Dystopian, Futuristic and Speculative Fiction (YA)

Dystopian fiction is interested in imagining what would happen if everything went horribly wrong some time in the future (distant, or not-too distant). The word ‘dystopia’ was conceived to be the opposite of ‘utopia,’ which in turn comes from the Greek roots ou-topos (the not-place) and eu-topos (the good place). So, while a utopia is a perfect society that cannot truly exist, a dystopia is a broken society that is normally based in some way on the real world.

Sometimes it has a bit of a sci-fi feel (like the spaceship setting in Across the Universe), but it’s nearly always a bit bleak (like the list below!). The horrible wrong-ness can be due to social, political (or socio-political) problems (see The Hunger Games, Divergent, 1984 for example). It can also be due to environmental problems (Ship Breaker, The Water Wars, Blood Red Road etc).

Here’s a selection of dystopian/futuristic titles for you to work your way through.

Updated June 19, 2024
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Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Internment
Ahmed, Samira (Fiction writer)
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestseller!   "Internment sets itself apart...terrifying, thrilling and urgent." -Entertainment Weekly   Rebellions are built on hope.   Set in a...
Feed
Anderson, M. T.
Paper Book
A Time Magazine 100 Best YA Books of All Time Selection The tour de force that set the gold standard for dystopian YA fiction -- in a compelling paperback edition. For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon -- a chance to...
The electric kingdom
Arnold, David
Paper Book
New York Times bestseller David Arnold's most ambitious novel to date; Station Eleven meets The 5th Wave in a genre-smashing story of survival, hope, and love amid a ravaged earth. When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that...
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
Now a Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. The Handmaid's Tale is an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times) The Handmaid's Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its...
Cinderella is dead
Bayron, Kalynn
Paper Book
"Wholly original and captivating." - Brigid Kemmerer, New York Times bestselling author of A Curse So Dark and Lonely Girls team up to overthrow the kingdom in this unique and powerful retelling of Cinderella from a stunning new voice that's perfect for fans of...
All that's left in the world
Brown, Erik J
Paper Book
What If It's Us meets They Both Die at the End in this postapocalyptic, queer YA adventure romance from debut author Erik J. Brown. Perfect for fans of Adam Silvera, Alex London, and Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. When Andrew stumbles upon Jamie's house, he's injured, starved, and has...
Parable of the sower
Butler, Octavia E
Paper Book
The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and a roaming band of people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape and murder. When one small community is overrun, Lauren Olamina, an...
The ballad of songbirds and snakes
Collins, Suzanne
Paper Book
Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price. It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a...
Hunger Games
Collins, Suzanne.
Paper Book
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before-and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a...
Cake eater
Dahlin, Allyson
Paper Book
"With a love story for the ages, this vivid tale takes the history we know and recasts it into an exciting, technicolor, future world that challenges what we know here in the present, and how we know it. I loved it! I couldn't put it down!" --Beth Revis, New York Times bestselling...
The marrow thieves
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text) Winner of the 2017 Kirkus PrizeWinner of the 2018 Sunburst Award Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit...
Project Nought
Furedi, Chelsey
Paper Book
For fans of Kiss Number 8 and On a Sunbeam, this debut graphic novel is a fast-paced time travel adventure with a hint of romance that has garnered 1.5 million views as a Tapas webcomic. Ren Mittal's last memory in the year 1996 is getting on a bus to visit his mystery...
The ones we're meant to find
He, Joan
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller An Indie Bestseller Perfect for fans of Marie Lu and E. Lockhart, The Ones We're Meant to Find is a gripping and heartfelt YA sci-fi with mind-blowing twists. Set in a climate-ravaged future, Joan He's beautifully written...
Survive the dome
Jackson, Kosoko
Ebook
The grace year
Liggett, Kim
Paper Book
The Instant New York Times Bestseller! Kim Liggett's The Grace Year is a speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid's Tale and The Power. Survive the year. No one speaks of the grace year. It's forbidden. ...
The giver
Lowry, Lois.
Paper Book
In Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning classic, twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind his fragile community. This movie tie-in edition features cover art from the...
Sanctuary
Mendoza, Paola
Paper Book
Co-founder of the Women's March makes her YA debut in a near future dystopian where a young girl and her brother must escape a xenophobic government to find sanctuary. It's 2032, and in this near-future America, all citizens are chipped and everyone is tracked--from buses to...
The knife of never letting go
Ness, Patrick
Paper Book
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding...
At the end of everything
Nijkamp, Marieke
Paper Book
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends comes another heartbreaking, emotional and timely page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have...
Always human
North, Ari
Paper Book
Always Human is a beautifully drawn, sapphic graphic novel about a developing relationship between two young women in a near-future, soft sci-fi setting. First serialized on the popular app and website WebToon, Always Human amassed over 51 million views and nearly 700,000...
Nineteen eighty-four
Orwell, George
Paper Book
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell's 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition. "Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way...
The light at the bottom of the world
Shah, London
Paper Book
In the last days of the twenty-first century, sea creatures swim through the ruins of London. Trapped in the abyss, humankind wavers between hope and fear of what lurks in the depths around them, and hope that they might one day find a way back to the surface. When sixteen-year-old...
If tomorrow doesn't come
St. Jude, Jen
Paper Book
We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold. Avery Byrne has secrets. She's queer; she's in love with her best...
Spill Zone [1]
Westerfeld, Scott
Ebook
Uglies
Westerfeld, Scott.
Paper Book
Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive...
Hell followed with us
White, Andrew Joseph
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. "A long, sustained scream to the various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world...
The infinity particle
Xu, Wendy
Paper Book
In this gorgeous graphic novel by Wendy Xu, co-creator of the award-winning Mooncakes, a young inventor falls for a lifelike AI and confronts questions of freedom and autonomy. Clementine Chang moves from Earth to Mars for a new start and is lucky enough to land her dream job with Dr....

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