28 Books Like the Hunger Games
Read my recommendations for books similar to The Hunger Games.
When the very first Hunger Games book published in 2008, I doubt that Suzanne Collins expected it to become the worldwide phenomenon that it is today.
The original books have sold millions of copies, and although the trilogy was completed in 2012, the popularity of these stories has endured. Recent years have seen additional books published in the series, including prequels The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping. A stage show even launched in London in 2025, which has been enormously popular.
Young adult dystopian fiction was particularly popular in the noughties and early twenty-tens, meaning there are lots of similar titles for fans of The Hunger Games to read.
Books Like the Hunger Games
This post includes lots of YA dystopian favourites, as well as a selection of newer titles. Enjoy!
Divergent by veronica Roth
Synopsis:
“For sixteen-year-old Tris, the world changes in a heartbeat when she is forced to make a terrible choice. Turning her back on her family, Tris ventures out, alone, determined to find out where she truly belongs.
Shocked by the brutality of her new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead…”
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Synopsis:
“When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he's not alone.
He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade – a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there – or what's happened to the world outside.
All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything – even the Grievers, half-machine, half-animal horror that patrol its corridors, to try and find out…”
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Synopsis:
"To Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red thief from the poverty-stricken Stilts where the only possible future is conscription into the empire's endless war, it seems like nothing will ever change, especially now her brothers and her best friend have all been called up to spill their blood for their oppressor.
Then she finds herself recruited to work in the Silver Palace by an enigmatic stranger who turns out to be none other than the crown prince himself, Tiberias Calore. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that she possesses a deadly power of her own - one that threatens to upend their entire world order.
Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to Maven Calore, their future king's brother. Even though she knows one misstep means certain death, Mare still works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, in a desperate guerrilla effort to bring down the Silver regime once and for all.
But this is a world not only of ultimate bloodshed but also of ultimate betrayal, and Mare has been sucked into a dangerous dance - Red against Silver, prince against prince, brother against brother, head against heart.”
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Synopsis:
“In the not-too-distant future, humans have cured hunger, disease, war, crime – even death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end a life – and they are commanded to do so to keep the size of the population under control.
Citra and Rowan are both chosen to be apprentices to a scythe – something neither of them wants. Forced together, they must perfect the skill of taking a life, competing against each other for just one scythe position. But then it becomes clear that the winning apprentice's first task will be to kill the loser…”
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Synopsis:
“In Tally Youngblood’s world, looks matter. At sixteen everyone undergoes a transformation from “Ugly” to “Pretty” and is catapulted into a high-tech paradise where the only thing that matters is having a great time and you never have to worry or think for yourself. Tally can’t wait.
But then, with just weeks to go to Tally’s birthday, her friend Shay runs away and the ugly truth about the world of the Pretties starts to reveal itself. What if the beauty of the Pretties utopia really is just skin deep?”
The Extinction Trials by Susan Wilson
Synopsis:
“Betrayal. Sacrifice. Survival. Welcome to The Extinction Trials...
In Stormchaser and Lincoln's ruined world, the only way to survive is to risk everything. To face a contest more dangerous than anyone can imagine. And they will do anything to win.
But in a land full of monsters - human and reptilian - they can't afford to trust anyone. Perhaps not even each other...”
An Ember in the Ashes
Synopsis:
“Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death.
When Laia’s grandparents are brutally murdered and her brother arrested for treason by the empire, the only people she has left to turn to are the rebels.
But in exchange for their help in saving her brother, they demand that Laia spy on the ruthless Commandant of Blackcliff, the Empire’s greatest military academy. Should she fail it’s more than her brother’s freedom at risk… Laia’s very life is at stake.
There, she meets Elias, the academy’s finest soldier. But Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined – and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.”
Delirium
Synopsis:
“They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now.
There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it.
But now love has been declared a dangerous disease.
