Books like “Oryx and Crake”

What to read after “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

About “Oryx and Crake”

Another favorite book?

Or start with a well-known book

1
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler · 1993
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Post-Apocalyptic World
In a near-future California wrecked by drought and lawlessness, a teenage girl who feels the pain of others builds a new belief while her walled neighbourhood falls apart. She leads a small group north, looking for land and for something to hold on to.
2
Wool
Hugh Howey · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Post-Apocalyptic World
In a future where the air outside is deadly, people live in a buried silo and are told that anyone who asks to go outside will be sent there to die. When a sheriff starts asking questions about the world beyond the walls, the silo's careful order begins to crack.
3
The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Post-Apocalyptic World
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.
4
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Post-Apocalyptic World
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
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Love Triangle
In a future where everyone turns pretty at sixteen through surgery, fifteen-year-old Tally longs for the operation. When her friend runs away instead, Tally is sent to find her, and learns what the surgery and the society that demands it really cost.
6
The Chrysalids
John Wyndham · 1955
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Post-Apocalyptic World
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.
7
The Windup Girl
Paolo Bacigalupi · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
In a flooded, calorie-poor Bangkok kept alive by genetic engineering, an American trader hunts for lost seed banks while a manufactured woman bred as a servant tries to survive. Their paths cross with corporate enforcers and a city about to boil over.
8
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
Kathy, Tommy and Ruth grow up together at an English boarding school where the children are treated as special and kept apart from the world. As adults they learn what they were made for, and try to hold on to love and dignity in a life they cannot choose. A quiet, sad speculative novel.
9
The Maze Runner
James Dashner · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Post-Apocalyptic World
Thomas wakes in a maze with no memory of who he is, surrounded by boys who arrived the same way. Each day the walls open and monstrous machines roam, and Thomas becomes sure he was part of the experiment that trapped them.
10
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood · 1985
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Unreliable Narrator
In the Republic of Gilead, women have lost their names, jobs and freedom. Offred is a Handmaid, valued only for the child she may bear for a commander and his wife. Remembering the life she had before, she searches for small acts of defiance and a way to survive.
11
Shatter Me
Tahereh Mafi · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Love Triangle
Juliette's touch is lethal, so the world has locked her away. When a military faction offers her a chance to use her power, she must decide who to trust in a regime that would use her as a weapon.
12
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Love Triangle
In Panem, each district must send two teenagers to fight to the death on television. When Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her sister's place, she turns the Games into something the Capitol cannot fully control.