Book picks similar to
Dark Retreat by Grace Hamilton


post-apocalyptic
dystopian
apocalyptic
apocalypse

The Preparation


Glen Tate - 2012
    299 Days: The Preparation, the first book in the 299 Days series, depicts the inner struggles Grant must face as he exists in a social system he recognizes as unsustainable and on the verge of collapse, but one in which he has built his life around. What begins as a return to his roots, self-sufficiency and independence, becomes a full blown move to prepare for what may come. Engaging, insightful and a bit suspenseful, follow Grant’s transition from a self-perceived “sheeple” to a full-blown “prepper.” Will his fears come true? Is he an extremist? What if nothing happens? What if something does?

Homeostasis Lost


Kyan Yauchler - 2013
    They each wake early one late spring morning to find that nothing works—phones, cars, clocks. Everything involving electricity is dead. As the reality of what has happened comes to light, they begin to leave their homes, some in search of answers, others in desperate need of help. People around them are dying, planes are crashing, riots are forming, and no one can do anything about it. The three eventually cross paths and head into an uncertain future together in hopes of again finding balance—homeostasis—in this new world without power. That is, if they can survive.

Impact


Matthew Eliot - 2015
    They brought both destruction and disease, carrying a mysterious pathogen that has killed untold millions, while turning others into Meteorwraiths -- zombie-like human relics.Now, the tattered remnants of humanity do their best to survive.James Walscombe is senior safety specialist trapped inside top-secret US nuclear facility Atlantis, with two colleagues. They survived the impact, unscathed. But now, one of them has turned into a psychotic murderer.Alice and Adrian have lost everything except each other. Both barely twelve-years-old, they fight their way across the ruins of Europe, in a desperate search for their family.Father Paul struggles to keep his faith in a world resentful towards its gods. His life isn't the one he thought he'd chosen when he entered the seminary, and now new, dark deities are creeping out from the shadows.These are just some in the rich cast of characters in this epic tale.Earth's survivors are trying to adapt to the harsh realities of the post-impact world.But the worst is yet to come.IMPACT is a post-apocalyptic series. This is book one.

Defiance


William H. Weber - 2016
    Dale Hardy has managed to weather the storm by hunkering down on his homestead in Arizona. He grows his own crops, generates his own power and draws fresh water from his own deep aquifer.But when a nearby town's water supply dwindles in the searing Arizona heat, Dale's peaceful existence is threatened.The new mayor and sheriff want what he has and they're willing to do whatever it takes to get it. With a crooked local government conspiring against him, Dale will need to stand in defiance or risk losing everything.

Impact


Bruno Miller - 2019
    But while picking up his son at the Indianapolis airport, the country is thrust into nuclear warfare with the detonation of multiple EMPs. With fires burning out of control and the loss of the electrical grid, the entire country is thrown into chaos. Vince and his son, Cy, are forced to fight for their lives and escape the city as the world they once knew crumbles around them. As they try to return to their hometown of Cloverdale, Indiana, or what’s left of it, they struggle to accept their new environment. Forced to come to terms with the harsh reality of the nuclear attack, they press on through what is quickly becoming a post apocalyptic wasteland. Challenged with the absence of utilities and emergency services, they must save who and what they can before it’s too late.

Red Hill


Jamie McGuire - 2013
    Nathan has a wife, but can’t remember what it’s like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda’s biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals.When reports of a widespread, deadly “outbreak” begin to surface, these ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances and suddenly their fates are intertwined. Recognizing they can’t outrun the danger, Scarlet, Nathan, and Miranda desperately seek shelter at the same secluded ranch, Red Hill. Emotions run high while old and new relationships are tested in the face of a terrifying enemy—an enemy who no longer remembers what it’s like to be human.Set against the backdrop of a brilliantly realized apocalyptic world, love somehow finds a way to survive. But what happens when the one you’d die for becomes the one who could destroy you?Red Hill grabs you from page one and doesn’t let go until its stunning conclusion. This is #1 New York Times bestselling author Jamie McGuire at her unforgettable best.

Salt


Colin F. Barnes - 2014
    A series of fatal climatic disasters struck, entirely drowning the planet. Now, just one hundred and twenty-five souls remain, surviving on a flotilla of damaged ships. But their survival isn’t guaranteed. Facing severe threats to their numbers by a fatal bacterium and increasingly warring factions, they discover a serial killer within their midst. When the murderer targets Eva Morgan’s friend, her investigations draw her into a deadly mystery and a race against time before the killer’s actions destroy the fragile existence on the flotilla. The further she digs, the more secrets she uncovers, and the truth becomes a pawn in a game for ultimate survival. With humankind on the brink of extinction, the story of SALT will take you on a thrill ride of intense emotions and incredible revelations.

