Book picks similar to
The Colony by Kathleen Groger
young-adult
dystopian
dystopia
science-fiction
Awaken
Katie Kacvinsky - 2011
Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie’s okay with the solitary, digital life—until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren’t meant to be alone, he tells her. Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her—a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking. In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space.
Tainted
Alexandra Moody - 2014
All she has ever known are the artificial confines of underground fallout shelter, the ARC. Under the Council’s rule, ruthless officials roam the hallways, community comes first and everyone lives in fear of failing their annual testing. With one simple blood test you could be taken away without any warning or a word of goodbye.There are only a few people in the ARC who Elle truly cares about and she desperately tries to keep them at arm’s length away for fear of losing someone else. Especially, her best friend Sebastian who she denies her feelings for, even from herself. Chilling secrets and mysterious disappearances plague the ARC, but Elle would never dare to voice the forbidden questions that linger on her lips. That is until they take the wrong person.No one is truly safe in the ARC and Elle is about to experience her own personal apocalypse. With nothing left to lose she will risk everything to uncover the truth about the tainted.Will she find what she's looking for or are some secrets better left buried deep underground?Don't miss the first book in this young adult series!
Born
Tara Brown - 2012
There are no regular people anymore."Ten years ago when the world ended she ran for her life.Five weeks ago the world she'd hidden from came knocking on the door of her secluded cabin.Ten days ago she found salvation hiding amongst the dead.Yesterday she went back for the living.Today she wonders if she will live to see tomorrow.What do you do when the world you were born to is gone?Where do you hide when even your own body isn't safe?Emma ran when her daddy told her to. She hid like he said she should. He was the first person she turned her back on. The first one she let die.Ten years has gone by and she still lives by the simple rules he taught her when she was nine years old."Don't help anyone. Don't go where other people are unless you have to. Trust no one. Always pull the trigger."Until one night she hears the worst sound in the world, a knock. A simple, timid knock, on the door to her cabin.Only the voice of the brave little girl, ready to die for her brother, persuades Emma to open the door.As her fingers turn the lock, she has a terrible feeling she will regret her decision.But even as regret fills her world, so do love and companionship. Things she never imagined she would ever have again.Everything comes at a cost; you decide what you'll pay.
Raising Stony Mayhall
Daryl Gregory - 2011
Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda — and he begins to move.The family hides the child — whom they name Stony — rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow. For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret — until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.
Icons
Margaret Stohl - 2013
The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside—safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.She's different. She survived. Why?When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions—which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses—may actually be their greatest strengths.Bestselling author Margaret Stohl delivers the first book in a heart-pounding series set in a haunting new world where four teens must piece together the mysteries of their pasts—in order to save the future.
Zocopalypse
Angel Lawson - 2015
If he doesn’t, she and her mother must find her sister, over three hundred miles away, in one of the states under quarantine. A virus is infecting the healthy, turning them into raging, cannibalistic versions of their former selves. Dr. Ramsey has spent months studying the E-TR virus, including Alex in his trials. Before he leaves he hands Alexandra what may be the most valuable information in existence. Information that more than one powerful group would go to great lengths to possess. Alexandra is no match for this world—one where men and women crave the taste of flesh and the weak are a liability, but she made her father a promise. One she intends to keep no matter how many lives are lost on the way.
Pulse
Craig Zerf - 2014
A man who has been trained in the savage arts of war. A man who lives his life according to a creed. A simple man who wants none of the power thrust upon him. This man is Marine Sergeant Nathaniel Hogan, seconded to the American Embassy in London and, although he does not know it, he is – The Forever Man.The first pulse occurred in the old calendar year of 2022. A sequence of gigantic solar flares created a series of massive electromagnetic pulses that stopped the heart of our modern world and returned us to the DARK AGES.Tens of thousands died within the first few hours as airplanes fell from the skies, hospitals ceased to work and every form of modern transportation ground to a halt.Within days the death toll had reached the hundreds of thousands. Fires raged unchecked through the cities, water supplies ran out and survivors turn on each other as mob rule surpassed all else.And Nathaniel finds that he has been changed by the huge amounts of Gamma radiation in the solar flares. They have enhanced his natural abilities, giving him increased speed, strength and healing. Indefinitely extended his life span and enabling him to be able to draw on the power of the solar flares to create magik.But even The Forever Man was not prepared for what happened next, as the ongoing flares tore a hole in time and space, creating a gateway through which ‘they’ appeared. From the realms of fantasy came the orcs, the goblins and, leading them all – the Fair Folk.Were they here to help – or to conquer?
Inhuman
Kat Falls - 2013
Many of the people there exhibit varying degrees of animal traits. Even the plantlife has gone feral.Crossing from west to east is supposed to be forbidden, but sometimes it’s necessary. Some enter the Savage Zone to provide humanitarian relief. Sixteen-year-old Lane’s father goes there to retrieve lost artifacts—he is a Fetch. It’s a dangerous life, but rewarding—until he’s caught.Desperate to save her father, Lane agrees to complete his latest job. That means leaving behind her life of comfort and risking life and limb—and her very DNA—in the Savage Zone. But she’s not alone. In order to complete her objective, Lane strikes a deal with handsome, roguish Rafe. In exchange for his help as a guide, Lane is supposed to sneak him back west. But though Rafe doesn’t exhibit any signs of “manimal” mutation, he’s hardly civilized . . . and he may not be trustworthy.
