Love young adult dystopian novels?
Today on Young Adult Edition, co-host, Elle Beaumont, and I chatted with authors Megan O’Russell, Patti Larson, and Alison Inglby about their dystopian novels, gave out a massive book rec list, talked about book world news, showed off some new releases, and more! PLUS stick around for our list of 40+ dystopian novels below!
The Jaded Duology by K.M. Robinson
Her father failed in his mission to take control from the Commander, a defeat that has cost Jade her life. She will die as punishment. Now she belongs to the Commander’s son—as his wife. Knowing his intent is to quietly kill her in revenge, Jade’s every move is calculated to survive—until she learns her death ensures the safety of her father and her entire town.
Roan doesn’t want to kill Jade, but once his family isolates her from her father and community, his only choice is to go through with the plan. Jade doesn’t make it easy as she tries to sway him into falling for her. Each misstep makes him question his cause. Each moment makes every decision harder, but the Commander won’t allow him to fail.
One chooses life. One chooses death. In the midst of the chaos, only one will succeed.
Girl of Glass by Megan O’Russel
Two worlds…one glass wall…no turning back.
The human race has been divided. The chosen few live in the safety of the domes, watching through their glass walls as those left on the outside suffer and die. But desperation has brought invention, and new drugs have given the outsiders the strength to roam the poisoned night unafraid – but it comes at a price.
Seventeen-year-old Nola Kent has spent her life in the domes, being trained to protect her little piece of the world that has been chosen to survive. The mission of the domes is to preserve the human race, not to help the sick and starving. But when outsider Kieran Wynne begs for Nola’s help in saving an innocent life, she is drawn into a world of darkness and danger. The suffering on the other side of the glass is beyond anything Nola had imagined, and turning her back on the outside world to return to the safety of the domes may be more than she can stand. Even when her home is threatened by the very people Nola wants to help.
Clone 3 by Patti Larsen
The fate of the world lies in the hands of a clone who can’t remember anything… Clone Three wakes in a decaying city she is sure doesn’t match the one she came from. If only she could remember. She has a purpose at least–she must find her fellow clones and the statue whose image is embedded in her mind. But she is lost, surrounded by a dead and crumbling metropolis, fought over by those who have been altered by the illness that has ravaged humankind, turning survivors into strange and terrible new forms. She must risk everything, including the safety of those who try to help her, in order to fulfill her task. But is she this crumbling world’s salvation… or the source of its downfall?
Expendables by Alison Ingleby
Two societies. A London divided. A history lost.
Aleesha is an Outsider. If the government find her they’ll kill her. She’s learned to survive by being smart, manipulative, and trusting no one. She dreams of a life Inside, with the father she’s never known.
Trey is an Insider. On the run, he seeks sanctuary outside the Wall. But the world of the Outsiders is more desperate than he could have imagined. His only way out is to find out why he is being hunted.
Thrown together, Aleesha and Trey each make their own bargains to stay alive and discover the truth about their pasts. Tasked with an impossible mission, they must learn to work together if they hope to escape alive.
Branded by Abi Ketner and Missy Kalicicki
Fifty years ago The Commander came into power and murdered all who opposed him. In his warped mind, the seven deadly sins were the downfall of society. To punish the guilty, he created the Hole, a place where sinners are branded according to their sins. Sinners are forced to live a less than human existence in deplorable conditions, under the watchful eye of guards who are ready to kill anyone who steps out of line.Now, LUST wraps around my neck like thick, blue fingers, threatening to choke the life out of me. I’ve been accused of a crime I didn’t commit, and the Hole is my new home. Constant darkness. Brutal and savage violence. Excruciating pain. Every day is a fight for survival. But I won’t let them win. I will not die in the Hole. I am more than my brand. I’m a fighter. My name is Lexi Hamilton, and this is my story.
Divergent by Veronic Roth
Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
Perfection comes at a price.
As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.
Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.
But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
The Book of Ivy by Amy Ingle
What would you kill for?
After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual.
This year, it is my turn.
My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president’s son—my soon-to-be husband—and return the Westfall family to power.
But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he’s not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.
Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him…
Golden by K.M. Robinson
Goldilocks wasn’t naive. She was sent on a mission and Dov Baer is her new target.
When the girl with the golden hair betrays everyone, not even she has hope of surviving.
The stories say that Goldilocks was a naïve girl who wandered into a house one day. Those stories were wrong. She was never naïve. It was all a perfectly executed plan to get her into the Baers’ group to destroy them.
Trained by her cousin, Lowell, and handler, Shadoe, Auluria’s mission is to destroy the Baers by getting close to the youngest brother, Dov, his brother and sister-in-law and the leaders of the Baers’ group. When she realizes Dov isn’t as evil as her cousin led her to believe, she must figure out how to play both sides or her deception will cause everyone in her world to burn.
If her allegiances are discovered, either side could destroy her…if the Society doesn’t get her first.
The Selection by Kiera Cass
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape a rigid caste system, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and competing for a crown she doesn’t want.
Then America meets Prince Maxon—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.
Gunslinger Girl by Lindsey Ely
Seventeen-year-old Serendipity “Pity” Jones inherited two things from her mother: a pair of six shooters and perfect aim. She’s been offered a life of fame and fortune in Cessation, a glittering city where lawlessness is a way of life. But the price she pays for her freedom may be too great….
Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig
Four hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse, all humans are born in pairs: the deformed Omegas, who are exploited and oppressed, and their Alpha twins, who have inherited the earth—or what’s left of it. But despite their claims of superiority, the Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other.
Cass is a rare Omega whose mutation is psychic foresight—not that she needs it to know that as her powerful twin, Zach, ascends the ranks of the ruling Alpha Council, she’s in grave danger. Zach has a devastating plan for Omega annihilation. Cass has visions of an island where a bloody Omega resistance promises a life of freedom. But her real dream is to discover a middle way, one that would bring together the sundered halves of humanity. And that means both the Council and the resistance have her in their sights.
Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn
Imagine a world where your destiny has already been decided…by your future self.
It’s Callie’s seventeenth birthday and, like everyone else, she’s eagerly awaiting her vision—a memory sent back in time to sculpt each citizen into the person they’re meant to be. A world-class swimmer. A renowned scientist.
Or in Callie’s case, a criminal.
In her vision, she sees herself murdering her gifted younger sister. Before she can process what it means, Callie is arrested and placed in prison. The only person who can help is her childhood crush, Logan, a boy she hasn’t spoken to in five years.
Logan breaks her free, but can she trust him? He’s almost the same boy she remembers, but now he’s a whole lot hotter. And he’s got his own past to deal with. Callie’s falling for him, fast, but she soon learns he has secrets of his own. Secrets that mean they can never be together.
Now, Callie’s on the run not only from the government, but also from her fate. If she wants any hope of a future with Logan, she must first find a way to protect her sister from the biggest threat of all—herself.
Virtually Sleeping Beauty by K.M. Robinson
She may be doing battle in the virtual world, but in the real world, they can’t wake her up…
All Rora wants is to help people as class president, give her time to local charities, and quietly earn her way to the top level of the virtual reality system that the entire country uses without anyone noticing she’s the second best player in the game.
All Royce wants to do is level up as a knight inside the gaming system, slay dragons, and eventually play his way to controlling the palace as he takes the crown away from the reigning queen.
When his Aunt Perry calls him, hysterically screaming that her goddaughter, Rora, has been inside for more than the four hours the game allows, Royce rushes over to help.
Entering the game, Royce soon discovers that Rora is trapped inside the system after an encounter with an evil magician who can change forms inside the game and control the virtual world. If he and his friend can’t help her beat the game, she might not be able to wake up in the real world at all.
When virtual knights and princesses meet to slay dragons and defeat evil rulers, there’s nothing stopping them from suffering real-world consequences too.
To wake her up, he must enter the game and help her beat it.
Gilded Cage by Vic James
In a darkly fantastical debut set in modern-day Britain, magic users control everything: wealth, politics, power—and you. If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them.
This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit.
Have a quick ten years. . . .
