Cracked skies, shadowed cities, and the flicker of forbidden magic – the realm of dystopian fantasy holds a unique and irresistible allure. It’s where the stark realities of oppressive futures collide with the boundless possibilities of the fantastical, creating worlds that are both terrifying and breathtaking. My ‘To Be Read’ (TBR) pile has become a testament to this dark fascination, a collection of stories where hope struggles against despair, and where magic is often a dangerous weapon. Join me as I delve into these tales of rebellion, survival, and the fight for a future where both freedom and magic can thrive.
Girl on Fire: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Fantasy (Girl on Fire Book 1)
Dystopian sci-fi fantasy laced with romance.
Completed 4-book series.
On her 16th birthday, Kassia is condemned to death—twice.
Already battling a fatal disease, Kassia Madison somehow survives an apocalypse that kills billions. Only a tiny percentage of people are immune to the strange red mist—but not all of them are human.
Alone, Kassia searches for her family in a dying New York filled with extraordinary dangers. After she meets a dynamic resistance leader fighting for humanity’s future, she faces a devastating choice.
Meanwhile, in the shadows, someone not fully human has taken a special interest in Kassia. Raised as an emotionless Outrider, this hybrid records the destruction of civilization in New York. As he coolly observes Kassia’s desperation and courage, he decides to turn her struggle to stay alive into a scientific experiment.
Elsewhere, the other hybrid Outriders are already planning their next move. Brutal and relentless, they are intent on eradicating the remaining human survivors … including Kassia.
Girl on Fire is the 1st book in the Girl on Fire series. Packed with pulse-pounding action, compelling characters, and a slow-burn romance, this thrilling 4-book series will grip you from start to finish.
For fans of The 5th Wave and Hunger Games.
The Hybrid: First book in the fantasy dystopian series (The Hybrid Series 1)
In a dark vision of the future, where some humans (alphas) have developed abilities, thirteen-year-old Sebastian’s life is about to change.
Sebastian thinks he is just an ordinary alpha off to join the Academy to refine his skills, but ‘the test’ shows something different. It turns out he is a Hybrid – a Quad-brid to be exact – and will grow up to be the most powerful alpha in more than two thousand years.
Forced to join the Dark side of the Academy, Sebastian faces fear, rejection, and brutality. Making some unlikely friends and finding adventure, he strives to keep to the Light. However, in a final twist, unsure of who to trust, and what is real, Sebastian is faced with the ultimate decision of whether to embrace the Darkness …
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For readers of: The Hunger Games – The Maze Runner – Divergent – older fans of Harry Potter
Psyker: A Dystopian Science Fantasy Novel (The Psyker Saga Book 1)
In the grim darkness of humanity’s future, even noble blood won’t protect you from what lurks in the depths…
Seventeen-year-old Paric Kilhaven had his life mapped out as a noble scion in the towering hive-city of Hydra Secundus, but that life ends when he’s attacked in the city’s lawless underhive and infected with a mysterious substance that unlocks doors to another dimension.
Surviving the attack, Paric is thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Working covertly for the Ecclesiarchy, he must navigate between rival hive gangs and corrupt nobles while investigating rumors of a Chaos cult. He soon finds a dire threat hidden in the underhive’s shadows—a Warp witch preparing to birth a daemon that could destroy everything Paric has ever known. Relying on outlawed powers, unlikely allies, and a determination to protect those he’s grown to care for, Paric must stop the witch before it’s too late.
Set against the backdrop of a rigidly hierarchical hive-city, “Psyker” offers a compelling exploration of unmatched power, politics and identity, where one’s existence is both a duty and curse.
Part adventure, part mystery, this dystopian science fantasy novel is appropriate for Adult and Young Adult readers.
Initiation: A Young Adult Dystopian Paranormal Urban Fantasy Romance (The Warrior Series Book 1)
Keep your friends close…and your enemies closer. Rachel Clancy has had to learn the hard way that you can’t always trust who you know. Born with a specific set of genes that lets her fight monsters, Rachel has trained her entire life to kill vampires and werewolves. Unprepared for the level of deception and betrayal she faces as she journeys Upwards to battle her enemies, it’s not long before Rachel finds herself on a quest that will alter the lives of everyone she knows. Including Rachel’s…
The Cure: A Young Adult Dystopian Novel (The Cure Chronicles Book 1)
Before the Blight, becoming an adult was something teenagers looked forward to. But now, turning eighteen means certain death.
Unless you prove yourself worthy of the Cure.
On her seventeenth birthday, Ashen Spencer is blindfolded and escorted to the massive, mysterious building known as the Arc to begin her year of training and testing in hopes that she can earn the Cure—a powerful drug given only to those deemed worthy to survive beyond their eighteenth birthday.
Ashen has a chance to rise up from her former life of squalor and be granted a place in society, if the Panel—the mysterious group of powerful men and women in charge of the Arc—deems her year a success. She’s assigned to work for twelve months as a servant for a wealthy family whose son is the most alluring young man she’s ever met. At first, Ashen is grateful for the opportunity to earn her place in a society she’s always dreamed of inhabiting.
But as time passes and she begins to learn the truth about the people she admires so much and the home she left behind, she realizes she has a choice: Be part of the disease…Or be part of the Cure.
For readers of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and the Selection.
Year One: Chronicles of The One, Book 1
It began on New Year’s Eve.
The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed—and more than half of the world’s population was decimated.
Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magick rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river—or in the ones you know and love the most.
As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.
In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.
The end has come. The beginning comes next.
This journey through my dystopian fantasy TBR has only deepened my appreciation for the power of these stories. They serve as both a warning and an inspiration, reminding us of the importance of resilience and the enduring strength of the human spirit, even in the face of overwhelming darkness. I hope this glimpse into my reading list has ignited your own curiosity and perhaps led you to discover a new favorite world. Now, with a stack of books whispering promises of magic and rebellion, I’m ready to plunge back into the shadows. May your own adventures in dystopian fantasy be filled with thrilling discoveries and the unwavering belief that even in the darkest of times, hope can still ignite.