Young Adult Dystopian Novels?
- Thread starter Weyoun Six
- Start date
Not all ages. Before thirteen or so, I don't think that they'd understand it; and even if they did, I think that the nightmare fodder would stem from the pit of rats and not Big Brother.
Parable of the Sower, by the great Octavia Butler.
Butler's voice is distinct, in that she was the only mainstream woman writer of science fiction. The novel is a chilling vision of dystopia in our not too different future, where communities raise up walls to keep out the ever growing numbers of homeless.
The protagonist is a young woman of color named Lauren, who believes humanity must reach for the stars, literally, and colonize other worlds. But she finds herself just trying to survive through that urban wilderness when her own walled community is burnt to the ground like so many others. Now homeless like the ones who were once her enemies, she forms a small band of travelers to head north, towards work, maybe just out of Los Angeles.
All that you touch you change,
all that you change, changes you.
There only lasting truth is change.
God, is change.
Butler's voice is distinct, in that she was the only mainstream woman writer of science fiction. The novel is a chilling vision of dystopia in our not too different future, where communities raise up walls to keep out the ever growing numbers of homeless.
The protagonist is a young woman of color named Lauren, who believes humanity must reach for the stars, literally, and colonize other worlds. But she finds herself just trying to survive through that urban wilderness when her own walled community is burnt to the ground like so many others. Now homeless like the ones who were once her enemies, she forms a small band of travelers to head north, towards work, maybe just out of Los Angeles.
All that you touch you change,
all that you change, changes you.
There only lasting truth is change.
God, is change.
Thanks so much for the recommendations! I do definitely agree that 1984 and Parable of the Sower are excellent. Both are on my "regular dystopia" (as opposed to "dystopias written for YA") list, as a matter of fact - I've been working my way through these:
Disclaimers: I'm not counting post-apocalyptic fiction that focuses more on the disaster than the world that comes after it, books that focus on worlds other than Earth, or books that mix dystopia and utopia. I've tried to limit myself to one book per author. I broke my own rules and slipped a few short stories onto the list, because I couldn't help myself. Recommendations are welcome!
Working List of Dystopian Fiction (Non-YA)
Paris in the 20th Century by Jules Verne (1863/1994)
The Republic of the Future, or Socialism a Reality by Anna Bowman Dodd (1887)
The Inner House by Walter Besant (1888)
Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Ignatius Donnelly (1890)
The Land of the Changing Sun by William N. Harben (1894)
The Scarlet Empire by David MacLean Parry (1906)
Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson (1907)
The Iron Heel by Jack London (1908)
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster (1909)
The Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells (1910)
The Mayor of New York: A Romance of the Days to Come by Louis Pope Gratacap (1910)
The Unknown Tomorrow: How the Rich Fared at the Hands of the Poor by William Le Queux (1910)
The Flying Inn by G.K. Chesterton (1914)
The Air Trust by George Allan England (1915)
The Messiah of the Cylinder by Victor Rousseau (1917)
Meccania, The Super-State by Owen Gregory (1918)
Crucible Island: A Romance, An Adventure and an Experiment by Condé B. Pallen (1919)
The City of Endless Night by Milo Hastings ("Children of Kulture" 1919/1920)
The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens (1919)
Useless Hands by Claude Farrère (1920)
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921)
The New City by Nathan Fialko (1925)
Metropolis by Thea von Harbou (1926)
"The Revolt of the Pedestrians" by David H. Keller (1928)
Paradise and Iron by Miles J. Breuer (1930)
"City of the Living Dead" by Laurence Manning and Fletcher Pratt (1930)
No Traveller Returns by John Collier (1931)
The Bolshevik by William Le Pretre(1931)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
Unborn Tomorrow by John Kendall (Margaret Maud Brash) (1933)
Intrigue on the Upper Level: A Story of Crime, Love, Adventure and Revolt in 2050 A.D. by Thomas Temple Hoyne (1934)
Invasion from the Air: A Prophetic Novel by Frank McIlraith and Roy Connolly (1934)
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (1935)
Land Under England by Joseph O'Neill (1935)
The Chosen Race by Edgar Albion Lyons (1936)
Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin (1937)
The Adventure of Wyndham Smith by S. Fowler Wright (1938)
Anthem by Ayn Rand (1938)
The Professor by Rex Warner (1939)
Tarnished Utopia by Malcolm Jameson (1943/1956)
The Riddle of the Tower by J.D. Beresford and Esmé Wynne-Tyson (1944)
Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov (1947)
1984 by George Orwell (1949)
The Humanoids by Jack Williamson (1949)
Gather, Darkness by Fritz Leiber (1950)
Bandersnatch by T.E. Ryves (1950)
The Great Idea by Henry Hazlitt (1951)
Limbo by Bernard Wolfe (1952)
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut (1952)
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth (1952/1953)
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
"If This Goes On-" by Robert Heinlein (1953)
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (1955)
The Pleasure of a Futuroscope by Lord Dunsany (1955)
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett (1955)
Hell's Pavement by Damon Knight (1955)
Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick (1955)
The Bright Phoenix by Harold Mead (1955)
To Live Forever by Jack Vance (1956)
Up Jenkins! by Ronald Hingley (1956)
Doomsday Morning by C.L. Moore (1957)
Mary's Country by Harold Mead (1957)
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller (1960)
Facial Justice by L.P. Hartley (1960)
"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)
Dark Universe by Daniel Galouye (1961)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
The Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boule (1963)
Davy by Edgar Pangborn (1964)
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966)
The Last Refuge by John Petty (1966)
Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (1967)
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1968)
The Great Leap Backward by Robert Green (1968)
Armed Camps by Kit Reed (1969)
Binary Divine by Jon Hartridge (1969)
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin (1970)
Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy (1970)
Junk Day by Arthur Sellings (1970)
The Bodyguard by Adrian Mitchell (1970)
The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem (1971)
The World Inside by Robert Silverberg (1971)
334 by Thomas Disch (1972)
Falk by Keith Hanks (1972)
The Bridge by D. Keith Mano (1973)
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing (1974)
Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas (1975)
The Tomorrow File by Lawrence Sanders (1975)
Alongside Night by J. Neil Schulman (1979)
Arslan by M.J. Engh (1979)
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (1980)
Hello America by J.G. Ballard (1981)
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin (1984)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
Dayworld by Philip José Farmer (1985)
The Shore of Women by Pamela Sargent (1986)
Ambient by Jack Womack (1987)
Little Heroes by Norman Spinrad (1987)
A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein (1987)
Sea of Glass by Barry B. Longyear (1987)
The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S. Tepper (1988)
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (1988)
Bulldozer Rising by Anna Livia (1988)
Subterranean Gallery by Richard Paul Russo (1989)
Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles by Gerald Vizenor (1990)
Give Me Liberty by Frank Miller (1990)
Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand (1990)
Children of Men by P.D. James (1992)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
Brother to Dragons by Charles Sheffield (1992)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993)
Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem (1994)
Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack (1994)
Blindness by José Saramago (1995)
Brute Orbits by George Zebrowski (1998)
Noir by K.W. Jeter (1998)
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (1999)
Maul by Tricia Sullivan (2003)
The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya (2003)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
Blind Faith by Ben Elton (2007)
The Guardener's Tale by Bruce Boston (2007)
Idlewild by Nick Sagan (2008)
Since I started going through this list, then, I turned my attention to specifically YA dystopias...
Disclaimers: I'm not counting post-apocalyptic fiction that focuses more on the disaster than the world that comes after it, books that focus on worlds other than Earth, or books that mix dystopia and utopia. I've tried to limit myself to one book per author. I broke my own rules and slipped a few short stories onto the list, because I couldn't help myself. Recommendations are welcome!
