12 Dystopian Books Like 1984

A Caribbean-Canadian collision that takes white flight and dials it up to a dystopian 11, Brown Girl in the Ring imagines a future Toronto in which everyone of means has fled the city, which has been walled off into a lawless wasteland. Inside, people live by any means necessary. When a wealthy outsider needs a heart transplant, those inside become hunted like so much meat.

Orwell’s book is filled with the authoritarian government directly influencing its citizens, going so far as to police their thoughts (via observed behavior, but still). This is still a far cry from the China Dream Bureau in China Dream, in which the government is forcing the dream of President Xi Jingping directly into minds while they sleep.

Every book nerd puts this right up on a list of worst nightmares: a world in which books are forbidden. Bradbury’s classic tells the story of Guy Montag, a fireman. Except in this world, fireman means he burns books and other banned material, not that he puts out fires. Then one day, he starts reading a book. And then another. His whole world crashes down as his mind expands in this classic.

In many ways, I feel The Giver is the closest comparison on this list of books like 1984. Everyone is given a job based on their talents. Families are created based on interpersonal styles and income. They all take drugs to suppress emotions and sex drives. Then Jonas is given the job of Receiver of Memory and meets with the Giver of Memory. In this unique position, he comes to understand just how controlled society is and how little freedom he has.

Given how popular the Hulu series is by now, this book likely needs no explanation, but I’m giving it anyway. In a dystopian future, patriarchy and religious rule have clamped down society. Women are forced into specific roles like wife, cook, or handmaid. Except handmaids are women whose only role is to bear the children of powerful men. Even while their wives are in the room while the deed is done. Atwood’s modern classic is a tale of one such woman’s desperate attempt to escape this hellscape of servitude.

In our reality, teenagers only think they define what is or isn’t cool, but in the world of Material Girls, they really are the trendsetters. When a fashionista and a pop star start to question the rampant consumerism of their world, the real corporate puppet masters start to yank and snip their strings.

I struggle with exactly how to describe the dystopian nature of this novel without spoiling the book. Let me just say that something is amiss with the children who grow up at Hailsham Boarding School, even though well into adulthood, they still don’t know what that is. They are encouraged to make art and remain healthy, but don’t know why or what makes them special. Once they find out, they look at their entire lives in a different light.