Book picks similar to
Gone to Ground by Cheryl Taylor


dystopia
post-apocalyptic
apocalyptic
dystopian

The Girl with All the Gifts


M.R. Carey - 2014
    Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.

The Last Ship


William Brinkley - 1988
    The world has been plunged into all-out nuclear war. Sailing near the Arctic Circle, the U.S.S. Nathan James is relatively unscathed, but the future is grim and Captain Thomas is facing mutiny from the tattered remnants of his crew. With civilization in ruins, he urges those that remain—one-hundred-and-fifty-two men and twenty-six women—to pull together in search of land. Once they reach safety, however, the men and women on board realize that they are earth's last remaining survivors—and they've all been exposed to radiation. When none of the women seems able to conceive, fear sets in. Will this be the end of humankind?

The China Pandemic


A.R. Shaw - 2013
    Whether accidental or intentional, only two percent of the population has survived including preppers and carriers. In the Pacific Northwest, a dying mother recognizes that her young child is among the immune. What will she do to ensure his survival before her own death? Meanwhile, as natural predators come into the land of the living, Graham has buried his last remaining family member and promised to carry out his father’s wise advice to make it to the family cabin. He meets with triumph and tragedy, learning new rules along the way. Just when he thinks he’s finally got a handle on this new world, he’s taken by surprise, as he learns he’s not alone. Will he find the strength to escape these dangers and go on living? And more importantly, will he have the ability to protect those he's come to trust?

Wanderers


Chuck Wendig - 2019
    She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them--and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them--the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart--or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

The Dog Stars


Peter Heller - 2012
    Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley. But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for.

After the End


Amy Plum - 2014
    They’re hunting her to save their future.World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there.At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life.When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie.Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.

The Remaining


D.J. Molles - 2012
    On the surface, a plague ravages the planet, infecting over 90% of the populace. The bacterium burrows through the brain, destroying all signs of humanity and leaving behind little more than base, prehistoric instincts. The infected turn into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed. Some day soon, Captain Harden will have to open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into this new wasteland, to complete his very simple mission: Subvenire Refectus.To Rescue and Rebuild.

Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises


Max Velocity - 2013
    The storm was rising for some time, a Resistance in the hearts of American Patriots to the strangulation of liberty by creeping authoritarianism. The scene was set. It just took a little push. A terrorist attack on the United States leads to war with Iran, followed by collapse, as the economy goes over the cliff. The final blow is a widespread opportunistic Chinese cyber attack, taking down the North American Power Grid. From the ashes, the Regime emerges. Liberty is dead. What remains of the United States of America is polarized. The Resistance Rises. Jack Berenger is a former Army Ranger Captain, living in northern Virginia with his family. Following the collapse, they fall foul of Regime violence and evacuate to the farm of an old Army friend. Jack is recruited into the resistance, to train the fledgling forces in the Shenandoah Valley. The fight begins. Live Hard, Die Free. Resist.

When the English Fall


David Williams - 2017
    Once-bright skies are now dark. Planes have plummeted to the ground. The systems of modern life have crumbled. With their stocked larders and stores of supplies, the Amish are unaffected at first. But as the English (the Amish name for all non-Amish people) become more and more desperate, they begin to invade Amish farms, taking whatever they want and unleashing unthinkable violence on the peaceable community. Seen through the diary of an Amish farmer named Jacob as he tries to protect his family and his way of life, When the English Fall examines the idea of peace in the face of deadly chaos: Should members of a nonviolent society defy their beliefs and take up arms to defend themselves? And if they don’t, can they survive?David Williams’s debut novel is a thoroughly engrossing look into the closed world of the Amish, as well as a thought-provoking examination of “civilization” and what remains if the center cannot hold.

The End Begins


James D. Dean - 2015
    The “what ifs” and the planning were just conversations to have fun with. Who would be the first to go? Where would people be safe? Who would survive the zombie apocalypse? No one is laughing anymore. Awakening to a nightmare, Dan Foster is forced to flee his suburban Chicago home. Together with his wife Abby and little girl Katie, they begin a dangerous trek across the wintery Midwest in hopes to reconnect with his brother in the heartland of Wisconsin. Dan soon discovers the ravenous hordes of undead are not the only things out there that threaten the lives of his family. Can he stay the man he is, or will he need to become something more dangerous in order to protect the ones he loves? In the end, how much of Dan’s humanity will survive this dying world?

The End


G. Michael Hopf - 2013
    This youthful idealism vanished one fateful day in a war torn city in Iraq. Ten years later, he is still struggling with the ghosts of his past but must now face a new reality thrust on him and his family. North America, Europe and the Far East have all suffered a devastating Super-EMP attack that has caused catastrophic damage to the power grids and all electrical devices. With nothing working from cars to phones and with the total collapse of the economic infrastructure, Gordon must fight for the limited and fast dwindling resources. He knows survival requires action and cooperation with his neighbors; but as daily life continues to break down so does all sense of civility within his community. With each passing day Gordon makes choices that would seem extreme in today's world but necessary in this new world.

Sanctioned Catastrophe


Thomas A. Watson - 2014
    The ultimate prepper’s adventure. The journey begins here! Nathan Owens was just topping up his tank when the gas pump stopped working. So did the radio. And the lights. Then planes starting falling out of the sky, and plutonium-powered satellites began to explode. A massive solar storm–the Coronal Mass Event that had been predicted for years–finally hit Earth, and the electromagnetic pulse it created instantaneously threw the world back to the Bronze Age. Soon the radioactive fallout from space would spread death and disease across the globe. Owens and his friends had been preparing for something like this for years, and now it had finally happened. But when it came, it came at the worst possible time. He was a thousand miles away from his family and his redoubt – and his only chance to survive the dark days ahead. If he ever hoped to escape, he would have to draw together a team of survivalists to save those nearby before he could even begin the last, most important journey of his life. And there was one thing he hadn’t counted on at all: the EOTWAWKI wasn’t just a natural disaster. There was a sinister, almost omnipotent human force behind it…and it wanted him dead.

Wolf and Iron


Gordon R. Dickson - 1990
    Now he must make his way across a violent and lawless America, in search of a refuge where he can keep the spark of knowledge alive in the coming Dark Age. He could never make it on his own, but he has found a companion who can teach him how to survive on instinct and will. Jeebee has been adopted by a great Gray Wolf.

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.

Monster Island


David Wellington - 2004
    The most "developed" nations of the world have fallen to the shambling zombie masses. Only a few pockets of humanity survive — in places rife with high-powered weaponry, such as Somalia. In New York City, the dead walk the streets, driven by an insatiable hunger for all things living. One amongst them is different; though he shares their appetites he has retained his human intelligence. Alone among the mindless zombies, Gary Fleck is an eyewitness to the end of the world — and perhaps the evil genius behind it all. From the other side of the planet, a small but heavily-armed group of schoolgirls-turned-soldiers has come in search of desperately needed medicine. Dekalb, a former United Nations weapons inspector, leads them as their local guide. Ayaan, a crack shot at the age of sixteen, will stop at nothing to complete her mission. They think they are prepared for anything. On Monster Island they will find that there is something worse even than being undead, as Gary learns the true price of survival.