Dystopian novels recommendations and TBR

I have been suffering from reading slump this month for some reason. In general, the political climate in the country is bad and I am stressed out because of various things in personal life too. I haven’t been able to finish a single novel this month as I am not able to concentrate much on anything. In situations like this, dystopian novels come handy. When you think your life is horrible and you read a dystopian novel, you feel your world is much better than the one in the book. At least we don’t have people burning books or killing each other on streets right? 🙂

Here are some dystopian books that I have enjoyed in the past. I love this genre a lot and keep reading books from this genre often.

Adult dystopian novels: 

1. 1984 by George Orwell – This book was sold out on Amazon recently as everyone was reading this book. It is probably the most well-known book in this genre and the very first dystopian book that I read and loved. It was because of this book that I started searching for more books in the genre. It is about a government where you don’t have freedom to do anything and the “big brother” is always watching your every move. It is amazing, especially the ending which shook me. I also love Animal Farm by this author.
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – This is a perfect book for someone who loves books. In this book, firemen are not supposed to put out fires but instead they have to put books on fire. People are not supposed to own and read books. What I liked about the book is that there is a message, which will definitely suit our or our next gen. People these days (esp children) are glued to TV all the time and have stopped reading books for pleasure. I have seen many kids who hate books. So what happens if there are no books at all? Everyone is deprived of books, because books are meant to be burnt. Houses holding books are burnt.
3. The Handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood – I read this book when I was reading Persepolis and felt both the books were talking about the same thing, just that this book took it to extremes. In this book, women in the society are classified and there is a section of women who do not have any rights and their only job is to give birth to children. The world is pretty terrifying but I did not quite like the writing and the ending of the book.
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy – This is an end of the world book which gave me nightmares. I could not put this book down until I had finished it. It is about a father and son who have survived while most of the mankind has perished and it is about their journey together. This is probably my second most favorite dystopian book after 1984.
5. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – This is a fun read about a boy who is living in a world where people take refuge by logging into a virtual world called “OASIS”. The best part about Oasis is that your avatar defines you. The creator of Oasis sets up a contest, winner of which will inherit his multi-billion company and the book is all about this contest. I have a detailed review of this book here.

Young adult dystopian novels:

1. Chaos walking trilogy by Patrick Ness – This is one of my favorite YA dystopian novels. This is about a town where only men live and everyone can hear what the other person is thinking. All the women were killed by a germ and then a girl suddenly appears out of nowhere. It was amazing and I highly recommend this series.
2. The giver by Lois Lowry – In this book, everyone is happy in the world or they seem so. But when Jonas starts learning more about this world, he realizes that it is horrifying. It was amazing, the writing was as good as the story.
3. Lord of the flies by William Golding – It is about these boys who get stranded on an island, all by themselves. Story is awesome but the way it has been written made it little boring for me. But once I reached 75% of the book, it got interesting. Loved the way it ended too. If you have seen the “Lost” TV series, this book is very similar to that. In fact, I think they took inspiration from this book for the TV series.
4. The Maze Runner series by James Dashner – Another favorite YA series of mine which got better as I progressed. The third and final part was my favorite in the series. The first book is about some boys who are put in an enclosed area where there is a maze which has to be crossed in order to escape.
5. Hunger games by Suzanne Collins – I did like the first book, but I found it too violent for my taste so did not continue with the series. I loved watching the movies though.

Now I have these books on my TBR currently which I hope to get to soon. 

1. The circle by Dave Eggers – This book basically talks about the one thing that I am currently scared of. Nothing is private anymore after Internet came into existence. So this book is about a company like Facebook/Google which has access to every single information about an individual. I am currently reading this book and absolutely loving it.
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – I tried reading this book many years back but gave up after few chapters as I felt it was not realistic. But after hearing many good reviews recently, I want to give this one a try again.

Have you read any of these novels? If so, which one is your favorite? Which one would you recommend for me?