Everyone who turns eighteen must be immunised with a procedure called the Cure. Lena Haloway is looking forward to being able to live the safe, predictable life the government claims the cure will bring. But meeting Alex, an enigmatic boy from the Wilds, might just make her question everything she's been raised to believe.”
Legend by Marie Lu
Synopsis:
“He is Day. The boy who walks in the light.
She is June. The girl who seeks her brother's killer.
On the run and undercover, they meet by chance. Irresistably drawn together, neither knows the other's past.
But Day murdered June's brother.
And she has sworn to avenge his death.
Selection by Kiera Cass
Synopsis:
“Thirty-five beautiful girls. Thirty-five beautiful rivals…
It’s the chance of a lifetime and 17-year-old America Singer should feel lucky. She has been chosen for The Selection, a reality TV lottery in which the special few compete for gorgeous Prince Maxon’s love.
Swept up in a world of elaborate gowns, glittering jewels and decadent feasts, America is living a new and glamorous life. And the prince takes a special interest in her, much to the outrage of the others.
Rivalry within The Selection is fierce and not all of the girls are prepared to play by the rules. But what they don’t know is that America has a secret – one which could throw the whole competition… and change her life forever.”
Gone by Michael Grant
Synopsis:
“Welcome to the FAYZ.
In the blink of an eye all the adults disappear in a small town in southern California and no one knows why.
Cut off from the outside world, those that are left are trapped, and there’s no help on the way. Sam Temple and his friends must do all they can to survive. Chaos rules the streets. Gangs begin to form. Sides are chosen – strong or weak. Cruel or humane.
And then there are those who begin to develop powers…”
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Synopsis:
“Welcome to Scion. No safer place.
The year is 2059. For two centuries, the Republic of Scion has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in Europe.
In London, Paige Mahoney holds a high rank in the criminal underworld. The right hand of the ruthless White Binder, Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare and formidable kind of clairvoyant. Under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing.
When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities. If she is to survive and escape, Paige must use every skill at her disposal – and put her trust in someone who ought to be her enemy.”
These Stolen Lives
Synopsis:
“Six years ago, seventeen-year-old Mora survived the terrifying Skøl invasion. They stole her land. They took her family. And now not even her life is her own.
Skøl culture revolves around one motto: Life is Golden. You must pay the government for the right to survive. If you can't, you're cast out at best - at worst, culled. Records of every citizen are held at the hallowed, highly secured Life Registry, which tracks who lives and who dies, who pays and who fails.
Colonized survivors like Mora face endless servitude, repaying the 'debt' of their years lived before the invasion. Mora is resigned to her fate, finding glimmers of joy in her tentative friendship with another repayer, the handsome, elusive Kit.
But then she finds out that twelve-year-old Zako, the closest thing she has to a brother, is to be put to death by the dangerous new Skøl Governor. Finding the courage to fight back, Mora and Kit conspire to smuggle Zako to safety. But their plan draws them into a dark mystery - and to a heart-pounding mission at the Life Registry itself. They must ultimately ask themselves: what are we worth to each other?”
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Synopsis:
“What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.
One snowy night in Toronto famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage whilst performing the role of a lifetime. That same evening a deadly virus touches down in North America. The world will never be the same again.
Twenty years later Kirsten, an actress in the Travelling Symphony, performs Shakespeare in the settlements that have grown up since the collapse. But then her newly hopeful world is threatened.
If civilization was lost, what would you preserve? And how far would you go to protect it?”
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Synopsis:
“Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed.
If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire.
As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.”
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Synopsis:
“Frida Liu had fed and changed her toddler Harriet. She had a work deadline - an article to finish, a job hanging by a thread, a file she'd left in the office. She would go get it. Harriet would be fine. But then the neighbours heard her crying.
Soon, the state will decide that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-trained. That bad mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Will their mistakes cost them everything?”
Children of Blood and Bone
Synopsis:
“Zélie remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. When different clans ruled – Burners igniting flames, Tiders beckoning waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoning forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, anyone with powers was targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has a chance to bring back magic to her people and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must learn to harness her powers and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orïsha, where strange creatures prowl, and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to come to terms with the strength of her magic – and her growing feelings for an enemy…”
Wool by Hugh Howey
Synopsis:
“In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.
Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.
To live, you must follow the rules. But some don't. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.
Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside. Jules is one of these people. She may well be the last.”
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Synopsis:
“The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers.
To Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red thief from the poverty-stricken Stilts where the only possible future is conscription into the empire's endless war, it seems like nothing will ever change, especially now her brothers and her best friend have all been called up to spill their blood for their oppressor.
Then she finds herself recruited to work in the Silver Palace by an enigmatic stranger who turns out to be none other than the crown prince himself, Tiberias Calore. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that she possesses a deadly power of her own - one that threatens to upend their entire world order.
Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to Maven Calore, their future king's brother. Even though she knows one misstep means certain death, Mare still works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, in a desperate guerrilla effort to bring down the Silver regime once and for all.
But this is a world not only of ultimate bloodshed but also of ultimate betrayal, and Mare has been sucked into a dangerous dance - Red against Silver, prince against prince, brother against brother, head against heart…”
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Synopsis:
“Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller envisions a nightmare scenario: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill until only one survivor is left standing.
Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan—where it became a runaway best seller—Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world.”
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Synopsis:
“Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks.
Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him - something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too.
With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.”
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Synopsis:
“Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.
Wanderer, the invading 'soul' who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.
Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.”
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Synopsis:
“The hauntingly prophetic classic novel set in a not-too-distant future where books are burned by a special task force of firemen. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness.
Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
The classic novel of a post-literate future, 'Fahrenheit 451' stands alongside Orwell's '1984' and Huxley's 'Brave New World' as a prophetic account of Western civilization's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity. Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which over fifty years from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.”
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Synopsis:
“After the1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
NOW IS THE DAWN OF THE 5TH WAVE
On a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs.
Runs from the beings that only look human, who have scattered Earth's last survivors.
To stay alone is to stay alive, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be her only hope.
Now Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death.”
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Synopsis:
“Nailer's time is running out. He's getting too big for his work - stripping copper wire from old oil tankers - and once he's off the crew he's on his own, stuck in a shack on the beach with no food, no money and no way of earning his keep.
He has one last chance. The thing all crew members dream about, a lucky strike, has hit in the shape of a clipper ship beached during the last hurricane. If he can hold off the rest of the scavengers long enough to get the oil out, he might just have a future.
But oil's not the only thing on the ship. And what Nailer finds is going to change his life forever.”
Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
Synopsis:
“Twelve girls. Three rounds. One ultimate prize… for the last one left alive. Edgewater Academy is a school for the very rich and very powerful.
Adina Walker is neither of those things. Alone and outcast, when she gets into a fight with a fellow student (and former friend), her scholarship to a top college is revoked, and her world falls apart.
Until she's invited to The Finish. Annual games for the brightest and the best, hosted by power-family The Remingtons, the winning prize for The Finish is everything Adina wants. This is her chance at the life she's dreamed of.
Then the contestants start to die.”
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Synopsis:
“I have no faith in love. Love cannot save me. I choose vengeance.
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises – giant transforming robots that battle aliens beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that their female co-pilots are expected to serve as concubines and often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, her plan is to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But after miraculously surviving her first battle, Zetian sets her sights on a mightier goal. The time has come to stop more girls from being sacrificed.”
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
Synopsis:
“Everyone loses something to the Tox; Hetty lost her eye, Reese's hand has changed, and Byatt just disappeared completely.
It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put in quarantine. The Tox turned the students strange and savage, the teachers died off one by one. Cut off from the mainland, the girls don’t dare wander past the school’s fence where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure as the Tox takes; their bodies becoming sick and foreign, things bursting out of them, bits missing.
But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her best friend, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie in the wilderness past the fence. As she digs deeper, she learns disturbing truths about her school and what else is living on Raxter Island. And that the cure might not be a cure at all…”