TOP 10 best books in the genre of dystopia: descriptions, reviews, pros and cons, tips for choosing

Utopia is the perfect place. Dystopia is its complete opposite. This is a dark, frightening, repulsive world that you don't want to live in.
Books in this genre are often created to draw attention to the problems of society. These stories tell about the future after global catastrophes, wars, about events in the past that have affected the whole world.

Dystopias give readers a reason for thought, help to rethink their lives, take a fresh look at modern society.

TOP 10 best dystopias

There are so many books in this genre, they are so different that it can be really difficult to choose the literature to your liking. The article will help you learn about the main representatives of the genre.

So, the 10 most popular dystopian books:

1984 by George Orwell

Probably the most famous dystopia. This is a novel about a totalitarian world in which almost our entire planet is divided between three superpowers: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Each of them has its own state ideology.
The events of the book are set in Oceania. People here have no rights, no individuality. The country has a flourishing bureaucracy, everyone lives in poverty. Love in this world is a crime. And everyone is watched by Big Brother - the leader of the state. At the same time, it is impossible to understand whether he really exists or is it just an image that is used for propaganda.
This novel is scary, with every page it gets darker and harder to read. But it is impossible to stop, as well as to forget.

The world of absolute totalitarianism. A future where there is no hope for the future. The past that changes every second. And a terrible present, without love and happiness. The piece definitely leaves an imprint in the memory.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

This is a novel about a future in which people are not allowed to read books. Moreover, they are destroyed as the most dangerous weapon. After all, it is books that make people think, and not just live, work and have fun.
The main character of the work is a firefighter. True, here the meaning of this profession is distorted. Its main task is to burn houses in which books were found.
This short story takes you into a world that seems so similar to ours. It is full of advertisements, gadgets, entertainment and unnecessary information.
A world where books have no place, not only because they are burned, but also because they are not read.
The work will make the reader think about where our society is heading.

Great! The novel conveys the consumer society so accurately that goosebumps run down the skin. After reading, you involuntarily look back at everything that happens in the world, where everything is decided for you, where everyone who gets out of the crowd becomes dangerous ...
One of the incomparable creations of Ray Bradbury.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

We are in the distant future. There are no more borders here, there is only one single state. In the society the author talks about, there is no love, no marriage.Children are grown artificially, and their future business and standard of living are predetermined in advance. Medicine has reached such heights that people do not get sick at all, they age slowly and die beautiful and full of strength. They also take drugs to forget about anxiety.
It is into such a world that a young man who was born in a natural way, who is so unlike people living in the new world, finds himself. They have no self-awareness, no individuality, and they are happy. And this is very frightening.

A truly powerful piece, striking, shocking. This is an eerie world where there is a semblance of freedom of choice and desire, but all this is deeply imposed and programmed. And the worst thing is that all this may well be in reality.

"We" Evgeny Zamyatin

Zamyatin shows life in the One State behind the Green Wall. Here people have no names, only numbers, identical apartments with glass walls, no affection and love, and children are raised by robots. Everything that can be addictive is forbidden in this world, so people do not smoke or drink, they do everything according to the clock and in the same way, and they are satisfied with such a life.
The novel is written in the form of a diary of the protagonist, whose name is D-503. He is a mathematician and writes not for himself, but to send notes on a spaceship, to tell how good life is on Earth, to the inhabitants of other planets.
The reader observes life in this world of the future not from the outside, he looks at it from the inside.

What remains when freedom, privacy, work is controlled by the state and cannot be resisted? This is what Zamyatin is talking about. I was impressed and hope that our world will never become the same as in this book.

Don't Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

A modern novel in which the reader finds himself not in the future, but in an alternative past. The author describes the Great Britain of the 20th century and a mysterious isolated boarding school, in which seemingly ordinary children are brought up. Educators seriously prepare them for the future, zealously monitor the health of the wards, but it is not immediately clear what exactly awaits the children ahead and how they got here.
The reader observes the main character of the book, who recalls her childhood in a boarding school, the truth that she learned and life after that.
This is a sad story about friendship, love and a possible future.

“Don't Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro is a very powerful novel that left after reading not just a residue of mixed feelings, but a huge amount of thoughts and impressions. It refers precisely to those books that once you read, you will not forget.

