If You Liked The Hunger Games…

DYSTOPI-WHAT!?  If you liked The Hunger Games, you should check out some of the other dystopian novels found upstairs on the Teen Mezzanine.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In the debut novel by American author Veronica Roth, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life. Each of the factions is meant to uphold a particular virtue of humanity: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave) and Erudite (the intelligent). The decision is made more difficult for Beatrice when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.
Find it: Young Adult Fiction, YA ROT
YA ROT Check out the sequel, Insurgent, also under YA ROT

Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

In a futuristic version of America’s Gulf Coast region, teenaged Nailer works the light crew in a for a team that breaks down grounded oil tankers for parts. Nailer scavenges for copper wiring every day and hopes just to make quota in order to live another day. When he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.
Find it: Young Adult fiction, YA BAC

 
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl wakes up from a coma. Jenna Fox is her name, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident she was involved in a year ago. But Jenna doesn’t remember her life before the accident. Or does she? Recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, Jenna learns a startling secret about her existence.
Find it: with the Young Adult Fiction under YA PEA 

 
Brave New World By Aldous Huxley
In Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian novel, Bernard Marx lives in a World State where everyone consumes daily grams of soma to fight depression, babies come from laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a “Feelie” (a movie that stimulates all the senses). There is no violence and everyone is provided for, but Bernard feels that something is missing. He begins to sense that his relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than what the rules of their society allows.
Find it: Young Adult fiction, YA HUX 

The House of the Scorpion By Nancy Farmer

In a future where human clones are raised to be harvested for organs, Matt has enjoyed a special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States. The intelligence of clones is usually destroyed at birth, but Matt has been spared because of El Patron’s power. As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he comes to realize that escape is his only chance for survival. Escape will not guarantee his freedom however, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn’t even suspect.
Find it: Young Adult fiction, YA FAR 

 
Animal Farm By George Orwell

This is a fable of a workers’ revolution gone wrong. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm overthrow their drunken human master and take over the farm, things seem to be heading in the right direction. Everyone willingly works overtime, and for one brief and wonderful season, the animals are happy and well fed. Soon, however, the animals’ leaders succumb to the temptations of privilege and power.
Find it: Young Adult fiction, YA ORW

The Unwanteds By Lisa McMann

In a society that purges thirteen-year-olds every year, identical twins Aaron and Alex are separated, one to attend University while the other is to be “eliminated.” Alex tries hard to be strong when his fate is announced as Unwanted, but when he arrives at his destination he discovers that in Artime each child is taught to use their abilities magically. It’s a rare occurence for twins to be separated between Wanted and Unwanted, however and as Alex and Aaron’s bond stretches across the two worlds, a threat arises that will pit the two against one another.

Find it: Young Adult fiction, YA MCM

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world. When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. However, her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she would like to. She begins to care for him until she realizes that not all is as it seems. Even her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next.
Find it: Young Adult Fiction, YA MAR

 
Variant By Robinson E. Wells

After years in foster homes, seventeen-year-old Benson Fisher thinks that a scholarship to New Mexico’s Maxfield Academy is a ticket to a new life. Upon arrival at the academy, Maxwell finds instead that the school is a prison and no one is what he or she seems.
Find it: Young Adult fiction, YA WEL