Massive List of End-of-Days Books to Read During the Pandemic
I don’t know what it is, but post-apocalyptic is one of my favorite genres. I think it has something to do with the immersive storytelling, getting to root for characters against all odds, and the battle between good and evil that does it for me. I make this list not to mock what’s going on, but because it genuinely helps me to read stories of survival during stressful times.
My last post, 15 immersive books to read while social distancing, was meant to serve as a distraction. This list is very different- here are your end-of-the-world books to read that involve a known or unknown threat. Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list, but I think there could be something here for everyone. I’ve also included the publication dates, as you might have better luck on the wait list for e-books at your library for older titles.
Title: After the Flood
Author: Kassandra Montag
Genre & Publication Date: Action & Adventure, Dystopian; 9/3/19
A mother’s harrowing quest to find her missing daughter in a post-apocalyptic water world.
Title: The Beginning at the End
Author: Mike Chen
Genre & Publication Date: Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Literary ; 1/14/20
A global pandemic has wiped out most of the population and 6 years later, the survivors are split between self-governing cities, hippie communes, and wasteland gangs.
Title: Bird Box
Author: Josh Malerman
Genre & Publication Date: Suspense, Horror; 2/10/15
A mysterious threat causes people to die a violent death after they see it. Five years later, a mother risks everything to get her kids to a supposed sanctuary.
Title: The Book of M
Author: Peng Shepherd
Genre & Publication Date: Post-Apocalyptic, Literary Fiction; 6/25/19
A man’s shadow disappears and the phenomenon spreads like a plague. All afflicted gain a strange new power that comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.
Title: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
Author: C.A. Fletcher
Genre & Publication Date: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic; 4/23/19
A heartwarming and tense story about a boy and his dog. He hasn’t met many people since the apocalypse, but things on their remote island have been fine- until a thief comes and threatens them all.
Title: The Companions
Author: Katie Flynn
Genre & Publication Date: Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Literary; 3/3/20
California is under quarantine in the wake of a highly contagious virus. The living can’t go out, but the dead can come in because of a “companionship” program that allows people to upload their consciousness to an inanimate object before dying.
Title: The Dreamers
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Genre & Publication Date: Literary Fiction; 1/15/19
A mysterious illness hits a college campus in a fictional town in California, causing victims to fall asleep. It’s moving fast and more and more people are becoming affected- is anyone immune? Where will it end?
Title: Dry
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre & Publication Date: YA, Dystopian; 10/2/18
A teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family when the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions.
Title: The End of the World Running Club
Author: Adrian Walker
Genre & Publication Date: Science Fiction, Suspense, Dystopian; 12/1/14
The world has nearly come to an end and when Edgar Hill finds himself stranded on the other side of the country from his wife and children, his only choice is to run across a devastated wasteland to get back to them.
Title: Feed (Newsflesh Series)
Author: Mira Grant
Genre & Publication Date: Political, Horror; 4/10/10
The cures for cancer and the common cold morph into a super virus that turns any mammal of a certain weight into a host. All humans have the virus lying dormant and it’s just a matter of time until everyone is affected.
Title: Fever
Author: Mary Beth Keane
Genre & Publication Date: Historical Fiction; 3/12/13
A fictional novel about the real Typhoid Mary- an Irish cook and asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, who infected over 50 people with the disease.
Title: The Fever
Author: Megan Abbott
Genre & Publication Date: Mystery/Thriller; 6/17/14
A seemingly idyllic suburban community is thrown into panic after a mysterious contagion starts to affect the community.
Title: The Fireman
Author: Joe Hill
Genre & Publication Date: Horror; 5/17/16
A worldwide pandemic that is causing people to spontaneously combust threatens to reduce civilization to nothing. A group of improbable heroes battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman.
Title: The Future Home of the Living God
Author: Louise Erdrich
Genre & Publication Date: Dystopian; 12/13/18
The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself and woman are giving birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans.
Title: Good Morning, Midnight
Author: Lily Brooks-Dalton
Genre & Publication Date: Literary Fiction; 8/9/16
Two outsiders - a lonely scientist in the Arctic and an astronaut trying to return to Earth- realize that they are all alone when the planet completely ceases for unknown reasons.
