Top Five Dystopian Books I Want To Or Have Read

Susan

2 years ago

Soooooooo, I’ve been missing from Top Five Saturday, which makes me sad because I really love doing it. However…

The broken heart, dark soul, sobbing has just gotten worse, which is disheartening to say the least. Plus I’ve had two more sinus infections and the food poisoning, which was just ew. So, yeah. Needless to say, I’m not in a really good place to do THIS WEEK’s theme unless you want a top five My Chemical Romance videos and/or Top Five reasons why this is the perfect band/reunion/tour at the perfect time top five. And I’m gonna guess no on that one.

SO. I’m going to go back to last week’s topic on Dystopian books because I read A LOT of those! Why doesn’t WordPress recognize Dystopia as a word? What is that? Whatever.

I suppose a couple are technically post-apocalyptic. That is such a fine line, though. I mean how is The Walking Dead, for instance, not both post-apocalyptic and Dystopian? That isn’t included in the list. Just making a point.

This Saturday Top Five series is by Amanda at Devouring Books for readers started back in October and I kind of lost motivation for making it every week. But it’s back! This is a series of books that I want to read that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale retellings and high fantasy. I am going to try and bring this series back for every Saturday.

The Saturday Top Five Schedule for February

2/1/20 — Dystopian Books

2/8/20 — Mental Illness See above explanation

2/15/20 — Books about Mermaids I literally have read ONE book about book about with a mermaid and I just smashed it. See link if you like. I have one book coming up with mermaids. Plus like three books I’m reading for the 18th… so this one is doubtful.

2/22/20 — Books about Spies

2/29/20 — Books inspired by Mythology

Rules!

Share your top 5 books of the current topic– these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
Tag the original post (This one!)
Tag 5 people

Saturday Top Five Dystopian Books I Have Read Or Want To Read (And Are Apart Of The Spring/Summer 2020 Fling)

1)The Girl With All The Gifts By M.R. Carey

I’m not sure how many tags I have included this book in at this point, but one of them is linked above (one of the most recent ones). Plus, I thought I would start with the author that is listed twice. Once for the book I have read and once for the book that is coming up. So, if you still haven’t read or at least heard of The Girl with all the Gifts?

Summary:

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her “our little genius.” Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

2) The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey (Rampart Trilogy Part 1)– Releases April 14, 2020 by Orbit

I’m afflicted and I haven’t even started it yet. In fact, I have a plan. My mom is coming to visit in a couple of weeks because my birthday is March 2. My mom has read the Girl With All the Gifts. That’s a fun story. Anyhow, moms being moms are protective and she knows what Mr. Carey (that isn’t a typo- I meant Mr. Carey) does to my poor psyche. So I’m going to read it while she is here. That way when the shit hits the fan and I throw the book (thank the heavens that Orbit rest upon and mercy they spared me, my Kindle and the cats that they sent me the actual book) across the room and crawl back to it, it’ll basically run like this:

And she will understand. Lucky for her (unlucky?), her birthday is in September when book 2 (also a month before I see My Chemical Romance so you can double down on the emotional level there), The Trials of Koli comes out and then book 3, the Fall of Koli comes out when? FEBRUARY of 2021! That’s right! Right before my birthday NEXT YEAR. Moms. Gotta love them.

Summary:

The first in a gripping new trilogy, The Book of Koli charts the journey of one unforgettable young boy struggling to find his place in a chilling post-apocalyptic world. Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will. Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture beyond the walls. What he doesn’t know is — what happens when you aren’t given a choice?

Everything that lives hates us… Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will. Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture too far beyond the walls. He’s wrong.

The “captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable” from one of the most inventive voices in contemporary fiction, The Book of Koli is the unforgettable story of a young boy struggling to find his place in a world where nature itself has turned against humanity. (Kirkus)

3) Arc of a Scythe by Neal Shusterman

This series remains my second favorite series behind the Six of Crows duology. That remain as fact until (I doubt this) someone upends it from that place.

Summary of Scythe because- spoilers:

Having said the spoilers bit- for those who haven’t read Scythe? I refer you to the gif that goes with The Girl With All the Gifts above…

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

4) Deal With the Devil by Kit Rocha (Mercenary Libraries #1) Out May 12th by Tor Books

You had me at Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers. Apparently everyone else was here for this new series at Kit Rocha. So I’m half Captain America and half not Captain America because for ONCE, when it comes to Orphan Black and the Avengers?

And then, apparently when it comes to Kit Rocha, I’m completely late to the party. I didn’t even catch the fact that Kit Rocha was two people until Twitter. And soooo…

But no matter because you had me at the first part and I’m happy to be late to a party that is worth being late to! Want to join me? Here’s the deal:

Summary:

The United States went belly up 45 years ago when our power grid was wiped out. Too few live in well-protected isolation while the rest of us scrape by on the margins. The only thing that matters is survival. By any means. At any cost.

Nina is an information broker with a mission: to bring hope to the darkest corners of Atlanta. She and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to help those in need. But altruism doesn’t pay the bills—raiding vaults and collecting sensitive data is where the real money is.

Knox is a bitter, battle-weary super-soldier who leads the Silver Devils, an elite strike squad that chose to go AWOL rather than slaughter innocents. Before the Devils leave town for good, they need a biochem hacker to stabilize the experimental implants that grant their superhuman abilities.

The problem? Their hacker’s been kidnapped. And the ransom for her return is Nina. Knox has the perfect bait for a perfect trap: a lost Library of Congress server. The data could set Nina and her team up for years… If they live that long.

5) All These Monsters By Amy Tintera (Monster #1)– Releases July 7th by HMH

Last but certainly not last, although you will have to wait till July for it to come out, is Amy Tintera’s All These Monsters (Monster #1). Don’t let the title deceive you. Monsters aren’t always what, or who, you think.

Summary:

From New York Times best-selling author Amy Tintera, a high-stakes sci-fi adventure about a teen girl who will do anything to escape her troubled home—even if that means joining a dangerous monster-fighting squad. Seventeen-year-old Clara is ready to fight back. Fight back against her abusive father, fight back against the only life she’s ever known, and most of all, fight back against scrabs, the earth-dwelling monsters that are currently ravaging the world. So when an opportunity arises for Clara to join an international monster-fighting squad, she jumps at the chance.

When Clara starts training with her teammates, however, she realizes what fighting monsters really means: sore muscles, exhaustion, and worst of all, death. Scrabs are unpredictable, violent, and terrifying. But as Clara gains confidence in her battle skills, she starts to realize scrabs might not be the biggest evil. The true monsters are the ones you least expect.

Ok, I’m a week late on the Dystopian list BUT it is Saturday morning. And for those that have already put out their top five list this week’s topic, go check them out!