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The Running Man

Richard Bachman · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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The Running Man

Stephen King · 256 pages

The runaway bestseller about the ultimate reality showThe year is 2025. The Running Man is America's favorite television game show. Ben Richards is the program's latest contestant-and the Hunters' latest target in a rigged game of death…

Game ShowReality TVDeadly CompetitionCat and Mouse Chase
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Game ShowReality TVDeadly CompetitionEconomic Inequality
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Dungeon Crawler Carl

Matt Dinniman · 464 pages

**The apocalypse will be televised!** A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all

Game ShowReality TVDeadly CompetitionRebellion Against Authority
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Red Rising

Pierce Brown · 400 pages

"I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them." "I live for you," I say sadly. Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more." Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and hi

Deadly CompetitionDystopianEconomic InequalityWorking-Class Protagonist
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Pines

Blake Crouch · 313 pages

"Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels ... off.

Race Against TimeCat and Mouse ChaseIntenseDystopian
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Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury · 184 pages

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title as "'the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns": the autoignition temperature of paper. The lead character, Guy Montag,

DystopianCat and Mouse ChaseNear FutureSurveillance State
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A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess · 188 pages

A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian satirical black comedy novel by English writer Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called "Na

DystopianSurveillance StateNear FutureBleak
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The Water Knife

Paolo Bacigalupi · 384 pages

The American Southwest has been decimated by drought. Nevada and Arizona skirmish over dwindling shares of the Colorado River, while California watches, deciding if it should just take the whole river all for itself. Into the fray steps Las Vegas water knife Angel Velasquez. Detective, assassin, and spy, Angel "cuts" water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ensuring that lush, luxurious arco

DystopianEconomic InequalityIntenseBleak
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Native Son

Richard Wright · 398 pages

Native Son (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s. ---------- Also contained in: [Early Works](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL506449W)

Economic InequalityWorking-Class ProtagonistBleakClass Struggle
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The Loop

Ben Oliver · 368 pages

DystopianSurveillance StateIntenseRace Against Time
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Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler · 299 pages

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future. Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been d

DystopianEconomic InequalityClass StruggleIntense
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Utopia

Ahmed Khaled Towfik · 176 pages

Economic InequalityDystopianNear FutureClass Struggle
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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky · 498 pages

A masterpiece of guilt and redemption that transforms the sordid story of an old woman’s murder into the nineteenth century’s profoundest and most compelling philosophical novel. Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, is determined to overreach his humanity and assert his untrammeled individual will. When he commits an act of murder and theft, he sets in

Economic InequalityWorking-Class ProtagonistCat and Mouse ChaseClass Struggle
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The Kill Order

James Dashner · 384 pages

Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth, killing most of the population. Mark and Trina were there when it happened. They survived. But now a virus is spreading. A virus that fills humans with murderous rage. They’re convinced that there’s a way to save those who are left—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devas

DystopianRace Against TimeNear FutureIntense
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Trainspotting

Irvine Welsh · 352 pages

Scottish writer Irvine Welsh's first novel, Trainspotting, is a collection of short-stories revolving around a group of friends, their drug use, and struggles in the city of Edinburgh.

Working-Class ProtagonistBleakIntenseClass Struggle
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DystopianSurveillance StateRebellion Against AuthorityBleak
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Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk · 208 pages

A man who struggles with insomnia meets a colorful extremist, and they create a secret organization together. Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation’s most visionary satirist in this, his first book. Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the base

Short ChaptersBleakClass StruggleRebellion Against Authority
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Battle Royale

Koushun Takami · 428 pages

Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller envisions a nightmare scenario: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan--where it became a runaway best seller--*Battle Ro

Deadly CompetitionDystopianGame ShowRebellion Against Authority
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Die Trying

Lee Child · 433 pages

When a woman is kidnapped, Jack Reacher's in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's kidnapped with her. Now he has to save them both.

Cat and Mouse ChaseIntenseShort ChaptersRace Against Time
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Monsters of Men

Patrick Ness · 624 pages

IntenseSurveillance StateRace Against TimeDystopian
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Witch & Wizard

James Patterson, Gabrielle Charbonnet · 336 pages

**Your books, music, and art - BANNED** *You are holding an urgent and vital narrative that reveals the forbidden truth about these perilous times...* This is the astonishing testimonial of Wisty and Whit Allgood, a sister and brother who were torn from their family in the middle of the night, slammed into prison, and accused of being a witch and wizard. They are not alone in their terrif

DystopianSurveillance StateRebellion Against AuthorityRace Against Time
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Child 44

Tom Rob Smith · 480 pages

A propulsive, relentless page-turner.A terrifying evocation of a paranoid world where no one can be trusted.A surprising, unexpected story of love and family, of hope and resilience.CHILD 44 is a thriller unlike any you have ever read."There is no crime."Stalin's Soviet Union strives to be a paradise for its workers, providing for all of their needs. One of its fundamental pillars is that its cit

Cat and Mouse ChaseIntenseSurveillance StateBleak
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Anthem

Ayn Rand · 93 pages

Anthem is a tale of a future dark age of the great “we” – a world that deprives individuals of name, independence, and values. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all traces of science and civilization he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunte

DystopianSurveillance StateClass StruggleRebellion Against Authority
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The Jungle

Upton Sinclair · 342 pages

Upton Sinclair's dramatic and deeply moving story exposed the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the nineteenth century and brought into sharp moral focus the appalling odds against which immigrants and other working people struggled for their share of the American dream. Denounced by the conservative press as an un-American libel on the meatpacking industry, the book was c

Working-Class ProtagonistEconomic InequalityBleakIntense
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