My big and exciting (exciting? idek) question for you today, is are you in isolation? This is like the most epic dystopian novel come to life right now, isn’t it?! Obviously, it’s quite serious too so no dismissing that – BUT – it made me think that I want to go rogue and pick my own topic for this week.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and this week’s prompt is:

Spring 2020 TBR

But my life is so busy being back at uni full time and also working close enough to full time that I’ve actually, and quite genuinely, run out of time for much reading. Somehow, I had not anticipated this. So no way are we making a TBR – that would only be setting myself up for failure (unless I get quarantined and thus have time to read, but shush).

INSTEAD. Let us look at some of the best dystopian novels that play with the idea of isolation and dramatic consequences of being cut off from the world! As a side note, this is actually going to be a mix of books I’ve read and books on my TBR.

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1. Maze Runner
by James Dashner

Let me ease you in with a modern classic: MAZE RUNNER. This book is a high stakes story of escaping a maze, essentially. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it – perhaps it rings true with your feelings about heading out to acquire toilet paper? (If anyone reads this outside of the time this was published, that is going to become a very strange statement indeed.) The safety of the safe, centre versus the need to make it to the outside for something is a great theme to be exploring today!

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2. The Program
by Suzanne Young

This is definitely capturing some of the feelings going around at the moment. The Program is a book on my TBR that is about the world when suicide among teens becomes an epidemic. The only proven course of treatment is ‘the program’: but this not only cures their symptoms . . . but wipes their memories! DRAMA ENSUES, I’M SURE.

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3. Soundless
by Richelle Mead

Soundless has been slammed by reviewers but there is just the most stubborn part of me that still desperately wants to read it: this is on my TBR because it sounds so intriguing. We have a community of deaf people who suddenly begin to also lose their sight. As the epidemic spreads through the village, starvation threatens. This has been compared (perhaps wrongly, given the reviews?) to The Hunger Games.

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4. This Splintered Silence
by Kayla Olson

Okay, this list is actually getting me excited to read all these topical books. Maybe if I get isolated I’ll read this themed TBR just to really sink into the mood. This Splintered Silence follows the story of a spaceship where all the first generation crew members were wiped out by a virus. The second-generation crew members are supposed to be immune . . . but suddenly they start falling ill and die – and there’s reason to believe this might have been engineering and not a natural fluke. LIKE OH MY GOD: let’s all stop and read this just to freak ourselves out!

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5. The Extinction Trials
by S M Wilson

Here, I present you with a perfect government-controlling story: The Extinction Trials. I love the sound of this book! We have a world where humans and dinosaurs (‘monsters’) coexist: humans on one part and dinosaurs on the other. Except (of course) all the good resources are on the dinosaur part and so the government says: LET US BUILD COLONIES. And everyone fights to the death over tinned tomatoes, obviously.

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6. Internment
by Samira Ahmed

This one hits on a more serious note, looking forward to a dystopian North America where Muslim American citizens are forced into internment camps. Whilst this is a different kind of isolation, I think the concept of this book is harrowing enough to deserve a place on this list.

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7. Nil
by Lynne Matson

I’m a big fan of this series (though I still have the finale to read). This is all about a mythical (supposedly mythical, anyway) island where teenagers sudden find themselves inexplicably isolated and stranded. They have exactly one year to escape the island or they die. Simple as that.

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8. The Gender Game
by Bella Forrest

An incredible, exciting story about gender segregation! This story plays with an amazing concept and I really need to read more of the series. After humans muck up the planet and nearly run themselves extinct, men and women are divided when it comes to rebuilding. Women think they can learn from the male-driven world of the past and run the country (I think it’s set in America) better; whilst men believe they have the answer. It’s a tense split of worlds where the role of man and woman is radically redefined depending on which side of the border you’re on.

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9. Delirium
by Lauren Oliver

This book shook me up so well. I loved this series and will never forget how consumed I was with the story whilst I was reading it. In this world, at a certain age, you are ‘cured’ from love. Up until that point, everyone has to tread so carefully around feelings (isolating their heart, you could say) until the time of their procedure. But naturally, the story gets a whole lot complicated.

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10. After the End
by Amy Plum

I’m a big Amy Plum fan and this series was WILD. The plot twist at the end was wicked and cruel. This follows a group of people who have gone back to essentially living a nomadic lifestyle (North America) after the world was all but destroyed by previous generations. The book follows this tribe and it is FASCINATING.

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That’s a wrap!

What’s your favourite type of dystopian?

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~~ Kirstie ~~

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