1.
Editors choice:
Battle Royale
2.
Unwind
3.
The Girl Who Owned a City: The Graphic Novel
4.
Gregor the Overlander
5.
The City of Ember
6.
The Giver
7.
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel
8.
1984
9.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel
10.
The Hunger Pains: A Parody
It’s been over a decade since the defiant sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen bravely volunteered to take her little sister Prim’s place in their post-apocalyptic world’s annual televised fight to the death in The Hunger Games.
After its publication in 2008, Suzanne Collin’s harrowing dystopian novel about a corrupt powerful government and the resilient, resourceful, and fearless teens who rebelled against it launched a worldwide phenomenon that went on to spawn four films, a trilogy of books, and received near-universal critical acclaim.
Ranking just under Harry Potter in popularity The Hunger Games is once again surging into the zeitgeist and reclaiming its space as a pop culture darling with the long-awaited Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes set to be published in May.
Until then, we’ve rounded up ten thrilling, dystopian books for Hunger Games fans to sink their teeth into.
1. Battle Royale
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Unflinchingly violent and grotesque Battle Royale hit shelves almost a decade before The Hunger Games. In the fascist Republic of Greater East Asia 40 high school students are abducted from their classroom and dropped onto a remote island as part of a deranged military experiment that demands just one thing: kill everyone or be killed. Fitted with explosive collars and equipped with weapons the captured teens unleash everything they’ve got in a murderous melee. The enthralling, immersive, and darkly escapist Battle Royale hits harder than a fist to the gut.
- Pages: 600
- Publisher: Haikasoru
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2. Unwind
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The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror meet The Hunger Games in one of the most harrowing dystopian novels– Neal Shusterman’s Unwind. In this disturbing futuristic thriller where a Bill of Life states it’s illegal to end human life from conception to age thirteen, troublesome or unwanted teens are subject to one of the most horrifying procedures imaginable– an “unwinding” where their organs are slowly harvested from their bodies so as to not openly defy the law. A chilling examination of complex moral issues Unwind is a haunting and unforgettable read.
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3. The Girl Who Owned a City: The Graphic Novel
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When a catastrophic plague wipes out every person on earth older than age 12 only a barren husk of a world is left. Dangerous child-gangs roam the streets, food and supplies are dwindling, and 10-year-old Lisa Nelson is doing everything she can to ensure she and her little brother Todd survive. Set in a dystopian Chicago and now adapted into a graphic novel, readers can vividly experience the action-packed The Girl Who Owned A City (originally published in 1975) and it’s badass Katniss-like heroine, Lisa, in a whole new way.
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4. Gregor the Overlander
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Suzanne Collins’s distinctive writing style is one of the many things Hunger Games fans love about the dystopian trilogy– it’s raw, succinct, and instantly recognizable. Collins brings her unique voice and authorly craft to her new series of books, Gregor the Overlander. Not as mature as the Hunger Games, Gregor the Overlander is still a dark and pulse-pounding read. When the reluctant young hero Gregor inadvertently tumbles into Underland he’s thrust into the middle of a dangerous prophecy and set on a perilous and dark adventure that spans five volumes.
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5. The City of Ember
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The City of Ember is another middle-grade dystopia read for Hunger Games fans. Set in the post-apocalyptic city Ember, and the last refuge for the human race, the unthinkable happens. The lights and electricity that powers the city threatens to go out. Young Lina and her best friend Doon embark on a quest to discover just what is causing the disturbance as they race to decypher ancient messages, and dig deeper into the history of the city. Eerie, dark, and vibrantly descriptive The City of Ember is a page-turning thrill.
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6. The Giver
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Lois Lowry’s young adult dystopian science fiction novel The Giver takes place in a seemingly utopian society known as the Community– a rigid, highly conformist world where everyone is assigned a role and anyone who dares to dissent is released to “Elsewhere”. When the annual Ceremony of Twelve arrives –a day in which all twelve-year-olds are given their life’s work, Jonas is selected to be the Reciever of Memory. Tasked with receiving all of the memories from history from the current Giver, Jonas discovers dark secrets that can’t be forgotten.
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7. The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel
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With the hit series on Hulu, Margaret Atwood’s famous dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale has become as much a household name as Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series. First published in 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the near future where the totalitarian Republic of Gilead seized control after the Second American Civil War. Now adapted into a graphic novel a whole new generation of readers can experience the suspenseful, ominous, and heart-wrenching tale of Offred, a woman enslaved by the corrupt misogynistic system who refuses to be a victim.
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8. 1984
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“Big Brother is watching you.” It’s 2020, a whole 71 years after the publication of George Orwell’s 1984 (originally Nineteen Eighty-four) and the classic dystopian thriller has never felt so frighteningly close to reality as it does now. 1984 takes place in the totalitarian state, Oceania where free speech and “thought-criminals” are persecuted by the Party and their Thought Police. 1984 follows Winston Smith, a man tasked with hacking The Ministry of Truth to rewrite history. But, when Winston stumbles upon a group of dissenters his curiosity has grave consequences.
- Pages: 328
- Publisher: Signet Classic
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9. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel
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Along with fierce Katniss Everdeen, effervescent Effie Trinket, and kindhearted Peeta, there’s another instantly recognizable Hunger Games character that, thanks to an indelible performance by Donald Sutherland in the films, even the most casual of fans could name in a split second– President Snow. Now, in the long-awaited Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is the protagonist. Set during the 10th Hunger Games The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes promises to reveal the origins of one of the most irredeemable and diabolical literary villains.
- Pages: 528
- Publisher: Scholastic Press
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10. The Hunger Pains: A Parody
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When Kantkiss Neverclean is cast in the second-highest-rated reality TV show in Peaceland, The Hunger Games, she’s in for the fight of her life (and heart)! This hilarious novella penned by the Harvard Lampoon parodies the first Hunger Games. District 12’s coal mining operations are reimagined as a telemarketing district, and the characters are so unapologetically campy that even the most loyal Hunger Games fans will be amused. From an inept Kantkiss hamming it up for the camera to the LOLest imagining of Gale, it’s criminal not to read this!
- Pages: 176
- Publisher: Gallery Books
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