Sugar Skulls by Lisa Mantchev
Welcome to Cyrene, a city where energy is currency and music is the lifeblood of its young citizens. Everyone lives on the grid, and the residents of the world’s largest playground are encouraged to pursue every physical and emotional pleasure imaginable.
Vee is the lead singer of the Sugar Skulls, an all-girl band that is Corporate’s newest pet project. Micah haunts the city like a ghost after an overdose of a deadly illegal street drug knocks him off the grid. When Micah and Vee forge an immediate, undeniable connection, their troubled worlds collide.
Trading concert stages for Cyrene’s rooftops and back alleys, they have to evade vicious thugs and Vee’s possessive manager as they unravel the mysteries connected to their dark pasts. And before the curtain falls, Micah and Vee will bring the city to its knees in their desperate bid for love, home, and a future together.
Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves
Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when, after inadvertently breaking her sister’s debutante spell—an important chance for a highborn young woman to show her prowess with magic—Anna finds herself exiled to her family’s once powerful but now crumbling native Hungary.
Her life might well be over.
In Hungary, Anna discovers that nothing is quite as it seems. Not the people around her, from her aloof cousin Noémi to the fierce and handsome Romani Gábor. Not the society she’s known all her life, for discontent with the Luminate is sweeping the land. And not her lack of magic. Isolated from the only world she cares about, Anna still can’t seem to stop herself from breaking spells.
As rebellion spreads across the region, Anna’s unique ability becomes the catalyst everyone is seeking. In the company of nobles, revolutionaries, and Romani, Anna must choose: deny her unique power and cling to the life she’s always wanted, or embrace her ability and change that world forever.
Along Came A Spider by K.M. Robinson
Little Hacker Muffet
sat on her tuffet
destroying her cords and Way.
Along came a hacker named Spider,
who sat down beside her
and frightened his opponent away.
When Fet, one of the most skilled hackers in the Legends, discovers her best friend and leader of her group has been abducted and held for ransom, she must escape unnoticed and find Peep before it’s too late.
When Spider, a new recruit training to join her hacker ring, slips out with her and claims to have a plan to save her friend, Fet is forced to bring him along. As she discovers he’s not who he claims to be, she faces grave danger and learns just how deadly a spider bite can be.
Configured by Jenetta Penner
There will come a day… when love will mark you as a traitor.
In a society where emotions are nothing and function is everything, Avlyn Lark is just trying to blend in.
She’s lucky to be alive, unlike her twin brother Ben who died when they were four. And she’s lucky to have been taken from her biological parents and assigned to a Level Two family. But mastering her emotions? That’s a problem,especially when a rebel bomb blows up a building right in front of her.
Then on Configuration Day, Avlyn’s official transition to adulthood, she starts seeing strange visions. And instead of being placed with a low-level tech company where she could hide away, she’s hired by Genesis Technologies, the government firm that monitors every citizen.
Now, instead of blending in, Avlyn fears she’ll be exposed for what she really is. If Gen Tech finds out how deeply she feels, it will ruin her life. And if they find out about her secret meetings with a mysterious but handsome member of the rebel forces, her life will be more than ruined.
It will be over.
Influence by David R. Berstein
If you could manipulate the reality of others, would you?
Kaylin has been on the run for nearly half of her life, hiding her untapped abilities from the relentless forces that hunt her. When rescuing a mysterious stranger risks exposing the depths of Kaylin’s power, she quickly learns that this harsh, new world will no longer allow her to remain hidden.
Surviving has never been easy, but resisting is deadly.
In a future where greed and corruption have torn society apart, ruthless sector groups manipulate and oppress the masses by abusing gifted youths, known as Influencers. With the ability to shift the mindset of others and bend the populace to the will of their masters, these teens are high-value targets to be acquired and controlled at any cost. Now, war is being waged by the sector groups to expand their reach and consolidate power. Though only wanting to create a new life for herself, Kaylin may be the only one who can stop them from enslaving the rest of humanity.
But will fighting back cost Kaylin everything?
Ultraxenopia by M.A. Phipps
Don’t stand out. Blend in. Remain invisible. Those are the rules I lived by – the rules I thought would keep me alive.
I was wrong.
