Middle-Grade Dystopian Book List
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The Firefly Code by Megan Frazer Blakemore – TWEEN F BLA
Mori and her friends live an everyday life on Firefly Lane in Old Harmonie, a utopian community where every kid knows they are genetically engineered to be better and smarter, but when a strangely perfect new girl named Ilana moves in, the friends begin to question the only world they have ever known. |
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The Maze Runner by James Dashner – TWEEN F DAS
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community where he finds himself needing to escape. |
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The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau – TWEEN F DUP
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions. |
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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – F CLI
Immersing himself in a mid-twenty-first-century technological virtual utopia to escape a real ugly world of famine, poverty, and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world’s creator. |
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The Last Human by Lee Bacon – JF BAC
After machines take control of Earth, following the extinction of humans, twelve-year-old robot XR 935A confronts its prejudices about humans and begins to reconsider its own existence within robot society after discovering and befriending a twelve-year-old human girl. |
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The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire series) by Tui Sutherland – JF SUT
Determined to end a generations-long war among the seven dragon tribes, a secret movement called the Talons of Peace draws on a prophecy that calls for a great sacrifice, compelling five appointed dragonets to fulfill a painful destiny against their will. |
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Uglies by Scott Westerfeld – YA F WES
Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally’s best friend runs away, and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all. |
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Divergent by Veronica Roth – YA F ROT
In a future Chicago, Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more complicated when she discovers that she does not fit into any one group. |
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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – YA F COL
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place. |
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Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard – YA F AVE
When her supernatural powers manifest in front of a noble court, Mare, a thief in a world divided between commoners and superhumans, is forced to assume the role of the lost princess before risking everything to help a growing rebellion. |
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The Selection by Kiera Cass – YA F CAS
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love, leaving her home for a crown she doesn’t want and living in a palace that is constantly threatened by rebel attacks. Gradually, she realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined. |
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Feed by M. T. Anderson – YA F AND
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble. |
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Little Brother by Corey Doctorow – YA F DOC
After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right. |
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Matched by Allyson Condie – YA F CON
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her, so when Xander appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate–until Ky Markham’s face appears for an instant before the screen fades to black. |
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Cinder by Marissa Meyer – YA F MEY
As plague ravages, the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story. |