Working List of Dystopian Fiction (Non-YA)
Paris in the 20th Century by Jules Verne (1863/1994)
The Republic of the Future, or Socialism a Reality by Anna Bowman Dodd (1887)
The Inner House by Walter Besant (1888)
Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Ignatius Donnelly (1890)
The Land of the Changing Sun by William N. Harben (1894)
The Scarlet Empire by David MacLean Parry (1906)
Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson (1907)
The Iron Heel by Jack London (1908)
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster (1909)
The Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells (1910)
The Mayor of New York: A Romance of the Days to Come by Louis Pope Gratacap (1910)
The Unknown Tomorrow: How the Rich Fared at the Hands of the Poor by William Le Queux (1910)
The Flying Inn by G.K. Chesterton (1914)
The Air Trust by George Allan England (1915)
The Messiah of the Cylinder by Victor Rousseau (1917)
Meccania, The Super-State by Owen Gregory (1918)
Crucible Island: A Romance, An Adventure and an Experiment by Condé B. Pallen (1919)
The City of Endless Night by Milo Hastings ("Children of Kulture" 1919/1920)
The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens (1919)
Useless Hands by Claude Farrère (1920)
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921)
The New City by Nathan Fialko (1925)
Metropolis by Thea von Harbou (1926)
"The Revolt of the Pedestrians" by David H. Keller (1928)
Paradise and Iron by Miles J. Breuer (1930)
"City of the Living Dead" by Laurence Manning and Fletcher Pratt (1930)
No Traveller Returns by John Collier (1931)
The Bolshevik by William Le Pretre(1931)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
Unborn Tomorrow by John Kendall (Margaret Maud Brash) (1933)
Intrigue on the Upper Level: A Story of Crime, Love, Adventure and Revolt in 2050 A.D. by Thomas Temple Hoyne (1934)
Invasion from the Air: A Prophetic Novel by Frank McIlraith and Roy Connolly (1934)
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (1935)
Land Under England by Joseph O'Neill (1935)
The Chosen Race by Edgar Albion Lyons (1936)
Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin (1937)
The Adventure of Wyndham Smith by S. Fowler Wright (1938)
Anthem by Ayn Rand (1938)
The Professor by Rex Warner (1939)
Tarnished Utopia by Malcolm Jameson (1943/1956)
The Riddle of the Tower by J.D. Beresford and Esmé Wynne-Tyson (1944)
Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov (1947)
1984 by George Orwell (1949)
The Humanoids by Jack Williamson (1949)
Gather, Darkness by Fritz Leiber (1950)
Bandersnatch by T.E. Ryves (1950)
The Great Idea by Henry Hazlitt (1951)
Limbo by Bernard Wolfe (1952)
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut (1952)
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth (1952/1953)
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
"If This Goes On-" by Robert Heinlein (1953)
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (1955)
The Pleasure of a Futuroscope by Lord Dunsany (1955)
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett (1955)
Hell's Pavement by Damon Knight (1955)
Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick (1955)
The Bright Phoenix by Harold Mead (1955)
To Live Forever by Jack Vance (1956)
Up Jenkins! by Ronald Hingley (1956)
Doomsday Morning by C.L. Moore (1957)
Mary's Country by Harold Mead (1957)
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller (1960)
Facial Justice by L.P. Hartley (1960)
"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)
Dark Universe by Daniel Galouye (1961)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
The Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boule (1963)
Davy by Edgar Pangborn (1964)
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966)
The Last Refuge by John Petty (1966)
Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (1967)
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1968)
The Great Leap Backward by Robert Green (1968)
Armed Camps by Kit Reed (1969)
Binary Divine by Jon Hartridge (1969)
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin (1970)
Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy (1970)
Junk Day by Arthur Sellings (1970)
The Bodyguard by Adrian Mitchell (1970)
The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem (1971)
The World Inside by Robert Silverberg (1971)
334 by Thomas Disch (1972)
Falk by Keith Hanks (1972)
The Bridge by D. Keith Mano (1973)
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing (1974)
Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas (1975)
The Tomorrow File by Lawrence Sanders (1975)
Alongside Night by J. Neil Schulman (1979)
Arslan by M.J. Engh (1979)
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (1980)
Hello America by J.G. Ballard (1981)
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin (1984)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
Dayworld by Philip José Farmer (1985)
The Shore of Women by Pamela Sargent (1986)
Ambient by Jack Womack (1987)
Little Heroes by Norman Spinrad (1987)
A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein (1987)
Sea of Glass by Barry B. Longyear (1987)
The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S. Tepper (1988)
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (1988)
Bulldozer Rising by Anna Livia (1988)
Subterranean Gallery by Richard Paul Russo (1989)
Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles by Gerald Vizenor (1990)
Give Me Liberty by Frank Miller (1990)
Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand (1990)
Children of Men by P.D. James (1992)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
Brother to Dragons by Charles Sheffield (1992)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993)
Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem (1994)
Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack (1994)
Blindness by José Saramago (1995)
Brute Orbits by George Zebrowski (1998)
Noir by K.W. Jeter (1998)
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (1999)
Maul by Tricia Sullivan (2003)
The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya (2003)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
Blind Faith by Ben Elton (2007)
The Guardener's Tale by Bruce Boston (2007)
Idlewild by Nick Sagan (2008)
Since I started going through this list, then, I turned my attention to specifically YA dystopias...