Wynter Reeves is a law-abiding citizen of the State, a willing conformist whose daily life is haunted by terrorism and oppression. With the constant threat of death hanging over her like a shadow, she forces herself to live by a strict set of rules, all in the hope of ensuring she is never noticed. However, on her twenty-first birthday, as she prepares to take the placement exam that will determine her future within society, she begins to show symptoms of a rare and debilitating illness – ultimately attracting the attention of the State. Taken into the custody of the feared research facility known as the DSD, her worst nightmare becomes reality.
Ripped away from the life she knew, Wynter is forced to become the test subject of the mysterious Dr. Richter. Through him, she learns the true and terrifying nature of her condition: a disease called Ultraxenopia.
Aqua by Tracy Korn
Only the best can begin career training at Gaia Sur, the elite academy on the ocean floor. Only the best can leave home forever so their families can thrive.
Being afraid of failure would be normal, but Jazwyn Ripley fears success after working her entire life for a chance at more than just the Seaboard North apprenticeships….after all, how do you say goodbye to everything you’ve ever known?
Deciding to jump in or stay ashore only gets harder when Jazz starts receiving cryptic messages from the earth’s core, especially after an elusive Liddick Wright seems to know why. It’s not long before all the cadets discover the road to everything they ever wanted now leads somewhere they never intended to go, and one decision will change the course of their lives for good: should they navigate by their maps…or their hearts?
The Way We Fall by Megan Crew
It starts with an itch you just can’t shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.
And then you’re dead.
When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. Then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.
Cut off from the world, the remaining islanders must fend for themselves. Supplies are dwindling, fatalities rising, and panic is turning into violence. With no cure in sight, Kaelyn knows their only hope of survival is to band together. Desperate to save her home, she joins forces with a former rival and opens her heart to a boy she once feared.
But as the virus robs her of friends and family, Kaelyn realizes her efforts may be in vain. How can she fight an enemy that’s too small to see?
Modified by Harper North
What if the sky was deadly?
Fin has never stepped foot on the surface of the Earth. Working the mines, deep below, has been the only life she’s ever known. The underground is nothing more than an existence of sweat and monotony in service to the Enhanced Human Coalition—the genetically-modified who control the underground from the world above. Every Dweller underground understands that you serve the EHC up top, or you don’t eat.
Two hundred years after the planet’s magnetic poles began to flip, Earth’s surface has become irradiated and unsustainable. As the land, water, and even the air grew toxic, the underprivileged were doomed to a life of hard labor underground, while the Enhanced Human Coalition on the surface enjoy their spoils.
But now, Fin and her friends discover a stolen piece of EHC tech that modifies genetics, giving them the abilities of those up top—varied levels of increased strength, intelligence, and adaptation to the surface’s harsh conditions. The theft of this technology triggers a manhunt, forcing them to flee to the most dangerous place they could possibly go… aboveground.
Can she save a world broken in two?
Match by Ally Condie
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander’s face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it’s a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she’s destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
Season of Atchem by Jennifer Arntson
Meet Una, the daughter of a Scavenger, who’s destiny is to become a wife, surrogate, or slave of a deserving Citizen of Ashlund. When a night of torment and truth reveals well kept secrets, her seeming simple life begins to unravel. Pulled between the love of her family, and the status of a Citizen who could save them all, Una must decide: will she find the courage to do what it takes to ensure her family’s survival, or find the faith to follow her heart?
Premonition by Leigh Walker
Genetic Engineering. Psychic Powers. Fated Love. Your New Binge-worthy Series Starts Here!
When Riley heads off to boarding school, she knows it’ll be demanding. What she doesn’t expect? To be thrust into an intense physical training program described as special, exclusive and worst of all—top-secret. She signed up for tuition assistance, not to be held in a secret government facility for boot camp…
Welcome to The Division, the government agency that’s so classified, most United States senators have never heard of it.
The Division wants Riley bad, but she can’t figure out why. Skeptical of what she’s being told, Riley’s determined to uncover the truth. Boot camp is intense, physically and mentally draining. The upside? One of her new teammates is the cutest boy ever. Watching Finn hit the gym wearing a tank top doesn’t suck—although sometimes his brooding attitude does. But when training forces Riley to confront her tragic past, even Finn’s big biceps aren’t enough to make her want to stay…
Beware: The Division isn’t something you just walk away from. You better run.