Infection


M.P. McDonald - 2016
    Not only is it deadly, but it changes victims' behavior in order to spread the disease before they die. When Cole Evans first heard about the flu outbreak at a military base on a remote island, he felt a little uneasy. He had worked at that base as an epidemiologist while serving in the Navy and knew the kind of diseases they studied there.If this was the disease he thought it was, the entire world could be facing a global pandemic like nothing it had seen before. Cole must find a way to protect his family from a disease that could wipe mankind from the face of the earth...

Zomblog


T.W. Brown - 2010
    ...Loving father... ...Dutiful worker... ...Aspiring rockstar. He had no idea if anyone would care, or take the time, to read his daily blog entries about his late night observations. But what started as an open monologue of his day-to-day life became a running journal of the firsthand account detailing the rising of the dead and the downfall and degradation of mankind...

EMP


Wilson Harp - 2014
    A massive solar flare has crippled the modern world and brought chaos and destruction. David Hartsman is stuck in the remote farm town of his youth on what was expected to be a short visit to check on his ailing parents. While his wife and his daughter are hundreds of miles away at home in Chicago, David must face the dangers associated with his own survival and the pressures of not being with his family. In a worldwide catastrophe, every struggle is personal. EMP is the dramatic story of one man and his struggle for survival in a world that is falling apart.

Sunset Rising


S.M. McEachern - 2013
    Welcome to the Biodome, where steel, rock and armed guards separate the privileged from the slaves ...Born and raised as a slave in the Pit, Sunny O’Donnell has always accepted that she'll spend her life working to keep the Dome running and, if she lives long enough, willingly meet her end in the annual Cull when she reaches the age of thirty-five. This was the price her ancestors paid for their place inside the Biodome, the only haven from the global nuclear war of 2024. But when Sunny’s mother is killed in the Cull, the hopeless reality of her existence becomes painfully clear. Bereft and disillusioned, she heads down a reckless path that sets off a riot in the Pit and leaves her accused of treason. Her only way of escaping public execution is to make a truce with her prison mate, who happens to be the heir to the dictatorship and hated enemy of the Pit. Now caught between two worlds on the brink of war, Sunny must weigh her own survival against risking everything to save the Pit. S.M. McEachern delivers the action and adventure of The Hunger Games, the intrigue of The City of Ember", and the romantic philosophical notes of Les Misérables in her debut novel set in a future that is disturbingly plausible.

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End


Manel Loureiro - 2007
    But he never expected that his anonymous blog would ultimately record humanity’s last days.The end of the world has begun…Governments scramble to stop the zombie virus, people panic, so-called “Safe Havens” are established, the world erupts into chaos; soon it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. Armed only with makeshift weapons and the will to live, a lone survivor will give mankind one last chance against…Apocalypse Z

Joshua


John S. Wilson - 2012
    He had to get away, from the rioting, the lawlessness, the killing. Away from the brutal gangs that ruled the highways. Then there was the boy that he found along the way, an orphan with no place to go. He couldn’t leave the child behind; that would be murder. Together they had to make their way across the razed landscape of post collapse America, west to where there was safety, a chance to begin again. If only they survived the journey.

What Survives of Us


Kathy Miner - 2014
    Medallion Honoree and Winner of National Indie Excellence AwardNaomi sees her first corpse in a Colorado Springs grocery store, but it won’t be her last. With devastating speed, a plague sweeps first the city, then the state, then the world, leaving less than 1% of the population to go on. Naomi, a gentle and sheltered housewife, finds herself fighting for survival in a world populated by desperate people, where might-makes-right, and mercy and compassion are in short supply. Fellow survivors Jack, a youth minister from Woodland Park; Grace, a 17-year-old high school student from Limon; and Naomi’s daughter Piper, a student at the University of Northern Colorado, all find themselves searching for a safe path forward…because it’s not just the world that has changed. The plague that decimates the human race also pushes mankind into evolutionary change. Those who survive are different, profoundly so, in ways they are just beginning to comprehend. As Naomi struggles to protect and reunite what’s left of her family, she must also learn to understand and accept the changes in herself. In this strange new world, her survival, and the survival of those she loves, depends on it.

The First Days


Rhiannon Frater - 2008
    Before the sun has set, they have become more than just friends and allies—they are bonded as tightly as any two people who have been to war together. During their cross-Texas odyssey to find and rescue Jenni’s oldest son, Jenni discovers the joy of watching a zombie’s head explode when she shoots its brains out. Katie learns that she’s a terrific tactician—and a pretty good shot. A chance encounter puts them on the road to an isolated, fortified town, besieged by zombies, where fewer than one hundred people cling to the shreds of civilization. It looks like the end of the world. But Katie and Jenni and many others will do whatever they have to to stay alive. Run, fight, pick each other up when they stumble, fall in love…anything is possible at the end of the world.