You really need to check out Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality saga-even though its not Earth it is Dystopian to a fault. And what about Samuel Delaney's Dhalgren? Given how inclusive your list is, I'm surprised you missed it. Also, the Jherak Carnelian End of Time stories by Michael Moorcock would fit the bill. Vernor Vinge's The Peace War is about the overthrow of a dystopian society. A recent novel, Caliphate by Tom Kratzman, would qualify-although it is written from an extremely right-wing viewpoint.
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by(I think) Kate Wilhelm echoes both The Road and Handmaiden's Tale in its bleakness. I probably know of a few dozen more but can't get my mind kick-started this morning.
ed.: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow is as unique in its "voice" as the Lethem novel you cited. Come, Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is a classic from the fifties that uses alternate history to portray a dystopia...
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by(I think) Kate Wilhelm echoes both The Road and Handmaiden's Tale in its bleakness. I probably know of a few dozen more but can't get my mind kick-started this morning.
ed.: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow is as unique in its "voice" as the Lethem novel you cited. Come, Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is a classic from the fifties that uses alternate history to portray a dystopia...
These are fantastic! Thanks so much. I should've thought of Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang and Dhalgren. I'm less familiar with the others (except Ward Moore - I hadn't thought of including alternate history), but I'll definitely check them out. Thanks a million!
I thought of another, from an unlikely source. Charles De Lint, who is known for re-working Celtic mythology into modern-day fantasys, wrote a dystopic novel named Svaha. Its sort of a mash-up of William Gibson, Jack Womack and Tony Hillerman with De Lint's unique style twisting it into something else. What really makes it interesting is it is about a society on the cusp-will it move into a happier future or descend into total darkness? Worth reading and relatively short for a novel.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
Depends on your definition of "young audience"...they're a LOT lighter than most "true" dystopian fare.
This sounds wonderful! I wouldn't have thought of De Lint. It's going straight on my list.
Thanks to everyone for your recommendations!
I'm still trying to determine where to put Lord of the Flies, since I'm not sure if it was marketed specifically as a juvenile/YA when it was published. It may belong in the regular dystopia list.
That said, here's my updated YA list thus far. (I'll break it up into two posts.)
Recommended Young Adult Dystopias, Part 1
1950s
Star Man's Son, 2250 A.D. (a.k.a. Daybreak, 2250 A.D.) by Andre Norton (1952)
Vault of the Ages by Poul Anderson (1952)
The Future Took Us by David Severn (1958)
1960s
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle (1962-1989)
The Changes Trilogy by Peter Dickinson (1968-1970)
The Tripods Series by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1968-1988)
1970s
The Sword of the Spirits Trilogy by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1970-1972)
Andra by Louise Lawrence (1971)
The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl (1971, revised edition 2003)
The Guardians by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1971)
Out There by Adrien Stoutenburg (1971)
Sleep Two, Three, Four! A Political Thriller by John Neufeld (1971)
The Morrow Duology by H.M. Hoover (1973, 1976)
House of Stairs by William Sleator (1974)
Wild Jack by by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1974)
The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson (1975)
Noah's Castle by John Rowe Tomsend (1975)
Ransome Revisited by Elisabeth Mace (1975)
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien (1975)
City of Darkness by Ben Bova (1976)
The Missing Person's League by Frank Bonham (1976)
The Travelling Man by Elisabeth Mace (1976)
Empty World by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1977)
I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier (1977)
The Ennead by Jan Mark (1978)
The Tomorrow City by Monica Hughes (1978)
A Quest for Orion and Tower of the Stars by Rosemary Harris (1978, 1980)
Dark Wing by Carl West and Katherine MacLean (1979)
1980s
The Creatures (a.k.a. King Creature, Come) by John Rowe Townsend (1980)
A Rag, A Bone, and Hank of Hair by Nicholas Fisk (1980)
Red Zone by Tom Browne (1980)
This Time of Darkness by H.M. Hoover (1980)
The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh (1981)
The Voyage Begun by Nancy Bond (1981)
The Vandal by Ann Schlee (1981)
The Last Children of Schewenborn (also spelled Schevenborn) by Gudrun Pausewang (1983)
Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells (1984)
The Devil on My Back and The Dream Catcher by Monica Hughes (1984, 1987)
Futuretrack 5 by Robert Westall (1984)
Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence (1985)
Earthchange by Clare Cooper (1985)
This Time of Darkness by H.M. Hoover (1985)
The Winter Trilogy by Pamela F. Service (1985-2008)
The Keeper by Barry Faville (1986)
The Others by Alison Prince (1986)
Taronga by Victor Kelleher (1986)
The Makers by Victor Kelleher (1987)
The Sword and the Dream Duology by Janice Elliott (1987, 1988)
The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody (1987-2008, ongoing)
Cityscape by Frances Thomas (1988)
The Lake at the End of the World by Caroline Macdonald (1988)
Children of Time by Deborah Moulton (1989)
The Glimpses by Laurence Staig (1989)
Plague 99 (a.k.a. Plague) and Come Lucky April (a.k.a. After the Plague) by Jean Ure (1989, 1992)
Why Weeps the Brogan? by Hugh Scott (1989)
I'm still trying to determine where to put Lord of the Flies, since I'm not sure if it was marketed specifically as a juvenile/YA when it was published. It may belong in the regular dystopia list.
