If you are one of the millions of readers who totally devoured The Hunger Games trilogy, you may feel like you’re hard-pressed to find another series as addicting or as thrilling.
After all, it’s not everyday you find a dystopian story with a reality TV facet featuring an average girl taking on the government, right?
Well, maybe not, but some of these elements can be found in many other thrilling reads you may want to try!
16 Thrilling Books Like The Hunger Games
The following list includes both series and standalone options you can add to your TBR list to get past your Hunger Games hangover! For books in a series, we have linked to the first book.
1. The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner
Thomas wakes up with no memory of who or where he is, but other young adults who are also suffering from amnesia introduces him to his new home. He quickly finds out that his new home is actually an ever-moving and deadly maze, which no one has ever managed to escape.
2. Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth
This besetselling series is set in a segregated, post-apocalyptic Chicago, where authoritarians rule and assign people into groups based on their perceived characteristics. Beatrice Prior, assigned to one faction, has to choose whether to stay in that faction or change to another one. But what if her decision has consequences beyond her imagination?
3. #Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil
American reality television rises to new heights with convicted criminals on their last days before their scheduled execution. Dee knows she’s not guilty and sets up a group called the Death Row Breakfast Club, in hopes of convincing the executioners that she’s innocent.
4. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
This series opens with Tally looking forward to her upcoming 16th birthday, not just for the usual Sweet 16, but to her scheduled cosmetic surgery. She believes this will propel her from “an ugly” to “a pretty,” and consequently to a lavish lifestyle with her new looks. But what happens when she meets Shay, an anti-surgery girl whom the authorities eventually threaten because of her connection to Tally?
5. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
This series is set in a dystopian universe that considers love a dangerous “disease,” and uses a procedure called The Cure for people once they turn 18. But what if Lena Haloway, set to undergo the Cure very soon, meets an outlier named Alex and realizes she’s facing a life-changing choice?
6. Gone by Michael Grant
What happens when everyone suddenly disappears—that is, everyone 15 years old and up? In this series, the remaining youth come to be known as the FAYZ, or the Fallout Alley Youth Zone, and have to fend for themselves to survive. In the absence of adults to provide their basic needs, the teens and kids form rival groups and fight each other to survive.
7. The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
Malencia Vale is ecstatic when she learns she’s been selected for the Testing, a program that chooses the brightest new leaders of society. But why does her father warn her about not trusting anyone, and why does she go through seemingly merciless tests? What is the government agenda behind this program?
8. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
This first book in the Last Survivors series follows Miranda as she records events in her journal after a meteor crashes into the moon and causes natural disasters that leave entire communities fighting for survival. Miranda, her mother, and two brothers also fight to sustain themselves amid a summer that has turned into a deadly freezing winter.
9. The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay
When a popular game called Killer enters Cate’s boarding school, it quickly becomes everyone’s favorite. But as the players become more obsessed with the game, the school attempts to put an end to it. The game helped Cate make her way into the inner ranks, though, and she doesn’t want to give it up. But what if the final prize costs Cate her very life?
10. The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks
While trying to help what he believed to be a blind man, Linus is suddenly kidnapped and thrown into a bare bunker, where he soon meets many others just as confused as he is by their imprisonment.
11. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
This heavy sci-fi series is follows a caste system that uses colors to segregate the population by force. Darrow, a Red, which is the lowest caste, works in hard mining to make the surface of Mars livable for the other people. But what happens if he discovers a horrible lie that fuels everything he’s ever known?
12. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
In Unwind, parents of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 years old have the option of retroactively getting rid of their child through “unwinding,” or having their organs harvested. Three teenagers, Connor, Lev, and Risa, find themselves chosen to be unwound. How can they escape with their bodies intact?
13. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
What if near-immortality were attainable through science, but those in charge banned youth and prohibited childbirth in exchange for this longer-than-normal life? This is the challenge facing Anna, born under these circumstances and known as Surplus, with her parents in jail and the authorities closing in on her.
14. S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett
When a group of elite students invites Greer for a weekend of hunting, she happily accepts, expecting this to up her social status. But upon arriving at the venue, she discovers that the target of the hunting and shooting will be the guests—including herself.
15. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Aria is hidden in a safe place, a dome called Reverie, that protects her from an apocalyptic wasteland. But when her mother suddenly disappears, Aria sets out to find her. In the wasteland, she meets an outsider named Perry, who knows how to survive and is Aria’s key to succeeding in her quest.
16. Starters by Lissa Price
In the aftermath of a war that kills the entire population between 20 and 60 years old, including her parents, Callie must find a means to provide for her younger brother. A shady company called Prime Destinations offers Callie an opportunity, and she ends up renting her body out to an older woman. But what happens when the procedure goes wrong, and she starts to understand the real intentions of Prime Destinations?
Dystopian and Other Thrilling Books
Reading dystopian novels is a great way of exploring what-if scenarios, and they make for very thrilling and sometimes disturbing reads.
If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, we hope you will find another series from this list that will also pique your fancy.
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
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Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
