Dystopian Books To Read if You Love Squid Game
When Squid Game debuted its streaming series on Netflix, it became an instant hit for viewers worldwide. The show blends action, thriller, mystery, and dystopia themes and follows a deadly competition based on a South Korean childhood game. Contestants are selected based on their desperation and need to get out of debt. The series explores capitalism, income equality, and classism, begging the question: How far will you go to get out of debt?
Whether you are looking for a dystopian novel, a page-turning graphic novel, or you want to prep your bunker for the last days, these stories will offer you multiple possibilities on how one can survive a crisis such as state surveillance, technocratic societies, and climate change.
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Add to BookshelfThe Dividing Sky
by Jill Tew
Squid Game touches on many societal ills, including classism and capitalism. This book creates similar moral crossroads but adds a touch of romance for younger readers. In this dystopian world, citizens live in a technocracy where memories are valuable assets. Liv will do anything to escape the poverty she has endured all her life, even if it means doing illegal activities to survive. By using the neurochip that’s implanted in her brain, Liv sells memories to the highest bidder. When she is given a risky assignment, she runs into an attractive Forceman who wants to condemn her for selling the memories.
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$12.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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Bash! Vol.1 (Graphic Novel)
by Rudy Gobert
One of the most compelling aspects of Squid Game is how brutally competitive it is. This graphic novel by NBA star Rudy Gobert captivates readers with the story of a young man named Rudy who dreams of competing in the high-octane game of BASH; an intergalactic basketball tournament that challenges athletes to compete in the harshest environments across the galaxy. Rudy is the underdog, and despite his impoverished background, he summons the willpower to improve his game. As Rudy gains notoriety as a promising BASH star, there is a darkness that looms near him as he comes to learn the truth about his family’s past and the power he holds.
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$17.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Book of Elsewhere
by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
The Hollywood action star-turned-author teamed up with British fantasy writer China Miéville to create an explosive thriller fantasy about a god named Unute. Unute was created from the power of blue lightning, and now that he has existed for more than a thousand centuries, he is ready to die. Unute decides to partner with the military in the present day and permits them to use his body for testing as they hope to produce the ultimate war machine. If you are attracted to the weirdness of the TV series, then this is a must-have book to add to your TBR.
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$20.00Preorder from:
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The Last Bookstore on Earth
by Lily Braun-Arnold
After a devastating storm upends a significant portion of the Northeastern border, a teen reluctantly finds shelter in a partially debilitated bookstore in the neighborhood where she grew up. Now, with no family and friends, she trades the books in her store for goods with the few others who survived the storm. But when word gets out that another storm is coming, Liz decides to bunker down in the only place she feels safe. That all changes when a girl named Maeve breaks into her bookstore-turned-home. As the two girls realize they are complete opposites of each other, that doesn’t diminish the spark fluttering between them as they try to outsmart the remaining inhabitants looking for shelter.
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$19.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Plotters
by Un-su Kim
In this alternate historical view of Seoul, it is not the assassins who hold all the cards, but the plotters. The plotters engage in a criminal exercise against one another as they determine who deserves to live or die in the underground crime world. But who are these plotters? Readers will meet Reseng, who has lived most of his life as an assassin and is ready to be a plotter. Now that this twisted crime mystery is available in translation, you can finally add it to your bookshelf.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Land of Milk and Honey
by C Pam Zhang
Here’s another dystopian novel where evil, rich, authoritative individuals rule through greed and scarcity as the world slowly crumbles from an unexplainable fog. An aspiring chef is desperately looking for work to pay off her debts as she helps her mother, who is still in America. After answering an ad for chefs, she finds herself in a culinary competition located in the mountains, far away from the everyday citizens who are starving and living in toxic conditions. Her employers are evil geniuses who create aristocratic-level menus for the chefs to prepare the extinct animals they are growing in their secret lab in the mountains.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Dream Hotel: A Read with Jenna Pick
by Laila Lalami
Another aspect of the daunting series is the concept of surveillance. In this novel, Sara is stopped while traveling home from abroad. The agency responsible for interrupting her journey is known as the Risk Assessment Administration. Often referred to as the RAA, this fictitious agency operates as a crime deterrent by stopping crimes before they happen. Confused, Sara is escorted to a facility where she meets other women like her who are being held due to their dreams and the potential harm they pose. This novel explores the intersection of gender, technology, and freedom in an eye-opening speculative mystery that will leave you wanting more.
