As well as being a novelist, I am also a script editor for film and TV. I specialise in thriller narratives and big themes in screenwriting, so it's no accident I am drawn to them in fiction too. Dystopian worlds offer such a rich backdrop for the BIG questions and observations. By putting new societies and threats under the microscope in stories, it can hold a mirror up to what's going on in real life. I think of dystopian novels as being akin to the canaries in the coal mine: they are not only cathartic, they sound the warning bell on where we are going as a society ourselves.
I loved this book because it smashed every expectation I had of post-apocalyptic fiction.
The characters felt so real; Grimes is a badass soldier without fanfare, Bryce is unexpectedly tender, and Edgar is a flawed, fascinating antihero. It left me exhilarated, like I’d run across the country with them myself.
A powerful post-apocalyptic thriller, perfect for fans of The End of the F*cking World. 'A real find' STEPHEN KING
When the world ends and you find yourself stranded on the wrong side of the country, every second counts.
No one knows this more than Edgar Hill. 550 miles away from his family, he must push himself to the very limit to get back to them, or risk losing them forever...
His best option is to run. But what if your best isn't good enough?
The Number One race-against-time bestseller as featured on Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Book Club
I love this book because of Katniss Everdeen's depth. She’s not just another “kickass hottie”, she’s complex, with a powerful character arc driven by a deep sense of responsibility.
The book’s commentary on mental health and Katniss' parentification resonated with me personally. The story world of all the districts and President Snow's iron grip on them is well-drawn and has parallels to our own, too.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...
A hundred years in the future, in a world where technologically enhanced bodies are valued above organic ones, Complete Life Management (CLM) is selling perfection in the form of the latest and greatest bionic model, the Apogee. As an elite runner and inadvertent spokesperson for the humanism movement, NYPD Detective…
This pandemic thriller might just be my favourite post-apocalyptic story of all time. The premise is so original, the world-building so visual and rich, and the lead character Harper is a real badass and pregnant (super unusual in ANY story, never mind a thriller like this).
Nobody knew where the virus came from. FOX News said it had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been invented by the Russians in the 1980s. MSNBC said sources indicated it might've been created by engineers at Halliburton and stolen by culty Christian types fixated on the Book of Revelation. CNN reported both sides. While every TV station debated the cause, the world burnt.
Pregnant school nurse, HARPER GRAYSON, had seen lots of people burn on TV, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the…
I love how Alderman upends society and makes women the dominant gender in this novel. The political commentary in this story is on point, plus I loved the 'historical notes' that made it feel like a real-life textbook.
The idea that women evolve almost overnight and the chaos this brings is really well drawn. I also appreciated the fact that this new world wasn't utopian. Too many people believe women are automatically 'better' than men, but this novel illustrates how power corrupts.
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017
'Electrifying' Margaret Atwood
'A big, page-turning, thought-provoking thriller' Guardian
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All over the world women are discovering they have the power. With a flick of the fingers they can inflict terrible pain - even death. Suddenly, every man on the planet finds they've lost control.
The Day of the Girls has arrived - but where will it end?
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'The Hunger Games crossed with The Handmaid's Tale' Cosmopolitan
'I loved it; it was visceral, provocative and curiously pertinent . . . The story has stayed…
Before the Wizard. Before Glinda. Before Dorothy and her broken companions.
Oz was a land of darkness.
Spun into a world she doesn’t understand, Dolly is trapped in a twisted Oz—where skies are ashen, lands barren, and shadows whisper of horrors. No golden roads, only a path of crimson bricks,…
Barker's theory of parallel worlds in this book totally captivated me. The story world is so layered and nuanced—and nightmarish! Themes of God, gender, sex, and death weave together effortlessly.
I love it so much that I read this book at least once a year! What I liked most was the journey of the dual protagonists, Gentle and Jude, not to mention that killer twist at the end.
The story of three people on an epic journey through five Dominions to the border of the greatest mystery of all - the First Dominion. On the other side, if they dare to venture, lies the Holy City of the Unbeheld, where their highest hopes or deepest fears will be realized.
In a parallel world just like ours, a huge number of women practice some form of witchcraft. After decades of unease, relations break down when a misogynistic US president outlaws female power. He employs The Sentinel, a corrupted cabal of men, to enforce these new rules.
Women the world over are under threat for using their magic. Only ‘The One’ can reverse this turn of events: a traumatised teenage girl who accidentally killed her mother the first time she unleashed her powers. This girl ends up on the run with her father, a newly escaped convict and a rogue Sentinel agent. They are helped by an unlikely band of allies and dogged every step of the way by The Scourge...The Sentinel's top agent.
Daniel “Dan” Bluford is the Director of Polar City Single Organism Research Lab Facilities. A business he helped to create. The world’s leading architect of sustainable, ecologically conscious products for energy, manufacturing, water treatment, waste management, and environmental clean-up equipment. A company whose mission statement read in part, “Better environment…
This is the part of the Bible they don't want you to read. Lucifer is God’s attempt at perfection. But Lucifer betrays God to live among the mortals on Earth, making enemies of God and God’s many followers.
Lucifer is just like you and me, looking for love in all…
