Animal Farm
George Orwell
Farm animals overthrow their owner and set up their own rule, in a short, sharp fable about how power goes wrong.
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Books like Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies, by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding, follows a group of boys stranded on an island with no adults. These seven books explore power, survival and cruelty, from classic fables to stories about young people.
Books to read next
1984
George Orwell
A government clerk in a surveillance state, where the ruling Party rewrites the truth, begins to rebel, in a famously bleak novel that includes torture.
Battle Royale
Koushun Takami
A class of Japanese ninth graders is forced onto an island and ordered to fight until one is left, in a fast, extremely violent thriller.
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
A 16-year-old takes her younger sister's place in a televised arena where teenagers fight until one is left, in a fast-moving young adult novel.
Books like The Hunger GamesA Separate Peace
John Knowles
Two roommates at a New England boarding school in 1942 form a close but uneasy friendship, in a classic novel about friendship and rivalry.
The Giver
Lois Lowry
At his community's ceremony, a 12-year-old is assigned a role unlike anyone else's, in a thoughtful, gentler novel for younger readers.
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
A gifted boy is sent to a space-based military school where children train through war games, in a tense novel with bullying and violence among kids.
How to choose
Pick by what held you in Lord of the Flies. For a society breaking down, start with Animal Farm, a short fable, or the bleaker 1984, which includes torture. For young people pushed into violence, The Hunger Games is the fast, widely read choice, and Ender's Game is tense and widely read by teens. Battle Royale is far more graphic, with extreme violence among teenagers, so check before giving it to a younger reader. The Giver is the gentlest of the dystopian picks. A Separate Peace is the odd one out: set at a boarding school and quieter, sadder and closer to a story of friendship than of survival. Golding's novel shows violence among children, and several of these books do too.
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- Books like Never Let Me GoNever Let Me Go, by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, looks back on a childhood at an English boarding school and the friendships formed there.
- Books like Of Mice and MenOf Mice and Men, by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, follows two migrant farm workers in 1930s California who share a dream of a small farm of their own.
- Books like The Hunger GamesThe Hunger Games puts a young narrator inside a harsh society with high stakes from the first chapter.