Post-Apocalyptic & Dystopian Series for Grown-ups
Post-apocalyptic and dystopian series have been popular in Young Adult fiction for years. The Hollywood crossover success of the Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and Divergent franchises capitalized on a trend that began in earnest with Lois Lowry's "The Giver." Perhaps, like me, you've found yourself raiding your kids' bookshelves in search of compelling series. If so, you might want to give one of these adult series a try. Some have already made the transition from page to screen, others are destined to in the near future.
Wool by Hugh Howey
In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. Juliette, an unlikely candidate, is appointed as the silo's new sheriff. She is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Snowman is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human and mourning the loss of his best friends. In search of answers, he embarks on a journey through the lush wilderness that was recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride.
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison
An empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years, collapses. A great red rift has been been torn through the land, which spews ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with struggle, and where orogenes -- those who wield the power of the earth -- are feared far more than the long cold night.
The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey
Not every gift is a blessing. 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 jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh. Melanie is a very special girl.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
In 2025 California, an 18-year-old African American woman, suffering from a hereditary trait that causes her to feel others' pain as well as her own, flees northward from her small community and its desperate savages.
The Passage by Justin Cronin
A security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment that only 6-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte can stop.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
A tale set in a bleak future society torn by class divisions follows the experiences of secret revolutionary Darrow, who after witnessing his wife's execution by an oppressive government joins a revolutionary cell and attempts to infiltrate an elite military academy.
Annihilation by Jeff van der Meer
Area X has claimed the lives of members of 11 expeditions. The 12th expedition consisting of four women hopes to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
The Bunker by Joshua Hale Fialkov & Joe Infurnari
On their way to bury a time capsule, five friends uncover a metal bunkerburied deep in the woods. Inside, they find letters addressed to each of them ... from their future selves. Told they will destroy the world in the very near future, the friends find themselves wondering: can the future really be changed or will an even darker fate engulf the world?
Walking Dead created by Robert Kirkman
Police officer Rick Grimes is shot on the job and wakes up a month later to find that the world that he knows is gone. Zombies have taken over and are killing and eating those who are still alive. He sets out toward Atlanta in the hope that his family is still alive and endures many horrors along the way.
Find this article at