Books like “The Windup Girl”

What to read after “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi: 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 Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- 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.
2
Wool
Hugh Howey · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- 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.
3
The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Survival
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 Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
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.
5
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.
6
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Survival
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
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler · 1993
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Survival
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.
8
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
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.
9
Red Rising
Pierce Brown · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
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.
10
Scythe
Neal Shusterman · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Morally Grey Character
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.
11
Divergent
Veronica Roth · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
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.
12
The Maze Runner
James Dashner · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Survival
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.