Books like “The Girl with All the Gifts”

What to read after “The Girl with All the Gifts” by M. R. Carey: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
I Am Legend
Richard Matheson · 1954
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Horror”
Robert Neville believes he is the last human in a world overrun by people transformed by a plague. By day he hunts them and repairs his house; by night they besiege it, and he tries to understand what the survivors have become.
2
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.
3
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.
4
The Day of the Triffids
John Wyndham · 1951
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
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.
5
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.
6
Bird Box
Josh Malerman · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
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.
7
Wool
Hugh Howey · 2011
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
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.
8
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.
9
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler · 1993
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
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.
10
The Maze Runner
James Dashner · 2009
Same genre: “Science fiction”
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.
11
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
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.
12
Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky · 2015
Same genre: “Science fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
After humanity's fall, a terraforming experiment leaves a world where evolved spiders build a growing civilisation. A last ark ship of humans arrives above the planet, setting the two species on a collision course across centuries of war, memory and first contact.