I read 105 books in 2025 and 40 of them were dystopian.
I was on a bit of a tear.
Looking for upcoming releases to get excited about? Check out the continually updated list of the most anticipated dystopian books of the year.
(In case you’re curious, the other books on my list this year were a mix of nonfiction about Antarctica, horror reads for a book club, and a couple Spanish language board books because that’s where I’m at learning-wise… donde esta el baño?)
There were some standout favorites in my dystopian reading this year – 4 that were published in 2025, 3 that got movie adaptations, and 8 more that have stood the test of time and are still incredible reads today. They range from 1960s classics to graphic novel adaptations, YA to adult, and from irreverent to very, very serious.
Here are my top 15 best dystopian books I read this year.
- Best Dystopian Books of 2025
- Dystopian Book-to-Film Adaptations
- Older Dystopian Books I Discovered This Year
Best Dystopian Books of 2025
This year’s fresh new releases came from all different genres. Graphic novel adaptations and original content continue to be popular. Steamy romance with a dystopian backdrop saw a rise in popularity, particularly in indie spaces. And The Hunger Games came back hard, with a new movie in the works as well as a grown-up version of the games for more mature readers.
Sunshine by Emma Ellis
This indie book immediately stole my heart with its Wool-like society: people live in vertical cities, with the poorer classes at the bottom, literally drowning in the trash of the elites. Amid this backdrop is the story of a woman who has always wanted a child and is given the opportunity to raise an android 8-year-old. He’s destined to work for the capitalist hellscape, unless Harriet can find a way for both of them to escape their confining world.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
This prequel to the bestselling trilogy follows a young Haymitch Abernathy about to take his turn in the arena. From the haunting refrain of a poem about his love, Lenore, to the heartbreaking events that shape the man we meet 25 years later in The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins has managed to raise the bar yet again, while still delivering everything fans have come to love and expect from this series.
Check price & reviews or find more modern YA dystopian novels for Hunger Games fans
Boxed by Mark Sable, Jeremy Haun, Nick Filardi and Thomas Mauer
This is a graphic novel and part one of an anticipated series about a government operative attempting to rein in a rogue AI. How do you stop the most powerful computer program in the world from initiating the apocalypse? Well, maybe it’s not the smartest idea to call in the help of a second AI, with whom you’ve got a sordid past and unfinished business.
Check price & reviews or check out my round-up of the best dystopian graphic novels
To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast
This book is The Hunger Games for everyone who grew up reading Suzanne Collins and now proudly wears their “book slut” hat to the book fair. A bounty hunter gets arrested and sent to a prison where the wealthy pay to hunt the criminals. The arena will absolutely remind you of the Hunger Games, but the romance is much more grown-up with an enemies-to-lovers slow burn that packs a punch.
Dystopian Book-to-Film Adaptations
Some of these books waited a very long time for their moment on the silver screen. I’ll leave it up to you to judge how faithful each adaptation was, but these three books have earned their place in my list of favorites for the year.
The Long Walk by Stephen King
One of Stephen King’s earliest books, The Long Walk was kids in brutal competition with each other decades before The Hunger Games or Battle Royale came on the scene. Told from the limited perspective of one of the participants, a lot of the worldbuilding and the “why” of this grueling competition are left to the reader’s imagination, which only forces the reader to focus in on the mental and physical torture of the walk.
Check price & reviews or check out my list of diverse books that scratch the same itch as the Long Walk
Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton
Mickey is an expendable: a cloned worker who dies repeatedly so the rest of his colony doesn’t have to. But when a mission goes wrong and he survives, he learns a secret his commander would rather stay buried. With him. As soon as somebody can find a way to kill him. At once irreverent and philosophically wrought, this has quickly become one of my all-time favorites. And, uh, let’s not talk about the movie.