Talented by Sophie Davis
Block out thoughts.
Talia Lyons has one goal at the McDonough School for the Talented: learn to use her Talent as a Mental Manipulator to kill the man who murdered her parents.
Block out pain.
She’ll deal with anything. The brutal physical demands. The emotional toll. Whatever it takes to reach her objective.
Block out friendship.
With only one year left in the program, though, seventeen-year-old Talia is suddenly finding it harder than ever to ignore the rest of her life.
Block out love.
Even worse, she can’t seem to turn off her psychic connection to her first love…or quit thinking about her fascinating new teammate.
Feel only vengeance.
Ian Crane. The man who destroyed Talia’s life. The one she’s determined to eradicate.
Now focus.
It’s time to kill.
Untamed by Madeline Dyer
In a world where addiction is encouraged, one girl must fight to stay clean…
As one of the last Untamed humans left in the world, Seven’s life has always been controlled by tight rules. Stay away from the Enhanced. Don’t question your leader. And, most importantly, never switch sides–because once you’re Enhanced there’s no going back. Even if you have become the perfect human being.
But after a disastrous raid on an Enhanced city, Seven soon finds herself in her enemy’s power. Realizing it’s only a matter of time before she too develops a taste for the chemical augmenters responsible for the erosion of humanity, Seven knows she must act quickly if she’s to escape and save her family from the same fate.
Yet, as one of the most powerful Seers that the Untamed and Enhanced have ever known, Seven quickly discovers that she alone holds the key to the survival of only one race. But things aren’t clear-cut anymore, and with Seven now questioning the very beliefs she was raised on, she knows she has an important choice to make. One that has two very different outcomes.
Seven must choose wisely whose side she joins, for the War of Humanity is underway, and Death never takes kindly to traitors.
Search by Candie Leigh Campbell
Out of seven billion people, there’s only one thing we all have in common.
We search for what eludes us.
We evade what causes us sorrow.
We extract what doesn’t suit our needs.
And we kill to get what we want.
WE SEEK.
In the time it takes you to read this, two lives will be revoked and one spared. Some call it divine intervention, others say natural selection decides, but no one really knows for sure.
EXCEPT ME.
My name is Keira, and this is how I saved you.
Keira Donavan joins a secret government agency called SEEK to get her sister, Lindy, an illegal operation (a genetically created spinal cord transplant). The surgery promises to repair Lindy’s legs after a car accident, which Keira feels responsible for, leaves her paralyzed.
At SEEK, Keira is a trained huntress who tracks and kills parasitic shadows in the Daniel Boone National Forest. She’s told the shadows—the “Khayal”—are evil parasites which prey on humans. But things get weird after she finds herself injured and alone in the woods. Once rescued, everything changes including her eye-color and her job. SEEK gives her a human target—a handsome nineteen-year-old millionaire—Jonathan Steed. Now she has two choices if she’s going to succeed in getting Lindy that operation, seduce Jonathan and convince him to join SEEK…or kill him.
But nothing goes according to plan when she finds herself staring into eyes the same radioactive green as hers. Jonathan swears SEEK’s been lying to her, but it isn’t until Keira comes face-to-face with a true Khayal that her world crashes down—one lie at a time—until she’s forced to see the truth. Khayal are good and SEEK wants her dead. But running isn’t that simple. SEEK has her sister and her family.
Again Keira must choose, save her sister and her family or save the Khayal. And falling in love with Jonathan isn’t helping.
Taken by Erin Bowman
Fans of Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and Variant by Robison Wells won’t want to miss this magnetic first book in a gripping dystopian sci-fi series. Marie Lu, New York Timesbestselling author of the Legend trilogy, raves that Taken is “an action-packed thrill ride from beginning to end. More, please!”
Gray Weathersby has grown up expecting to disappear at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. They call it the Heist—and it happens to every boy in Claysoot. His only chance at escape is to climb the Wall that surrounds Claysoot. A climb no one has ever survived . . .
