Books like “I Am Legend”

What to read after “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Girl with All the Gifts
M. R. Carey · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Horror”
A gifted child lives in a military base, strapped into a chair for lessons while hungries roam outside. When the base falls, she and her teacher cross a broken England while she learns what she is and what she can choose to become.
2
Earth Abides
George R. Stewart · 1949
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
A plague kills nearly everyone on Earth. An ecologist emerges from the mountains to find empty cities and a few survivors, and spends the rest of his life watching a new, smaller society take shape without the old world's machinery.
3
The Day of the Triffids
John Wyndham · 1951
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
A meteor shower blinds most of humanity, leaving a few sighted survivors in a world where walking, venomous plants have escaped from farms. A young man and a small group try to reach safety and decide what kind of society can be rebuilt.
4
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
A father and his young son walk through a burned America, pushing a cart of scavenged supplies and hiding from bands of survivors who hunt people for food. Their only aim is to keep moving south and stay alive while holding on to decency.
5
Bird Box
Josh Malerman · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
Something outside drives anyone who sees it to violence, so the survivors live blindfolded. Malorie has kept two children safe for years. Now she must row them downriver without looking, toward a refuge that may or may not exist.
6
The 5th Wave
Rick Yancey · 2013
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
After a series of waves wipes out most of humanity, sixteen-year-old Cassie is alone and running from an enemy that could look like anyone. To find her little brother she will have to trust a stranger, even as she learns how the invasion really works.
7
The Chrysalids
John Wyndham · 1955
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
In a post-nuclear Labrador, communities destroy deformed crops and animals and kill, sterilize or banish people who do not match the true form. A boy who can speak with his mind hides his gift among friends, until discovery forces them to flee toward a fabled safe place.
8
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
After a flu wipes out most of humanity, a travelling theatre troupe moves between the small settlements that remain, performing Shakespeare. The story follows survivors across decades and asks what of civilization is worth carrying forward.
9
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller Jr. · 1959
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Apocalypse
After a nuclear war, monks in a desert abbey preserve the few books that survive, including a blueprint signed by a martyred engineer. Across centuries they copy, guard and argue over the relics while civilisation slowly rebuilds and then repeats its old mistakes.
10
The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood · 2009
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
A religious sect called God's Gardeners expects a coming catastrophe and tries to live apart from the corrupt world around it. Two women, Toby and Ren, tell how they reached the group and what happened to them after the disaster they predicted.
11
Severance
Ling Ma · 2018
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
A millennial office worker in New York keeps showing up to her publishing job as a fever turns people into repetitive, wandering shells. Her account of the collapse moves between satire of work and the quiet end of the world.
12
Interview with the Vampire
Anne Rice · 1976
From the same world: “Vampires”
- Vampires
- Sympathetic Monster
A young interviewer listens as the vampire Louis tells the story of his long life: turned by the powerful Lestat, endlessly hunting to survive, and raising the child vampire Claudia with him in a small, doomed family.