"Snail on the Slope" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

The novel consists of two parts, which are linked by the Forest.
In the first story, the reader, together with a philologist who has just arrived at the place of work, learns about the absurd and strange events that take place in the "Office of Forest Affairs" and the duties of its employees. He dreams of getting into the Forest.
The second part of the novel tells the story of a researcher who has lost his memory and now lives among the natives in the Forest. He tries to get out, return to his past life, but no one strives to help him.
This book will make you think, come back again and again to its events, scroll through them in your head. From those works that are difficult to comprehend after the first reading.

In this book, the feeling of hopelessness is incredibly conveyed, which makes you immerse yourself in what is happening with your head.
Description of the Forest, description of the Office - you can undoubtedly see modern society in everything.
I definitely liked the book. I recommend everyone to read it.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The author sends readers to the United States, where the government harasses business and gets rid of entrepreneurs and people who are active and creative. The main characters of the novel are just like that. They are active, smart, strive to achieve their goals and influence the world around them.
The book also contains riddles that the reader will solve in the course of the plot, many controversial points that make you think seriously.
“Atlas Shrugged” is a philosophical story that people should realize themselves, be someone, think, dream and achieve everything on their own.

This piece is not for everyone. It’s not only about America and capitalism, it’s about morality, ethics, honor, love and loyalty to our principles and beliefs. Incredible storyline, flawless heroes.
Endless praise to the wonderful author, I would read all of her works.

The Hunger Games by Susan Collins

A modern dystopian novel, in which, after a global catastrophe in North America, the state of Panem appeared with a capital and 12 counties (districts). In them, 74 years before the events of the book, there was an unsuccessful uprising against the unjust government in the capital.
Since then, for the edification of each year, a cruel and dangerous competition has been arranged. Children from districts become its participants. For several days they try to survive and fight each other until there is only one left. The tournament is held live, a real show is made from it and all residents are forced to watch it.
The main character of the novel becomes a participant in the Hunger Games. She tries to save herself and help her friend.

I love this book! It's infinitely interesting! The Hunger Games are not gloomy. The book talks about the right things: friendship, love for loved ones, courage, self-esteem, the choice between good and evil.

"Disassembled" by Neil Shusterman

A world where abortion is prohibited. But you can make a child from 13 to 18 years old an organ donor if he causes a lot of inconvenience to the parents. Medicine here allows you to disassemble a person as a whole. It is believed that in this way he will benefit society, serve a good cause after death, since he cannot do this during his lifetime.
In the center of the plot are three children with different destinies, who happened to be together.
This is a bitter and beautiful story about struggle, friendship, love, a society that tries to justify murder and people who do everything to change the world.

From the first pages you start to worry about the characters and completely immerse yourself in the book, it is read in one breath. The heroes are gradually changing, growing and, most importantly, they really want to live.

"When the Sleeper Wakes Up" by H.G. Wells

One of the first dystopias, written over 100 years ago.
The protagonist of the story falls into a lethargic sleep in the 19th century and wakes up 200 years later. When he wakes up, he becomes the richest man on the planet, because all this time his bank account has been constantly increasing. He owns absolutely everything, he can now rule the world. But while the hero was asleep, the Bar Council ruled on his behalf, which even now is in no hurry to share power.
There are few prophetic predictions in the book. In the world of the future Wells, there are no grandiose scientific discoveries, he did not go far ahead. The novel may seem naive to the modern reader. But Wells speaks very well of the fact that the opposition, having achieved power, becomes no better than those against whom it fought.

A novel in which class inequality and the desire of the people to change the existing way of life are clearly traced. The future that the writer describes is not happy, and sometimes frightening.

Tips for choosing a book

How do you decide which work to start reading? Here are some tips for choosing that will help beginners figure it out:

• You need to prepare for the fact that the story will be dark, and decide whether you definitely want to plunge into one. This genre does not initially imply kind and light books.
• Don't start with the most popular. Many readers cannot finish 1984 because the book is too depressing and oppressive. If you want to start with the classics of the genre, it is better to open "We" or "Brave New World".
• It is worth appreciating the literary basis of your favorite films. A movie has been made on many books, if you liked it, then, probably, the original source will be better.

And one more piece of advice. If you want to read a dark story, in which there will be many events and charming characters, it is better to pay attention to teenage dystopias. They have a place for friendship, love, their young heroes usually fight against injustice and try to make the world a better place.
Many such novels have been written. They talk about a society where love is forbidden (Lauren Oliver's Delirium), experiments are performed on adolescents (The Maze Runner by James Deschner), a dark post-apocalyptic world (Divergent by Veronica Roth). And even if these books were written for teenagers, they will be interesting for adults as well.