A Dangerous Game by Madeline Dyer
What wouldn’t you do for love?
All her life, adrenaline-junkie Keelie Lin-Sykes has known what she wants: to protect her brother and sisters by killing as many of the soulless Enhanced Ones as she can. Oh, and to have fun while she’s doing it. After all, hiding in a secret Untamed community, while the group’s Seer warns them of danger, shouldn’t mean that life can only be serious, right?
But, when a face from her past suddenly–and secretly–shows up, Keelie’s catapulted back into the very world she’s been trying to escape from for the last ten years: a game full of guilt, lies, and…love. And the deeper Keelie gets, the bigger the risks become.
Now, Keelie must deceive those she values most in order to protect them, even though her actions will destroy everything she knows and haunt her family forever. But she can’t ignore her feelings–not again. And Keelie will do anything to be with the man she loves.
Atlas Reign by Riley Mercer
Level-up. Cross the Binding. Save reality.
Die-hard gamer Morrow Adams strives to escape his corporate-controlled existence on Earth. Logging in as Atlas Reign, he plays The Binding as a way to break from the limitations of his real life.
Few have crossed the elusive Binding in the game, but if you do, real-life opportunity awaits—physical passage to a new world.
But the same corporation that Morrow tries to escape from on Earth also controls the virtual game world—a world perfectly designed to drain your credits and enslave you to their workforce.
Everything changes when Morrow meets a beautiful, top-level player from the other side named Raven Vex. She helps him uncover a devious conspiracy within the game that sends them on an unbelievable quest through The Binding’s expansive—and dangerous—universe.
The Threat Below by Jason Latshaw
Three hundred years ago, something arose and pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. Now, a small remnant – the descendants of the few survivors who were able to escape the massacre below – lives above the clouds, on the top of a mountain. But there’s been a change. Their water supply is being poisoned. Someone, or something down below is trying to kill them. Now an expedition, including seventeen year-old Icelyn Brathius, must descend and face the monsters that wiped out civilization centuries ago.
Blind The Eyes by K.A. Wiggins
In a drowned city where hope kills and dreams are deadly, all haunted outcast Cole wants is to be the perfect Tower drone.
A year ago, she survived an encounter with the nightmarish Mara, who devoured her disobedience and left a troublemaking ghost behind as a reminder of her fate should they return. She’s finally on the verge of erasing her failure when a charismatic rebel derails her plans and exposes the dark secret at the heart of her drowned homeland.
With the dead piling up at every turn, Cole will have to untangle the lies and choose between a charming but dangerous revolutionary, holy Tower regulation, the whispers of a spectre from her past, or the call of the child within.
The race is on to take back her choices and stop the dying before the nightmares eat her alive.
Rising Storm by Kyla Stone
In the future, a hijacked ship holds the key to the fate of the world …
The daughter of a powerful elite official, 18-year-old Amelia leads a life of privilege. But that doesn’t mean she’s free. To her, the lavish Grand Voyager is just another gilded cage.
For Gabriel, a covert rebel, it’s his one chance for vengeance. His mission: assassinate Amelia’s father.
But when terrorists storm the ship, Amelia and Gabriel are forced into an uneasy alliance. Gabriel is Amelia’s only hope–if she can trust him.
As the lines between enemies and allies blur, they uncover an even greater threat, more insidious than they ever imagined–and it’s already on the ship. Now, they’re thrust into a battle not just for their survival, but for the fate of everything they hold dear.
They must decide where their loyalties lie–and how far they’re willing to go to to protect what matters most. Only one thing is certain. Life as they know it is about to end.
If you like apocalyptic thrillers with cool tech, unique settings, and vivid characters, you’ll enjoy this fast-paced dystopian perfect for fans of Legend and Maze Runner.
Grounded by G.P. Cing
Faith kept me Plain. Science made me complicated.
Book 1 in the Grounded Trilogy
In Hemlock Hollow, life isn’t easy, but it is simple. Things in my community haven’t changed much in over three hundred years, since the time my Amish ancestors came to what is now the Green Republic. I milk my cow by hand, make fresh bread every morning, and hope to be courted by Jeremiah, a boy I’ve known since childhood.