The Running Man by Stephen King
This one’s such a cultural icon that it’s had not one but two movie adaptations. Schwarzenegger really helped cement The Running Man in the zeitgeist, and it remains to be seen how enduring the 2025 take on this classic book will be. I can tell you, the ending of the book has nothing on either movie – it’s a must-read from me for that final scene alone.
I’ve ranked every dystopian book-to-screen adaptation, worst to best. Check out the list and tell me where I got it wrong!
Older Dystopian Books I Discovered This Year
There’s a pretty endless supply of dystopian fiction all the way back to the 1920s and I know I’ll never want for reading material. These are the 8 best dystopian books I read this year that were published prior to 2025 and are still very much worth our time.
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
I listened to this twice in audio and read it once and I feel like I could read it ten more times and get something new out of it every time. That’s saying a lot for a 13-page short story! I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream is a genre classic about the last survivors of humanity and the sentient supercomputer that tortures them for creating it. The best way to read it is to listen to the author’s narration – Ellison is haunting and theatrical.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (graphic novel)
I picked this graphic novel adaptation up before reading the original text and the illustration style, the expressions on the characters’ faces, and the visual punch gives the story a new layer of impact. Kindred is about a modern-day Black woman who is repeatedly transported to the antebellum south. It’s exactly as traumatic and terrifying as you’re imagining, and the graphic novel does a great job of preserving Butler’s unique voice and deeply developed characters.
The Stranded by Sarah Daniels
This book was born out of the pandemic, inspired by the people who were trapped on cruise ships at the beginning of lockdown but amplified to dystopian horror levels. In The Stranded, the people of the Arcadia have been trapped for decades, developing their own society, rules and government and floating on the open ocean while they wait for some country to allow them to dock. It’s got Wool vibes as well as Divergent vibes and I couldn’t put it down.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Okay, I’m a sucker for any book that has even a little bit of experimental fiction genes, and The Knife of Never Letting Go scratches that itch. When men can hear each other’s thoughts and women have been banished entirely, Todd isn’t allowed to even think the questions he has about society. There’s a Wizard of Oz-esque journey and a doggy sidekick with some of the best catchphrases, and a romance that builds slowly.
Dry by Neal & Jarrod Shusterman
I will snatch up every Neal Shusterman I see, and this is his first work with his son, Jarrod. In Dry, the California water crisis reaches a crescendo when one day all the taps run dry and stay that way. There’s an all too realistic Costco run, government assistance that’s too little, too late, and the prepper boy next door who keeps the main character and her brother alive through sheer force of will. This book tends toward the ridiculous more often than not, but it’s a fast read with the worldbuild and character development I love from both Shustermans. (Shustermen?)
Now We Are Animals by RP Nathan
Now We Are Animals begins with an alien invasion, and like most invasions, the aliens are land-hungry and don’t have a lot of use for us humans. We make perfectly serviceable farm animals, and a lucky few become pets. That’s what Cara is, and the book is told through her diary entries: the story of the invasion and her experience living with the aliens. I’ll be reading the sequel, Now We Are Free, very soon because I can tell the author has a lot more to say on both plot and theme.
Replacement by Jordan Rivet
Replacement’s book description reads like Brave New World told from the perspective of one of the lower classes – the ones that have 50, 100, 150 clones all trained to do a particular job. Only Jane doesn’t know any of her fellow clones, or the job she was trained to do. Hunting for the answer launches her into a mystery that grabs you and doesn’t let go until the final page (and there are four more books in this series so you don’t have to stop there). I can’t stop raving about this book to whoever will listen.
Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton
The only sequel in my list, I liked Antimatter Blues as much as or possibly more than Mickey7. Mickey gets up to all his irreverent, clever hijinx again in this one, but the adventure packs way more emotional punch and has more to say on a philosophical level about colonization and cohabitation with “less intelligent” life forms. Man, Berto is a terrible best friend, though.
Want even more recs? Check out my Ultimate Dystopian Reader’s Guide for tailored recommendations based on topic, tropes, audience and more!