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8 Dystopian Novels Your Students Will Love



If you’re looking to add dystopian novels to your classroom library, here are eight titles that your students will love.


Life as We Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer. A large moon hangs over a snow covered field.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda, a high school sophomore, is faced with a daunting challenge when a meteor collides with the moon knocking it closer to Earth. She and her family take shelter from the ensuing chaos. In a year’s worth of journal entries, Miranda captures their struggle to remain hopeful in a changing, unfamiliar world.


Matched by Ally Condie. A girl in a green dress is trapped in a bubble.

Matched by Ally Condie

Cassia lives in a controlling society that determines who everyone will marry, where they will work, and when they will die. Cassia has always trusted Society’s choices until her own Match Banquet to determine her partner. She’s matched with her childhood friend Xander, but as she’s looking at her match information, a new face pops on the screen. It’s the face of Ky, an outcast. Is this the path Society has laid out for her?


Scythe by Neal Shusterman. A Scythe stands in a red robe, which covers its face. The Scythe is holding a sickle.

Scythes by Neal Shusterman

In a world with no hunger, no disease, and no war, only Scythes can end life. They are commanded to keep the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither one wants. If they can’t learn to take a life, it could be the end of their own.


Delirium by Lauren Oliver. A broken heart hangs in front of a green background.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Love is treated as a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Just before her eighteenth birthday, Lena Haloway is looking forward to being cured and living a predictable life. Love destroyed her mother, and she doesn’t want anything to do with it– until she meets a mysterious boy at a party.


Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Mobile homes and vans are stacked into towers and surrounded by scaffolding.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

It’s a harsh world in 2044, and Wade escapes reality by spending all of his time in the OASIS, a virtual utopia. Inside the virtual utopia of OASIS, the creator has hidden a prize worth a fortune. Wade is determined to find the prize, but in the real world, there are others willing to kill in order to beat him to it.


Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. A girl's face is being broken into pieces. She has no expression.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Like all teens, Tally awaits cosmetic surgery to become a Pretty on her sixteenth birthday. She’s excited for the transformation until she meets Shay, a 15-year-old with a different plan. Shay doesn’t want to be a Pretty and escapes into the forest to remain an Ugly. Tally is taken in for questioning on her birthday. She is then faced with a difficult choice. Authorities want her to find Shay and turn her in or Tally will lose her chance to become a Pretty. While finding her friend, Tally learns there is a dark side to the transformation of becoming a Pretty.


Legend by Marie Lu. The symbol for the Republic is white surrounded by a spray of gold.

Legend by Marie Lu

The Republic is perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family, June is being raised for success in the Republic’s military. In the slums, Day has become the country’s most wanted criminal. The two teens have no reason to cross paths until Day becomes a suspect in June’s brother’s murder. June wants to avenge Metias’s death, but Day is only trying to survive. In a shocking turn of events, the two teens uncover the truth of what really brought them together.


The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. A gold mockingjay pin lays on a white background.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The remains of North America are now the home of Panem, a dazzling Capitol surrounded by twelve districts. To keep the districts under their control, the Capitol sends a boy and girl from each district to participate in the Hunger Games - a fight to the death that is broadcasted live throughout Panem. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps in to take her sister's place in the Games and reluctantly becomes a competitor.


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