Dystopian fiction is one of my favorite genres both in literature and movies. I find it really fascinating how accurately these works (some of which were written almost a century ago) describe our nowadays’ world. I always wonder, how is it possible to write about a world you’ve never seen. The same can be said about fantasy authors, but unlike those, dystopian novels show us a place or a situation that is oddly familiar.

Of course all these works have lots of metaphors and hyperboles to make their points stronger. This genre is not only catchy and interesting to read or watch but also always makes us ponder what can possibly happen if we don’t stop making the mistakes we’re all making now and don’t think about their fatal consequences.

There are lots of dystopian novels I haven’t got acquainted to yet, but since I’ve read quite a lot, I decided to make a list of my favorite books in this genre. Some were written quite a long time ago, some are relatively new, but I find all these stories really cool.

1. George Orwell – Animal Farm. I want to start with my most favorite dystopian book. I think I can describe this book with a famous quote, which says “it would be really funny, if it wasn’t so sad“. This work really cracked me up, because everything seemed so absurd, and it was even more absurd that the animals blindly believed everything they’ve heard, completely forgetting about their own opinions and memories. The most interesting part is that when I was reading it, it truly felt like it was written about the situation in Armenia of that time, so I think this work will always stay relevant, no matter how many years will pass.

2. Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games Trilogy. This series planted the love of dystopian genre for me. Of course, it’s a young adult literature, so it’s not as deep as the classics, but it was truly entertaining anyway. And if you think about it, we’re not really different from Panem. We’re not watching a show with kids killing each other off (at least not yet, thankfully), but instead we support wars, visit zoos and circuses where animals are often treated with equal cruelty. Not to talk about all the other brutal and savage stuff that goes on in this world that we seem to close our eyes to.

3. Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale. In this story we see a world, where women (well, most of them) don’t have any rights at all and are used merely as reproductive tools. They don’t have identities or even names, so they’re basically seen as soulless creatures with no personality. Unlike other books in this list, this one now seems the most unbelievable and fictional right now, because now we have quite a lot of progress in having equal human rights. Of course there are some gender injustices, but at least it’s not as bad as many other aspects in our life.

4. Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451. This book is a pure gem. I’ve read it almost 10 years, so I don’t remember much of the plot (which is an excellent excuse to read it again), but I remember that people had TVs instead of walls, and they watched soap operas or whatever it was 24/7. Books have become illegal, because reading would make people think for themselves and become educated, something that the government doesn’t really need. Throughout time people’ve become into brainless consumers, who have lost all their humane qualities. Sounds a bit like nowadays world, doesn’t it?

5. Veronica Roth – The Divergent Trilogy. Lots of people hate this series just because of its poor movie adaptation, but believe me, this is one of those numerous cases, where books are 100% better and are definitely worth reading. It shows how we are all required to be the same, do the same things and think the same way. Once you’re different – you become a threat to others, because you’re against the system and its mandatory rules.

6. Yevgeny Zamyatin – We. Just another dystopian world where the society consumed and took over any spiritual values, personality or individuality of people, making them all look and act alike. For me it seems funny, that so many people read and watch stories like this but still don’t realize that we live in pretty much the same world. Yes, we’re not required to dress in the same clothes, and we seem relatively free, but that’s just a cloak of illusion.

7. James Dashner – The Maze Runner Trilogy. There’s a famous theory among conspirators, that our world is like a laboratory and we are someone’s experimental rabbits. Someone out there created this matrix and now is testing us for some reason. This trilogy was the perfect metaphor for this conspiracy. There were some rules in the labyrinth and the kids obeyed them without even trying to understand what everything means. Until one day they decided to break the system and see what’s out there.

8. George Orwell – 1984. Finishing the list with my recent read. To be honest, it felt a little repetitive to me, because it’s just another systematic world, where people have no freedom of choice and have to act a certain way. But what I liked the most was that it mainly talked about the “thoughtcrime“, describing it as the most dangerous thing a person can do – to think for himself and think differently. It shows that those systems are controlling not only the outer things, like our appearances or routines, but our opinions and feelings as well, slowly hypnotizing us and making us believe that that’s what we actually think about sth.