35 YA Books About Dystopian Futures

In order to leave Wormwood and discover the truth about her world, Vega and her best friend Delph must find a way to make it across a terrifying land of bloodthirsty creatures and sinister magic. But the Quag is worse than even Vega Jane's darkest imagining. 

For the first time, Vega and Delph find themselves among people who aren't governed by fear. But Vega starts to suspect that this new world might be even more dangerous than the treacherous place they left behind.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America, the twelve districts of Panem are forced to send one boy and one girl to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have won the annual Hunger Games. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. 

The Capitol wants revenge against Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.

The bar code tattoo. Everybody's getting it. It will make your life easier, they say. It will hook you in. It will become your identity. But what if you say no? What if you don't want to become a code?

In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. What could be wrong with that?

Tally has finally become pretty. But beneath all the fun—the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom—is a nagging sense that something's wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugly past arrives.

Specials used to be a sinister rumor—frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. And now, Tally has been turned into one of them: a superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.

Since she entered the competition to become the next princess of Illea, America has struggled with her feelings for her first love, Aspen—and her growing attraction to Prince Maxon. Now she's made her choice... and she's prepared to fight for the future she wants.

Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon's heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own.

Civilization has been destroyed, except for the forbidden place called Eden. Yet one old man, the one they call Ryter, has a lot of crazy and wonderful ideas. Nobody remembers books, but Ryter is writing one—even though he knows he may be punished by death.

Nowadays firemen start fires. Fireman Guy Montag loves to rush to a fire and watch books burn up. Then he meets a girl who tells him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who tells him of a future in which people can think, and Guy Montag realizes what he has to do.

Matteo Alacran was not born; he was harvested. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster, and he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters and surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. 

The lush city of Palmares Tres shimmers with tech and tradition. In the midst of this vibrant metropolis, June Costa creates art that's sure to make her legendary. But her dreams of fame become something more when she meets Enki, the bold new Summer King.

Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person's memories—of parents, children, love, life, and self—are lost. Unless they have been written.

Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell's narrative is more timely that ever.