70 books like Legend

At the time, when I read this book, I’d just become a father. Naturally, the story about a father trying to protect his son in a harsh dystopian world was captivating for me and still is to this day.

I loved the book's gritty realism and felt as if I were walking beside the characters during the entire journey. I also found McCarthy’s writing style unique and something new from the best-selling paperbacks I’d often read before picking up his book.

Having read this book when I was 22, it helped shape my fear of the danger of complacent societies. Simply but powerfully written, its first-person narrative creates a sense of claustrophobia, a glimpse into the isolating and dehumanizing life of a handmaid. 

Through Offred, the traumas she experiences, and the people she interacts with the whole world of Gilead springs to scary life. While reading the book, it struck me that nothing was totally made up. Every incident in the book was derived from history. These things had already happened, and they could happen again. It showed me that victory is not always heroic and impressive. Sometimes, victory can be just surviving oppression.

I love the contrast of bleak desperation with gross opulence and excess that Collins creates in The Hunger Games.

The parallels between Panem and Rome turn what could otherwise be seen as a somewhat far-fetched or unlikely story into a reasonably plausible post-apocalyptic future possibility. I enjoyed the building of tension in the lead-up to the beginning of the games, as well as the explosive release and action when Katniss finally enters the arena.

I liked the way Collins creates an enemy in the very terrain of the arena itself so that, when coupled with the threat of the other contestants, the tension is heightened even further. 

I find the combination of mystery and fantasy in the Harry Dresden books irresistible, and Storm Front is certainly no exception. A typical detective has to watch out for the as-yet-undiscovered killer. Harry has to watch out for the killer—as well as the White Council, the organization of wizards that is profoundly suspicious of him and more than ready to execute him if he takes one step out of line. And then there are various supernatural creatures who want either to kill humans or to use them for their own purposes.

Butcher’s imaginative humor is second to none. I have to laugh every time I think about Bob, the skull animated by an air spirit, or Toot-Toot, the wyldfae who serves Harry in exchange for pizza. Butcher seamlessly blends such touches of original humor with pulse-pounding excitement.

This book is light on hope, but if you’re on the hunt for cli-fi dystopias, Oryx and Crake is a must-read.

The novel’s protagonist, Snowman (previously known as Jimmy), finds himself alone (sort of) after a global societal collapse. His story unfolds on either side of this collapse as he searches for answers about what has happened to the world and why.

This book brings together runaway climate change, an apocalyptic pandemic, uncontrolled genetic engineering, mass extinction, and more, dealing with nostalgia for what’s been lost and reckoning with each person’s individual culpability for that loss. And yet it somehow manages to also be a thrilling puzzle box of a story that ends on a note of cautious hope.

I love a good dystopian novel, and this hit all the right notes for me. At first, everything seems perfect in Jonas’s tightly-ordered world—only everyone is hiding something. Jonas is different, but he doesn’t know how.

I loved how thought-provoking The Giver was. It got me asking questions about what it means to be a part of a community, a friend, and a member of a family. What risks are we willing to take for the ultimate good, and what crosses the line?

I found Jonas’s story fascinating and felt genuinely concerned for him throughout the book.

Veronica Roth's Divergent is like a loyal companion that stuck by me during the unpredictable ride of middle school.

Tris Prior's journey felt strangely familiar, like a reflection of my own struggles—moving from vulnerability to discovering an inner strength I never knew existed. Roth crafted Tris into more than just a character; she became someone I looked up to, a personal source of motivation. The whole faction system, sorting people based on traits, hit close to home, echoing my own battles with fitting in.

In the maze of adolescence, Tris's rebellion and acceptance of her divergence felt like a reassuring guide through my own self-discovery. Divergent was groundbreaking for its time, making it a comfort and a source of courage when times got tough.

Veronica Roth's storytelling, paired with Tris's tenacity, turned a dystopian tale into a deeply personal journey through identity, resilience, and survival.

This book took everything I’ve ever loved about sci-fi franchises like Star Wars, The Expanse, and The Hunger Games and somehow managed to jam it all together and turn it all up to eleven. (This one goes to eleven!)

At present, I have three more books left to read in this series (next up for me is Iron Gold), and that thought is just so darn exciting I could dance. (I won’t because I’m currently walking on an under-the-desk treadmill… But I could.)

For me, this book and the books that follow are a collective masterclass in worldbuilding, dramatic tension, and the fine art of using sci-fi to dissect how societies rise, fall, and function in between. The main character, Darrow, is basically a force of nature you can’t help but root for. And if you’re into audiobooks, Tim Gerard Reynolds’ narration of this series might well be my… show more.

I had stopped reading children’s and teen fiction for a couple of years, for the first time in my half a century of life, and then I read A Curse So Dark and Lonely.

There’s a different sort of adventure here, and I think I related to Harper a little bit extra because I have a chronic illness and when it flares up, my limp is so very obvious. It felt good to see magic + that realism.

The combination of magic, a protagonist I could connect to, and fairy tale elements made me start opening the covers of other books I’d bought and shelved.

The main thing I loved was Leigh Bardugo’s writing. She has a way of being elegant yet succinct with her writing which makes it easier for me to get lost in the intricate world she creates. And what a world she creates!

I fell in love with all the characters in this book. They had deep flaws and the vulnerability made me love them so much – it made them so real. There’s a powerful female lead in Nina, a passionate, voluptuous grisha (type of witch) who loves food, making her immediately relatable. The plot had me hooked and I didn’t want the book to end.