Too Real Dystopians
Dystopian fiction that feels a little bit too real. Imagined futures, apocalypses, society collapse, oh my!
created by Ashlantic
last updated September, 2025
Comments
I'd add The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (it's a trilogy) by Meg Elison.
Great list, adding to my TBR :D I don't know why I love dystopians so much because they stress me out! I'd add:
- The Future by Catherine Leroux
- The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
- The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
- Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (got some fantasy elements too so maybe not 100% fitting the list)
- After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
- Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
- Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
- Y: The Last Man graphic novels
Those all sound very interesting - and I haven't read any of them. My tbr is growing and growing.
Have you read the Unwind series?
omfg i LOVE the Unwind series. Whenever I try and blurb it to people to make them read it, they are like wtf and i just want to scream TRUST ME. His other popular series Scythe is also so so so good!
Could also add Gary Shteyngart's "Super sad true love story" and Jack Womack's "Random acts of senseless violence"
Such a good list! I'd like to recommend another coming out on August 12 that i got an ARC of: These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma.
I also recommend John Marrs' books! The One, Marriage Act, The Family Experiment. All feel like the not too distant future!
I'm so very interested in all the book on the list as well as in the comments!
I also have some additions:
The Stand by Stephen King
The Silo trilogy by Hugh Howey
Blue Skies by T.C. Boyle (not as dark as you usual dystopia)
Bird Box by Josh Malerman (or is this rather horror?)
Self-rec alert: my recently released debut would fall into the "too real dystopians" category, if that's your vibe! It's called Forever After, by Derek Robinson.
A friend who recently finished reading it described the premise as "just a bit too possible... scary."
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