When my father falls ill, the English doctor says a hospital outside the wall can heal him. Jeremiah convinces me to go on rumspringa, to experience the outside world as an Englisher in order to be closer to my father during his recovery. Others have gone before me. They claim it’s an adventure. But adventure turns to horror as an ordinary light switch thrusts me into a new world, and revelations about my personal history make me question everything I believe.
All my life I’ve worked to be simple. I can’t pretend anymore. Nothing about me is simple.
Apocalypse Alice by Melissa Volker
Alice knows all about The Downer — the wildlands beyond The Breach. She’s heard the stories of the insane and desperate ruled over by the Crimsa Clan. But when she falls into The Breach while escaping the Rookers, she discovers it’s not exactly what she thought. Not like the stories they had all been told. Chasing after a boy in white, Alice races across the desolate wasteland toward Crimsa’s broken kingdom and the truth — The Downers, and hers. This is NOT your parent’s Wonderland
Utopia by L.J. Higgins
The floating city, Utopia, is all sixteen-year-old Aurora has ever known. With three other cities, it is home to the survivors of cataclysmic events that ended life on Earth years ago.
After witnessing her mother’s murder, Aurora finds herself on the run from the very people who are meant to protect her. With the help of her best friend Fletcher, Aurora must find the truth behind her mother’s death, and why she is being hunted.
While someone wants the facts to remain hidden, Aurora won’t stop until each hurtful truth is revealed. But nothing can prepare her for the answers that prove her entire existence has been built on a lie. Will the truth set her free?
Contamination by Jamie Thornton
When a new virus unleashes violence that devastates eighteen-year-old Corrina’s neighborhood, all Corrina can think about is surviving. But when the boy she loves is kidnapped by a group of government soldiers, she must team up with a strange group of street kids to save him.
ARV-3 by Cameo Renae
The beginning of the end. The Apocalypse.
A nuclear fallout wiped out every living thing on the planet, except for a few thousand of us who took shelter in underground bunkers across the globe. Now, after thirteen long years, we were finally able to return to the topside to begin to rebuild.
We thought we were alone. We were never more wrong.
Before the fallout, scientists had worked on creating an anti-radiation vaccine (ARV). The first two attempts failed, but despite the incomplete tests and results, the government approved and distributed the third serum to the masses in an effort to aid those who had no shelter.
It worked, keeping those who remained on the topside alive, but it also altered and mutated them. This new and infectious threat had completely outnumbered us. Now, we not only had to rebuild our planet. We would have to fight for it.
My name is Abigail Park. I’m seventeen, and this is my story.
Recoil by Joanne Macgregor
When an expert gamer gets recruited as a sniper in the war against a terrorist-spread plague, she discovers there’s more than one enemy and more than one war. The Game is real, and love is in the crosshairs.
Three years after a series of terrorist attacks flooded the US with a lethal plague, society has changed radically.
Sixteen year-old Jinxy James spends her days trapped at home – immersed in virtual reality, worrying about the plague and longing for freedom. Then she wins a war simulation game and is recruited into a top-secret organization where talented teenagers are trained to become agents in the war on terror. Eager to escape her mother’s over-protectiveness and to serve her country, Jinxy enlists and becomes an expert sniper.
She immediately falls for Quinn O’Riley, a charming and subversive intelligence analyst who knows more about the new order of government and society than he is telling. Then a shocking revelation forces Jinxy to make an impossible decision, and she risks losing everything.
Watcher by AJ Everyley
“I knew I was not alone. They would never leave until every last one of us was gone.”
Sawyer Russo has sworn to protect humanity, and as a Watcher she’s done just that. But the Bots and Carbons that took her city are evolving, and they start picking the Watchers off one by one. One last rescue mission will change everything. When someone betrays them, the line between friend and foe is no longer easily drawn. Sawyer made a vow, and she will fulfill it, even if it means ending the person who deceived them, no matter who it might be.
It all comes down to one choice…
Who can she save?
And who does she have to let go?
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-K.M. Robinson
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