Book #164 of 2025: Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban The most striking aspect of this 1980 dystopian novel, set in the remains of England many generations after a nuclear war, is its use of a highly-modified English vernacular to represent that possible future. There are run-on clauses and evidence of grammatical changes from our tongue, …
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Book #84 of 2025: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #3) The first two volumes in this trilogy shared a roughly similar structure: half a book of buildup to the latest deadly arena match, and then the heroine’s desperate bid for survival within it. This closing entry operates along the same general principles, except …
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Book #62 of 2025: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #1) [Previous review here, from 2011.] Fun to revisit this first Hunger Games novel, well after the blockbuster movie franchise that turned it into a household name. Even setting all that aside to consider the 2008 title fresh, it’s clear that it’s …
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Book #54 of 2025: The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold The best part of this novel is the initial premise reflected in the title: after acid rain and other climate disasters have ravaged the planet and decimated the population, the teenage protagonist is the only person left working in her shop, which she …
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Book #50 of 2025: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins I wasn’t a huge fan of author Suzanne Collins’s first prequel effort The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but this new title thankfully recaptures the old Hunger Games magic. It’s a challenging target for this sort of release to hit — similar enough to …
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Book #41 of 2023: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White Living in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by mutant abominations is tough. Especially if you’re Benji, a trans kid being held prisoner by the fundamentalist cult who originally unleashed the plague and have now injected him with an experimental strain to create their greatest …
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Book #156 of 2022: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng An unexpected misfire from acclaimed author Celeste Ng. While it’s clear this novel is a very personal project that she’s poured a lot of herself into, and the anti-Asian bigotry throughout is as painful to read as intended, there’s just not much story or character …
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Book #104 of 2022: Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica This Argentinian novel is a stomach-churning dark satire, presenting a dystopian future where all animals have caught a virus making them poisonous for human consumption and people have resorted to widespread cannibalism in order to satisfy their protein needs. Some individuals give up their …
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Book #103 of 2022: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami First published in 1999 (or 2003, for the English translation), this controversial thriller posits a dystopian Japan where school classes of fifteen-year-olds, selected by random lottery, are forced to fight one another to the death each year. The children are kidnapped, locked into metal collars lined …
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Book #90 of 2022: Wool by Hugh Howey (Silo #1) This book, the first in the Silo trilogy, is itself made up of five sections, each originally published as a standalone novella: Wool (later renamed Holston), Proper Gauge, Casting Off, The Unraveling, and The Stranded. Of those, the debut is a wicked slice of science-fiction …
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