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.
The Planetsider
G.J. Ogden - 2018
Even then, the war with the GPS had raged for almost a century; a war that had left their planet scorched and irradiated.With the UEC moon base facing annihilation, Maria volunteers for a desperate mission to save what remains of her people. The perilous assignment will force her down to the surface of the war-ravaged wasteland planet. There she will face the monstrous consequences of their apocalyptic conflict; the mutated savages known simply as the Maddened.Battling these dangers are the planetsiders; a scattered cluster of survivors, immune to the poisonous radiation. Their blood is the key to Maria’s survival. She must find them, and convince them to help her.But while the planetsiders are wilfully ignorant of their world’s dark history, one amongst them burns to know the truth. He is the idealistic ranger and warrior, Ethan. But will Ethan risk everything to fight at Maria’s side? If you love the tense action of Aliens and thrillers like World War Z, you’ll love The Planetsider’s unique blend of post-apocalyptic military sci-fi.
Since the Sirens
E.E. Isherwood - 2016
Who will save Grandma? What would you do if a mysterious plague began to devour your city and the dead started banging on your door?Fifteen-year-old Liam Peters is spending the summer with his great-grandmother (not by choice) when the authorities of St. Louis spin up the tornado sirens to announce a civic emergency. Police robocalls declare mass disturbances throughout the city, suggesting citizens try to escape to safer jurisdictions. Radio offers contradictory instructions: stay inside, hunker down, ride it out. The President tries to convey a message of hope to calm a scared populace, but the tone is interpreted as a goodbye. The mixed messaging sends society--already on the verge of panic--into a tailspin. When the President signs off, half the city hunkers down while the other half dashes for the interstate.Now Liam is faced with his first dilemma of an increasingly complicated morning. Should he stay with Grandma and attempt to defend her urban home against both the living and the dead, or should he try to get her out of the city to his parents' home in the suburbs? Nothing is ever as simple as it sounds when life and death are on the line.As an avid reader of zombie literature, Liam realizes you go into the zombie apocalypse with the army you have, not the one you want. He sees himself as an unlikely savior, with an unlikely ally, but he embarks on the hero's journey nonetheless. As the city implodes, they race against the clock to outpace desperate refugees, gang violence, criminal opportunists, overzealous military units, scared civilians, and a growing horde of bloodthirsty zombies. He does it while burdened with a woman who is unable to walk more than ten feet without help.As they chase the elusive vision of safety, Liam comes to appreciate why there are no atheists in foxholes.
Introducing the Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse series.
Book 1: Since the Sirens
Book 2: Siren Songs
Book 3: Stop the Sirens
Author's Notes: Since the Sirens can be read as a standalone story. It doesn't end with a cliffhanger. Books 2 and 3 are optional reading beyond this first volume. I hope you'll enjoy Liam and Grandma's journey enough to follow them further, but as an author and a reader of zombie books, I abhor misleading or otherwise trapping readers.This cover replaces original edition ASIN B018H82ZYU.
The In-Betweener
Ann Christy - 2015
Two years after the end of the world, she talks to herself and smashes heads with her favorite sledgehammer. This is not the life she imagined for herself as her eighteenth birthday rolls past.It’s time for her to look beyond her safe, little hiding place to the world beyond. The madness of the apocalypse is ending, the dangerous in-betweeners - those no longer quite human, but not yet dead - are few and far between. The deaders that cover the world are going still, their senses dulled by time and the elements. The problem is that there are no people...none. Emily has found not a single living human when she's dared to step outside her safe-zone.As Emily weighs the heavy cost of surviving alone and begins to accept the inevitable, everything changes once again. One of the deaders at her gate turns out not to be a deader at all. He’s an in-betweener different from any other she has seen before, and he carries a message. If Emily has the courage to step beyond her gate and the skills to survive a perilous trip in a dead world, she might just have a chance at life...a life with humans...after all.The In-Betweener is book one in the thrilling post-apocalyptic adventure series, Between Life and Death.
The Institution
Dylan Steel - 2016
And she begins to question everything she’s ever known.She has to play along if she has any hope of escaping.But the Institution is hiding some dark secrets. And they won’t let her leave.Can Sage keep up the ruse she’s begun?
Frontier Justice
Arthur T. Bradley - 2013
Governments have collapsed. Cities have become graveyards filled with unspeakable horror. People have resorted to scavenging from the dead, or taking from the living. The entire industrialized world has become a wasteland of abandoned cars, decaying bodies, and feral animals. To stay alive, U.S. Deputy Marshal Mason Raines must forage for food, water, and gasoline while outgunning those who seek to take advantage of the apocalyptic anarchy. Together with his giant Irish wolfhound, Bowie, he aligns with survivors of the town of Boone in a life and death struggle against a gang of violent criminals. With each deadly encounter, Mason is forced to accept his place as one of the nation's few remaining lawmen. In a world now populated by escaped convicts, paranoid mutants, and government hit squads, his only hope to save the townspeople is to enforce his own brand of frontier justice.