That said, here's my updated YA list thus far. (I'll break it up into two posts.)
Recommended Young Adult Dystopias, Part 1
1950s
Star Man's Son, 2250 A.D. (a.k.a. Daybreak, 2250 A.D.) by Andre Norton (1952)
Vault of the Ages by Poul Anderson (1952)
The Future Took Us by David Severn (1958)
1960s
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle (1962-1989)
The Changes Trilogy by Peter Dickinson (1968-1970)
The Tripods Series by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1968-1988)
1970s
The Sword of the Spirits Trilogy by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1970-1972)
Andra by Louise Lawrence (1971)
The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl (1971, revised edition 2003)
The Guardians by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1971)
Out There by Adrien Stoutenburg (1971)
Sleep Two, Three, Four! A Political Thriller by John Neufeld (1971)
The Morrow Duology by H.M. Hoover (1973, 1976)
House of Stairs by William Sleator (1974)
Wild Jack by by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1974)
The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson (1975)
Noah's Castle by John Rowe Tomsend (1975)
Ransome Revisited by Elisabeth Mace (1975)
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien (1975)
City of Darkness by Ben Bova (1976)
The Missing Person's League by Frank Bonham (1976)
The Travelling Man by Elisabeth Mace (1976)
Empty World by Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) (1977)
I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier (1977)
The Ennead by Jan Mark (1978)
The Tomorrow City by Monica Hughes (1978)
A Quest for Orion and Tower of the Stars by Rosemary Harris (1978, 1980)
Dark Wing by Carl West and Katherine MacLean (1979)
1980s
The Creatures (a.k.a. King Creature, Come) by John Rowe Townsend (1980)
A Rag, A Bone, and Hank of Hair by Nicholas Fisk (1980)
Red Zone by Tom Browne (1980)
This Time of Darkness by H.M. Hoover (1980)
The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh (1981)
The Voyage Begun by Nancy Bond (1981)
The Vandal by Ann Schlee (1981)
The Last Children of Schewenborn (also spelled Schevenborn) by Gudrun Pausewang (1983)
Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells (1984)
The Devil on My Back and The Dream Catcher by Monica Hughes (1984, 1987)
Futuretrack 5 by Robert Westall (1984)
Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence (1985)
Earthchange by Clare Cooper (1985)
This Time of Darkness by H.M. Hoover (1985)
The Winter Trilogy by Pamela F. Service (1985-2008)
The Keeper by Barry Faville (1986)
The Others by Alison Prince (1986)
Taronga by Victor Kelleher (1986)
The Makers by Victor Kelleher (1987)
The Sword and the Dream Duology by Janice Elliott (1987, 1988)
The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody (1987-2008, ongoing)
Cityscape by Frances Thomas (1988)
The Lake at the End of the World by Caroline Macdonald (1988)
Children of Time by Deborah Moulton (1989)
The Glimpses by Laurence Staig (1989)
Plague 99 (a.k.a. Plague) and Come Lucky April (a.k.a. After the Plague) by Jean Ure (1989, 1992)
Why Weeps the Brogan? by Hugh Scott (1989)
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Recommended Young Adult Dystopias, Part II
1990s
Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes (1990)
Smart Rats by Thomas Baird (1990)
The Eye Witness by Caroline Macdonald (1991)
The Dark Future Series by Laurence James (1992)
The Giver Trilogy by Lois Lowry (1993-2004)
The Parkland Series by Victor Kelleher (1994-1996)
The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden (1994-1999) and The Ellie Chronicles (2003-2006)
The His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
The Time Keeper Trilogy by Barbara Bartholomew (1995)
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland (1996)
Shade's Children by Garth Nix (1997)
Off the Road by Nina Bawden (1998)
The Shadow Children Sequence by Margaret Peterson Haddix (1998-2006)
Bloodtide and Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess (1999, 2005)
The Cure by Sonia Levitin (1999)
Contemporary
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick (2000)
Mortal Engines Quartet (a.k.a. The Hungry City Chronicles) by Philip Reeve (2001-2006)
The Wintering Trilogy by Stephen Bowkett (2001-2002)
Feed by M.T. Anderson (2002)
The Fire-Us Trilogy by Jennifer Armstrong and Nancy Butcher (2002-2003)
Green Boy by Susan Cooper (2002)
