Dystopian Book Communities: Where to Talk Books, Theories & Endings

When you finish an incredible book, who’s the first person you tell? Where do you go to shout from the rooftops, “This book blew my mind!”? Who do you talk to when you want to comb through the details, discuss a controversial ending, or rant about that one character you could totally just push off a friggin’ cliff?

Sometimes this answer is easy, like when your best friend just happens to eat, sleep and breathe the same genre, or when everyone on the planet is absorbed in the same cultural phenomenon (cough, Hunger Games).

Other times, you might find yourself reading something niche or brand-new or extremely specific, which is often the case in speculative and dystopian fiction, and it’s harder to find “your people” to talk to about that book.

Thankfully, we have the internet, where nothing is too niche to find its audience, and we have dystopian reader communities sprinkled all over the place, all ready and excited to nerd out over your new favorite book and recommend fifteen more like it.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m one of those nerds – I love talking dystopian books, and over time, I’ve found a handful of great communities that consistently spark thoughtful discussion. Here are my favorites:

Dystopian Book Club on Facebook

This Facebook Group has 3,700 members and if you post something like, “please give me recs for books similar to Wool, you can count on at least a couple dozen responses with thoughtful suggestions. Authors are allowed to promote their work without restrictions so there is some self-promotion, but if you sort by “most relevant,” you’Il see a lot of good discussions and higher-effort posts.

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Dystopian Ink on Facebook (for readers)

With 1,700 members, this Facebook Group has a more intimate feel, which allows for deeper discussions and also makes it more likely that you’ll find yourself chatting with the same people over time. If you’re looking to make friends, that’s a huge plus, and the admin (dystopian author Heather Carson) does a great job of coordinating events, including a monthly dystopian book club and annual author takeover each December. Author promo is limited to Tuesdays, so the rest of the week you can expect discussion starters, recommendations, memes and more.

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Bonus: Dystopian Inkers on Facebook (for writers)

If you’re a dystopian writer/author as well as a reader, Dystopian Ink has a companion Facebook Group called Dystopian Inkers where you can network and talk shop – everything from craft to publishing how-to. This is also where you want to be if you’d like to get invited to participate in Dystopian Ink’s anthologies and takeovers.

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Apocalypse Whenever on Goodreads

Apocalypse Whenever has a much-deserved reputation for being one of the first Goodreads groups in the genre, as well as one of the biggest and best. With over 13,000 members and actively moderated for over 15 years, there’s a lot to do in this group:

• Vote for and discuss the monthly book club pick
• Find discounted and free books
• Pick up an ARC by an emerging author
• Discuss genre-relevant movies and TV as well as books
• Solve a mystery in the “Book Identification” section (where people make “help me find this book”-style posts)

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r/printSF on Reddit

There are quite a few dystopian, sci-fi and horror-related subreddits, but not all of them are actively moderated or large enough to sustain conversations. r/printSF is my favorite, with over 300,000 members and a very narrow scope: no TV or movie talk, no self-promotion, not even any image or video posts. These people just wanna chew gum and talk speculative fiction… and you know what they say about the chewing gum.

The requests for recommendations are usually super granular (“first contact books but the aliens are so advanced that they don’t really acknowledge humans as intelligent”) and I guarantee you’ll find fascinating books you never knew existed on this sub.

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Bonus: r/IReadABookAndAdoredIt on Reddit

This subreddit is not specifically about speculative and dystopian books, but I’m surprised how often the genre comes up. It’s my favorite general-fiction sub, with 32,000 members who can be counted on to chime in with trivia tidbits, related recommendations, discussions on the author’s full catalog, sales and more.

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Bonus: The End of the World Reading Club (UK only)

This is the only dystopian book box I know of, and reader, let me tell you how I was crushed when I found out they only ship to the UK. I’m including it on the list just in case you happen to live in the UK (put in a good word for me, I’m still hoping they’ll open up distribution once it’s affordable), and because The End of the World Reading Club is not just a monthly subscription box – when you join, you get access to their Facebook Group for book discussions, exclusive content, and voting rights for future boxes.

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Dystopian fiction hits even harder when you’re reading it with other people. Whether you’re joining a book club or showing up with a megaphone to evangelize your new favorite book, belonging to a community of readers who love what you love makes the whole experience ten times richer.