained to be Spinsters. And what the Spinsters weave is reality itself. With Crewel, local author Gennifer Albin has created a fascinating and compelling story of social control

Crewel takes readers on a journey to a world where everything and everyone revolves around a patriarchal society. Women are traditionally seen as homemakers and completely subservient to men who rule the land. The heroine, sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys, has always secretly hoped for more and dreams of a life that she knows is outside her grasp. Adelice is no normal girl; she has the ability to Crewel, the gift to weave the very fabric of reality. For sixteen years she and her parents have managed to hide her gift from the prying eyes of the Guild. However, after accidently revealing her

When the world was created, it only housed 148 levels.  To keep the world structured and orderly, rules were established to protect the status quo. The first rule is never mention that you would like to go outside. This is life in Hugh Howey’s The Wool Omnibus, the world of the silo. For as long as anyone can remember, the silo is the only thing protecting the people from the toxic environment outside. The cameras viewing this wasteland need to be cleaned periodically with a piece of wool. Those condemned to go outside always perform their duty, but never return to the silo.

I am not sure why

One of my favorite books of all time is Unwind by Neal Shusterman. The epic story takes place after a second civil war, fought over the morality and legality of abortion leads to peace through the Unwind Accords. This agreement outlaws abortion...however, from the ages of 13 to 18 any child may be unwound by their parents. Perhaps your 16 year-old son gets caught cheating at school, your 17 year-old daughter totals the car, or it just costs too much to feed your voracious 13 year-old son...You can have your child unwound for any reason. Just fill out an easy form and the Juvenile Authority

Masque of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin is an intriguing re-production of Poe’s original version, “The Masque of the Red Death”. Griffin creates a world that has succumbed to an air-borne infectious disease, which leaves people dying on every corner. Only the rich are able to provide their families with masks that purify the air before breathing it in.

Araby Worth, the female protagonist, is part of the elite because her father was the scientist who first created the masks that began saving lives immediately. But her world is far from glamorous. She drinks copious amounts of alcohol and

In this dystopian/alternate world novel, The Pledge by Kimberly Derting, the country of Lundania is on the brink of war. The Queen, whose magical powers pass down through generations, is growing old and does not have a female heir. In Lundania, and the surrounding countries, a Queen must be on the throne in order to be recognized as a country. Lundania, and its class system, is slowly falling apart. Language is the tool used to determine what class a person is in, and if one tries to go outside their class the immediate punishment is death. Seventeen year old Charlaina (Charlie) has the

Originally published in 1999, Battle Royale predates the Hunger Games by almost ten years! The story takes place in an alternate future, in The Greater Republic of East Asia (a totalitarian state formed after some ambiguous war with America).* Every year one 3rd year middle-school class (the equivalent of freshmen or sophomores here), is randomly selected to participate in "The Program." Can you guess what The Program is? Correct! A fight to the death!

Although the game itself is not televised**, winners are announced and interviews on national television. They serve as both hope for the

When She Woke is the second novel by Hillary Jordan. Unlike her prize-winning historical fiction Mudbound, When She Woke is a dystopian novel inspired by The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel opens as Hannah Payne awakes in prison and tries to come to terms with the fact that her skin has been turned red. In her near-future Christian fundamentalist America, convicted offenders are “melachromed”, injected with a virus that turns their skins the color of their crimes and most are promptly released from prison to a public life filled with prejudice and hardship. Melachroming takes

Player Piano was Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, and it's a far cry from his later work, which made lavish use of humor -- including broad humor -- and unconventional narrative, including the crude drawings Vonnegut did himself for Breakfast of Champions.

The target of Vonnegut's displeasure -- and, thankfully for us, he was always displeased about something -- in Player Piano is the corporate/technological power structure, or what Eisenhower referred to as the "military-industrial complex." For the most part, the novel is very straightforward, compared with KV's other works. The style is more

In Veronica Roth’s debut dystopian novel, Divergent, the society is not divided by religion, race or class, but by five factions, each corresponding to a different virtue that they value and foster above all. The Abnegation are the selfless, the Amity are the peaceful, the Candor are the honest, the Dauntless are the brave and the Erudite are the intelligent. 

Divergent opens as the main heroine, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior, faces the aptitude test designed to help her determine which faction she is suited for. The test is followed by the Choosing Ceremony where she will decide the rest

One of the popular dystopian books of 2011, Shatter Me follows seventeen-year-old Juliette, an imprisoned teenager with a power so deadly that it terrifies even herself.  Juliette lives in a world destroyed by war and waste, and run by a regime called the Re-Establishment.  A familiar but unfamiliar boy comes to her in prison, starting a chain reaction where Juliette gets pulled into the violent world of post-apocalyptic warfare.  The Re-Establishment wants her to be a weapon.  She just wants to be free. With its dystopian elements and romance, Shatter Me will appeal to fans of the The Hunger

Wither is Lauren DeStefano’s promising debut novel and is the first book in The Chemical Gardner Trilogy.  In this compelling dystopian novel, DeStefano portrays our world as one that got seriously altered by human genetic engineering. After the first sturdy and super healthy generation, all subsequent generations die at a young age because of an untreatable virus. All women only live to the age of twenty and men to the age of twenty-five. DeStefano creates a quite realistic world, where women are abducted and the “lucky” ones are forced into polygamous marriages to prevent the human race from

Crossed is the much anticipated second book in the young adult dystopian Matched trilogy. Crossed picks up where Matched left off. Ky has been relocated by the Society to an unspecified location in Outer Provinces to fight the enemy and Cassia is determined to find him. After spending some time in different work camps, Cassia manages to get on a transport that is heading for Outer Provinces. As she reaches one of the villages located in a desert area of Outer Provinces, she learns that Ky has escaped and that he is headed for an area called the Carving. Cassia sets off after him. As Cassia and

Beatrice has grown up in post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the community is divided into 5 factions, each focused on a different value. Candor values honest, Amity values happiness, Erudite values information, Dauntless values courage and Beatrice's faction, Abnegation values selflessness. But Beatrice isn't a very good member of Abnegation, selflessness doesn't seem to come naturally to her like it does for her brother Caleb or her mother. At 16, every member of the community undergoes the test to find out what faction they will choose to live in as an adult. Beatrice is nervous for the test

Matched is the first book in a young adult dystopian trilogy. The main character is seventeen-year-old Cassia who lives in a Society where all choices are made for you. You do not have to worry what you will eat, what your profession will be or even when you die.  Everything is scientifically selected for you.

Cassia’s story opens at her Matching ceremony where she is to her surprise and delight matched to her best friend Xander. According to the Society, Xander is her ideal mate. He is destined to become her husband and father of her children. At the ceremony, all the Matchees are given a

I approached Mockingjay with a bit of apprehension. You know when there is something you really love you worry that the author/creator might ruin it with one swift stroke of the pen? That is the anxiety I felt leading up to the release of Mockingjay. How could you possibly end a series as great as the Hunger Games? Would Katniss survive? What would happen to Panem!? Although I liked Mockingjay it was certainly not a satisfying book.

It starts out with Katniss waking up in District 13 where the resistance is building. She doesn't want to participate but with Peeta captured in the capitol she

The Hunger Games is the story of North America after an apocalyptic war has broken out. Now the continent is made up of 12 districts, ruled over by a wealthy capitol city. Each year, to remind the districts of their loss in the war and how powerless they are, the Capitol chooses two teenagers from each district to participate in a reality TV show. The participants, called tributes are chosen at random from a lottery, one boy and one girl.

The 24 tributes, two from each district, are sent to the Capitol where they are placed in an arena together to participate in the Hunger Games. The only way