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (2002)
The Books of Ember by Jeanne Duprau (2003-2008, ongoing)
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn (2004)
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (2004)
Sharp North and Blown Away by Patrick Cave (2004, 2005)
The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (2004)
Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White (2005)
The Secret Under My Skin by Janet McNaughton (2005)
Stolen Voices by Ellen Dee Davidson (2005)
The Traces Series by Malcolm Rose (2005-2208, ongoing)
The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld (2005-2007)
Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (2006, 2008)
Rash by Pete Hautman (2006)
The Declaration and The Resistance by Gemma Malley (2007, 2008)
Fearless by Tim Lott (2007)
The Silenced by James DeVita (2007)
Unwind by Neal Shusterman (2007)
Bad Faith by Gillian Philip (2008)
The Compound by S.A. Bodeen (2008)
Exodus by Julie Bertagna (2008, sequel Zenith pending in 2009)
Gone by Michael Grant (2008, sequel Sacrifice pending in 2009)
The Grassland Trilogy by David Ward (2008-ongoing)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008, sequel 12 pending in 2009)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (2008)
Neptune's Children by Bonnie Dobkin (2008)
The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman (2008)
1990s
Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes (1990)
Smart Rats by Thomas Baird (1990)
The Eye Witness by Caroline Macdonald (1991)
The Dark Future Series by Laurence James (1992)
The Giver Trilogy by Lois Lowry (1993-2004)
The Parkland Series by Victor Kelleher (1994-1996)
The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden (1994-1999) and The Ellie Chronicles (2003-2006)
The His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
The Time Keeper Trilogy by Barbara Bartholomew (1995)
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland (1996)
Shade's Children by Garth Nix (1997)
Off the Road by Nina Bawden (1998)
The Shadow Children Sequence by Margaret Peterson Haddix (1998-2006)
Bloodtide and Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess (1999, 2005)
The Cure by Sonia Levitin (1999)
Contemporary
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick (2000)
Mortal Engines Quartet (a.k.a. The Hungry City Chronicles) by Philip Reeve (2001-2006)
The Wintering Trilogy by Stephen Bowkett (2001-2002)
Feed by M.T. Anderson (2002)
The Fire-Us Trilogy by Jennifer Armstrong and Nancy Butcher (2002-2003)
Green Boy by Susan Cooper (2002)
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (2002)
The Books of Ember by Jeanne Duprau (2003-2008, ongoing)
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn (2004)
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (2004)
Sharp North and Blown Away by Patrick Cave (2004, 2005)
The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (2004)
Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White (2005)
The Secret Under My Skin by Janet McNaughton (2005)
Stolen Voices by Ellen Dee Davidson (2005)
The Traces Series by Malcolm Rose (2005-2208, ongoing)
The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld (2005-2007)
Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (2006, 2008)
Rash by Pete Hautman (2006)
The Declaration and The Resistance by Gemma Malley (2007, 2008)
Fearless by Tim Lott (2007)
The Silenced by James DeVita (2007)
Unwind by Neal Shusterman (2007)
Bad Faith by Gillian Philip (2008)
The Compound by S.A. Bodeen (2008)
Exodus by Julie Bertagna (2008, sequel Zenith pending in 2009)
Gone by Michael Grant (2008, sequel Sacrifice pending in 2009)
The Grassland Trilogy by David Ward (2008-ongoing)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008, sequel 12 pending in 2009)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (2008)
Neptune's Children by Bonnie Dobkin (2008)
The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman (2008)
You're quite right. I was just trying to cast my net as widely as possible, and since there are several alternate universes that bump up against our own in the trilogy that have dystopian elements, I thought I'd throw that in. The same is perhaps true with L'Engle's Time Quintet: it has dystopian elements without being designed as a dystopia. Maybe it might clarify things if I add a note that these simply include dystopian elements without being proper dystopias?
I appreciate your reply and help!