Backlist Bonanza: 5 Underrated Dystopian Books

(Off the Grid #2 — Carina Press, 2015) I have lost count as to how many times I’ve listened to this audiobook series. I’m a huge Alyssa Cole fan and a huge speculative fiction fan, so of course I have her dystopian romance on deck at all times. The whole series is excellent, but this installment featuring John and Mykhail is my favorite. Signal Boost is set a little ways into the collapse of the world when all technology was suddenly shut down. John and his family and friends have built a small community of folks surviving and falling in love. When he catches Mykhail scavenging in their gardens, he gets sucked into the former scientist’s quest to solve the electricity crisis and save the world. It doesn’t hurt that sparks are flying between them almost immediately. This series is perfect for readers looking for a little action and sci-fi with their romance.

(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019) Dystopian used to be the hot new trend for young adult fiction in the post Hunger Games years. Fiction tends to follow social patterns, so I’m sure in a few years we’ll have another spat of dystopian books dominating the YA bookshelves. In the meantime, this one from Lilliam Rivera should tide you over. Sixteen-year-old Nalah, aka Chief Rocka, runs the all-teen-girl gang Las Mal Criadas in Mega City, the last metropolis still functioning after a massive natural disaster. Nalah hopes to earn her way into the elite through violence, but a test of her loyalty pushes her to the brink. This is a different kind of dystopian story for YA, one where it’s not about overthrowing a corrupt government but trying to forge something better out of a society that chooses violence.

(Two Dollar Radio, 2019) Spanning the period from the end of South African apartheid in the early 1990s and going through the 2040s wracked with environmental disasters, this novel is a strange, unsettling endeavor. Structured around two manuscripts centered on the life of a young woman, Masande Ntshanga weaves in all kinds of weird stuff from future-telling to disappearances to possible alien abductions and beyond. It’s a book that in many ways defies description, but it’s so compelling that it’s impossible to ignore.

(Light the Abyss #1 — Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019) We’re decades into the end of the world as we know it, and Leyla McQueen feels fine. At the end of the 21st century, the planet was drowned in rising ocean levels so now what was once London is now the seabed. Humans live in underwater pods while they wait for the surface weather to clear. Leyla wants nothing more than to be a submersible racer, but the corrupt, tyrannical leaders of this new United Kingdom pull her into a vast conspiracy. When the government disappears her father, Leyla and new ally (and potential love interest) Ari journey across the deep blue sea searching for answers. Like all good speculative YA novels, Ari has some big secrets of his own that will have devastating effects for Leyla’s quest when they’re revealed. If that isn’t enough for you, this is the first YA science fiction series with a British Muslim protagonist; Leyla is of Afghan and Pashtun heritage. Yes, the first. And as far as I can tell, only. *sigh*

(Djinn City #2 — Unnamed Press, 2021) Set in Bangladesh about seven decades after the events of the first book, Djinn City, the second book in this futuristic series is just as funny and outlandish as the first. Dhaka City at the end of the 21st century is a dense metropolis in what once was Bangladesh, a dystopian remnant of the world post ecological disaster. The djinn Bahamut creates a mercenary golem called Djibrel and unleashes him on the world. Marzuk, a teenage hacker extraordinaire, runs across the golem in the Virtuality, a virtual world where people escape the awfulness of reality. The two team up to take on a dangerous new AI wreaking havoc on the dark web. It’s a cyberpunk fantasy for the gamer set.