Squees and the Apocalypse

I'm not going to lie. I just squeed a little when THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES by Materials by Carrie Ryan landed on my desk a few minutes ago. I don't think I even realized that the sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth was coming out so soon.

I've got a weakness for apocalyptic fiction - you know the kind of books where life as we know it ceases to exist for one reason or another? Ryan's books have the added awesome of zombies being the cause of the downfall.

I could wax poetic for many, many minutes about how fascinating I find this type of literature and how it reveal the current fears of our society, but, for your sake, I'll skip all that mumbo-jumbo and just give those of you who read like I do a list of some of my favorite post-apocalyptic books I think you'll like:

1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth: All Mary's ever known is the world of the Sisters within the fence and that death lay outside. But her mother told her stories, tales, really, of a life beyond the borders. It is those tales that keep Mary going when the Unconsecrated turn her mother.


2. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff: It happened so suddenly they never even knew what happened, but they were surrounded by guerrilla warfare and all that matters now is survival. How do you evade death when you don't even really know who the enemy is?


3. The Moon Series: Life As We Knew It, the dead & the gone, and This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer: Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, rock Earth and shatter the fragile infrastructure we all rely on. Miranda and Alex are left to deal with the fallout - and an attempt at a survival that seems more impossible than the event that triggered everything.


4. The Compound by S.A. Bodeen: There's been a nuclear holocaust, and Eli & his family have been locked safely in the compound for six years. But what if what he should fear isn't outside of the bunker?


5. Green Angel & Green Witch by Alice Hoffman: Green's family went to the city to sell vegetables. They never came back. They never will. The city was destroyed. Burned. Barely anyone got out. And now Green's world is covered in ash.


6. Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden: Spring break camping was perfect, but when they come home they learn that their entire town has been overtaken, and all their family and friends have been imprisoned. They can stay safe in the mountains, but then who will rescue the prisoners?

Let me know about your favorite post-apocalyptic books in the comments!

Next time, DYSTOPIAS. Which are, literally, just as awesome. And then there's DISASTER fiction... and... and...

For more lists of random awesome click on this ridiculously long link.