Title: Hollow Kingdom, Review
Author: Kira Jane Buxton
Genre & Publication Date: Post- Apocalyptic, Animal Fiction; 8/6/19
S.T., a domesticated, foul-mouthed crow must save humanity from a deadly virus that appears to be turning humans into zombies.
Title: The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
Author: Richard Preston
Genre & Publication Date: Non-Fiction; 3/14/12
The truth is scarier than fiction when a highly infectious, deadly and incurable virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Title: The Last One
Author: Alexandra Olivia
Genre & Publication Date: Dystopian; Suspense Thrillers; 7/12/16
The line between reality TV and reality gets blurred when something terrible happens to humanity during the filming of the show. The contestants are cut off from reality and the ones that survive can only assume the devastation that they see is a part of the game.
Title: An Ocean of Minutes
Author: Thea Lim
Genre & Publication Date: Time Travel Science Fiction; 7/10/18
During a deadly flu pandemic, a young woman agrees to risk everything to save her boyfriend. A company that has invented time travel and she agrees to a radical contract: to sign up for a one-way-trip into the future to work as a bonded laborer, in exchange for life-saving treatment her boyfriend needs.
Title: The Passage (Trilogy)
Author: Justin Cronin
Genre & Publication Date: Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian; 6/8/10
A young girl was a part of a mysterious experiment since birth, and when she finally escapes the lawman sent to track her down is disarmed by her spirit and risks everything to save her.
Title: The Road
Author: Cormack McCarthy
Genre & Publication Date: Dystopian, Literary Fiction; 9/26/06
A father and son walk through burned America armed with little more than their love for each other.
Title: The Salt Line
Author: Holly Goddard Jones
Genre & Publication Date: Action, Literary Fiction; 9/5/17
In an unspecified future, the United States' borders have receded behind a salt line—a ring of scorched earth that protects its citizens from deadly disease-carrying ticks. Few have any reason to leave the safe zone, but those on the other side will do anything they can to get to the right side of the salt line.
Title: Severance ; Review
Author: Ling Ma
Genre & Publication Date: Dystopian, Literary Fiction ;8/14/18
99% of the population has been wiped out, but Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American office drone still goes into the office to keep up with her routine. When she bands together with a group of fellow survivors, she begins to wonder if she was better off on her own.
Title: A Song For a New Day
Author: Sarah Pinsker
Genre & Publication Date: Science Fiction, Dystopian, LGBT; 9/10/19
After a global pandemic makes public gatherings illegal and concerts impossible, except for those willing to break the law for the love of music—and for one chance at human connection. (P.S.- don’t do this in real life mmmk? :))
Title: The Stand
Author: Stephen King
Genre & Publication Date: Post-apocalyptic, Horror; 10/3/78
My all time favorite book. It’s truly the end of the world as we know it-99 percent of its people have died. A handful of survivors have to choose sides - the good, on the shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail - and the worst nightmares of evil with Randall Flagg, the dark man.
Title: Station Eleven
Author: Emily St. John Mandel
Genre & Publication Date: Dystopian, Literary Fiction ; 9/9/14
99% of the population has been wiped out by a deadly flu, and 20 years later, we follow a troupe of performers called the Traveling Symphony around what remains. There is little violence, until they come in contact with a self-proclaimed prophet who will do whatever it takes to gain control.
Title: The Things That Keep Us Here
Author: Carla Buckley
Genre & Publication Date: Fiction, Suspense; 2/5/10
After a crisis strikes that turns everybody’s world upside down, a woman’s estranged husband is forced back onto her doorstep. Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where the simple act of opening a door to a neighbor could jeopardize everything.
Title: The Troop; Review
Author: Nick Cutter
Genre & Publication Date: Horror ; 2/25/14
A boy scout troop goes on their yearly remote camping trip just as a deadly and gruesome virus breaks out. When a sick intruder stumbles on their campsite, the troop leader has to decide whether he’ll adher to his doctoral “do no harm” oath or protect the boys he’s been put in charge of.
Title: Wanderers | Review
Author: Chuck Wendig
Genre & Publication Date: Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian; 6/1/19
A flock of sleepwalkers from across America go on the same mysterious journey. Though the sleepwalkers awaken terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it.
Title: Wilder Girls
Author: Rory Power
Genre & Publication Date: YA, Science Fiction; 7/9/19
A feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears.
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