Books like “Ready Player One”

What to read after “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline: 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 Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Coming of Age
After a disease kills most American children, the survivors develop dangerous powers and are locked in government camps. Sixteen-year-old Ruby escapes and joins a group of runaways searching for a safe haven, while learning the cost of her own abilities.
2
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Coming of Age
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.
3
Scythe
Neal Shusterman · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Coming of Age
In a future where death has been conquered, professional Scythes must choose who dies in order to control the population. Two teenagers are apprenticed to a Scythe and trained to kill, even as they question the system and each other.
4
Divergent
Veronica Roth · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Coming of Age
In a city divided into five factions, Beatrice Prior learns she does not belong to any of them. Choosing the warrior Dauntless, she hides her divergence while uncovering a plot that threatens everyone, and finds herself drawn to an instructor named Four.
5
Red Rising
Pierce Brown · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Coming of Age
On a future Mars, a miner from the lowest caste learns that the paradise he was promised does not exist and that his people are slaves. He is remade as a member of the ruling class and sent into a brutal contest where he plans to bring the whole system down.
6
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Coming of Age
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.
7
The Maze Runner
James Dashner · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
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.
8
Legend
Marie Lu · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
In a divided nation, two teenagers on opposite sides play a deadly game of cat and mouse. June, a military prodigy, hunts the Republic's most wanted criminal, Day, without knowing anything about the boy behind the legend.
9
The Diamond Age
Neal Stephenson · 1995
From the same world: “Cyberpunk”
- Cyberpunk
- Coming of Age
In a world split between rich enclaves and crowded cities, an engineer builds an interactive book meant to teach his daughter. It changes hands until it reaches Nell, an orphan whose slow education becomes the key to something larger.
10
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson · 1992
From the same world: “Cyberpunk”
- Cyberpunk
In a future Los Angeles split between franchised city-states, a hacker and a teenage skateboard courier chase a drug that works on both computers and human minds. The trail runs from the neon Metaverse to ancient languages and a plan to reshape civilisation.
11
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.
12
The Giver
Lois Lowry · 1993
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Coming of Age
Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a community without pain or choice, where every life is planned. Chosen to receive memories from the Giver, he learns what the community gave up and decides what he must do with that knowledge.