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$29.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Chain Gang All Stars: A Read with Jenna Pick
by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
This action-packed dystopia blends the horrors of capitalism and privatized institutions in a vicious but necessary tale of prisoners fighting for their freedom in America. Meet sapphic couple Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker, who are the celebrated women gladiators of Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, also known as CAPE. When they fight opponents, their matches are televised for the world to see as they are given uniforms and costumes to reflect their corporate sponsors. As protestors condemn the actions of those responsible for this for-profit, deadly game, Thurwar keeps her eyes on the prize by counting down the days she has until she’s released.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Counterweight
by Djuna
Mix a little bit of detective mystery with a sprinkle of cyberpunk, and you will get this fast-paced sci-fi fantasy novel. Taking place on the fictional island of Patusan, one corporation known as LK vows to do the impossible for humankind. LK plans on constructing the first elevator humans can access to travel to space. For the residents of Patusan, this world-shattering event comes at a cost to their everyday living. Now, Patusan is the last stop for many people who want to leave the planet. As the people resisted by protesting and organizing liberation movements, the company continued to expand its reach.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Snowglobe
by Soyoung Park
In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the bitter cold — but this perfect society is hiding dark and dangerous secrets within its frozen heart. Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of 24-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city. Translated for the first time into English from the original Korean, the Snowglobe duology is a groundbreaking exploration of personal identity and the future of the world as we know it.
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$13.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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The City Inside
by Samit Basu
Read by Reena Dutt
Travel to a near-future New Delhi landscape where cyberpunk dystopia and fantasy meet. Follow the day-to-day activities of two people who live in separate worlds. First, Joey is finding herself managing the multiple social feeds of India’s newest celebrity, who is also her ex. Despite benefiting from the perks that come with the limelight, she finds herself losing herself beyond a facade based on data and metrics. Then there is the wealthy, connected socialite Rudra. Rudra left his name and family’s wealth to live in a working-class community where nobody knew him. When his father passes away, Rudra and Joey find themselves crossing paths as they try to escape state surveillance and digital predatory practices.
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The Violence
by Delilah S. Dawson
If you had to select a word to describe Squid Game, it would be “violence.” Instead of a game, what if a mysterious plague is bestowed on the population that causes people to unleash random acts of violence against each other? That is what happens in this chilling thriller, where Chelsea Martin uses a devastating opportunity to seek freedom. Despite being married to her husband, whom she’s known since high school, her union is anything but happy. Her husband has unleashed domestic violence on their household, and she now fears for the future of her daughters. When the time arrives, Chelsea aims to find a way to avenge the pain her husband has inflicted on her.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Memory Police
by Yoko Ogawa
Can you imagine a world where your memories could get you arrested? This intriguing Japanese sci-fi fantasy takes place on a mysterious island with a small population who is oblivious to their surroundings. Small items such as non-essential things like socks and ribbons begin to disappear. But then bigger things vanish, like buildings and people. But, one young novelist suspects her editor might be one of the few people who can retain this information, thus making him a target. In an attempt to preserve memories, the author writes what has occurred to her editor into her upcoming book while hiding her editor in her home.
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Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
This unnerving fable centers on the last days of civilization in this odd, post-apocalyptic novel. With multiple points of view that intertwine, readers get a front-row seat at how a Hollywood actor and a group of artists in a Midwestern town navigate a deadly pandemic they cannot escape. After 20 years, the artists roamed the communities and settlements of the survivors. As a collective they are known as The Traveling Symphony, as they remain dedicated to spreading art to humanity. But the group finds themselves on the same path as a self-proclaimed prophet who promises to destroy everything with violence and turmoil.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline
Set in 2044, Wade Watts is just like everyone else in his world. He would rather be anywhere but in reality, and what’s outside his home and the world is nothing but despair. To pass the time, Wade plugs into a virtual reality game called OASIS, as many people have opted to live in the game permanently – if they can afford it. When Jim Halliday, the creator of OASIS, dies, everyone scrambles to put together the eccentric clues he left behind because the winner will be rewarded with a fortune that will change their lives. While Wade meets friends along the way, there’s an unscrupulous company scheming to eliminate the top players with hopes to privatize the video game.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
At the dawn of a new world war, a plane crashes on a remote, unknown island. The only survivors are a group of young boys who conclude that there aren’t any adults amongst them. At first, the boys celebrate the idea of being unsupervised, but as time goes on, they realize they will eventually need some societal order. As they try to build a new society on this strange island, they discover some peculiar happenings around them. This classic shares a bleak future for the boys as they transform into their animalistic instincts to survive.
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$27.00Buy from Other Retailers:
