Fans love The Hunger Games series for dozens of reasons. Maybe you love apocalyptic YA fiction in general, or maybe you just love gritty YA heroines in survival situations. Maybe you’re a fan of the YA love triangle trope, and Katniss, Peta, and Gale made your heart sing! Whatever the reason, Katniss Everdeen and her amazing story has captured the hearts and imaginations of multiple generations.

Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these engrossing YA books like The Hunger Games. I have a few off-beat recommendations that don’t make the usual lists of dystopian YA books similar to The Hunger Games. The novels below have two things in common: a fight for survival and girls who find themselves without parents in hostile environments.

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

“There's different ways of doing things wrong, Lynn, and not all of it is choosing to hurt others. Sometimes it's the things you don't do that make you feel the worst.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from Not a Drop to Drink

Set in an apocalyptic future where drinking water is scarce and people fight for survival in a wild frontier, Lynn is a young woman in rural Ohio defending a pond and her homestead. Her mother raised her to distrust, to fight, and to live, and that's what she intends to do.

I enjoyed watching Lynn's fierce character evolve into a person who was willing to allow others into her life, to trust and even love. Despite her hardness, she had a kind heart. There were some interesting scenes in interactions with other people, like the stranger on the road, that tested her humanity.

Not a Drop to Drink was also a fast, thrilling YA book about survival, and its sequel, In a Handful of Dust, follows Lynn and her adopted daughter Lucy into the unknown after a mysterious plague drives them away from their home and community and into the wilderness.

If you’re looking for YA books like The Hunger Games, give these two a try. In fact, Mindy McGinnis is so awesome she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited.

Z for Zachariah by Robert O’Brien

“I am afraid. Someone is coming.” ― Robert C O’Brien, quote from Z for Zachariah

I remember reading this book in our school library in high school, and it was chilling. Now an adult, decades later, I bought a copy of it to see if it was really as good as I remembered.

Yes, yes it is!

Young adult fiction wasn't even "a thing" when this book was written, and yet, it's a thrilling, roller-coaster true YA novel about a 15-year-old girl (who turns 16 during the events) who believes she's the last person alive after a nuclear war. She's resilient, resourceful, wary, hopeful, and that mix of both childlike and wise that you would expect from a teen in this situation.

When a stranger arrives in the valley, a man, she is cautious, but as events unfold and he becomes sick, she lets her guard down to help him. This turns out to be a mistake.

The Hollywood movie version gets this book wrong: the female is older, and there are two men. If you love dystopian YA novels like The Hunger Games and haven't picked this one up, I highly recommend it!

The Stand by Stephen King

“Love didn't grow very well in a place where there was only fear, just as plants didn't grow very well in a place where it was always dark.” ― Stephen King, quote from The Stand

In the apocalyptic and dystopian category, one book stands above the crowd: Stephen King’s The Stand. It’s my all-time favorite book. I’ve read it at least 7 times. I read it first in high school, so while it may not be a “YA book” in the strict definition of the category, teen readers can handle it. Trust me. I wrote my senior thesis about the themes in this book.

In this sweeping apocalyptic novel, a man-made virus named Captain Tripps kills almost everyone on earth. There are a handful of remaining viewpoint characters who become the focal point for this epic story. Their storylines run concurrently. At first they seem disconnect, but slowly they begin moving and coming together. There are some truly terrifying scenes, and a supernatural element pops up because—remember—it’s Stephen King. At the end of the world, the heroes must make a final stand against evil.

Fans who liked The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins will love The Stand (and probably read it twice).

Against the Pack by Khristina Chess

“And once you decided you were going in the wrong direction, how did you find your way back? What happened when you couldn’t go back?” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Against the Pack

Speaking of wilderness survival thrillers, Against the Pack is a gripping survival adventure about a heroic teenager who must find her way home to save herself and her mom.

While walking on a rural road, Melender and her mom are attacked by a pack of dogs and fall down a near-vertical hillside into a ravine. Now they’re trapped on a narrow ledge and wounded. No one knows where they are. No one even knows they’re missing.

They have no food, water, shelter, or warm clothes. No phone to call for help. No medical supplies. Nothing.

OH MY GOSH!!! Incredible! What I love most about Against the Pack is the way this story hooks you from the beginning and doesn’t let go. It’s impossible to put this one down. Melender is a gritty character who fights to live, and I was breathless as she journeyed toward the novel’s thrilling ending. This is the kind of wilderness survival adventure that explores the core spirit of a person, and as the hours and days unfold, the complicated nature of the relationship between Melender and her mom becomes apparent.

You won’t want to miss this action-packed YA book about survival. Fans of The Hunger Games will love this one.

The Razorland Trilogy: Enclave, Outpost, Horde by Ann Aguirre

The Razorland Trilogy was one of the first YA books like The Hunger Games that I read, and from the very first pages, I was hooked! The novels are set in a dark future where the cities are ruined by plague, war, “tunnel monsters,” and ongoing skirmishes between the surviving gangs that roam in this world. In the first book, Enclave, we meet the heroine, a fifteen-year-old girl named Deuce who lives in the New York subway in a community called an enclave. Life is hard. It becomes even harder when she and another teenage Hunter are exiled from their enclave and must go to the surface to live.

The next two books, Outpost and Horde, follow Deuce in her new life above ground, and all three novels are fast-paced, engrossing reads that I couldn’t put down. Each book was as good as the last, very immersive, and Deuce is a well-drawn, fighting heroine that I rooted for every step of the way.

Check out these books, which are similar to The Hunger Games. You will love them.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” ― Cormac McCarthy, quote from The Road

Maybe you’re looking for something similar to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games but don’t mind an adult protagonist. If so, pick up The Road. This dystopian, post-apocalyptic book is gripping from the very first page. A man and his son are on the road, and something truly awful has happened. What?

The story unfolds at a delicious crawl. You can feel the agony and terror of their situation. There are a couple of scenes that are truly chilling. The horror of them has remained with me forever.

There’s a reason this novel won a Pulitzer Prize. Read it. You won’t regret it.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

“…we’ve learned that all we can do is look after our own. Reese and Byatt, they’re mine and I’m theirs.” ― Rory Power, quote from Wilder Girls

I wanted to read Wilder Girls for many years on the basis of its cover alone. It’s one of my top-10 YA favorite covers of all time. It’s so beautiful and intriguing, without even knowing what the story is about.

An all-girls school on an island is quarantined because of a mysterious plague that has killed a significant portion of both the student and faculty population, as well as animals, and the remaining people are infected. This disease does terrible things to them. Now, they’re waiting for a cure. It’s been promised. They just have to stay alive until it comes.

The pacing is fast, and I was drawn into the relationships between the girls. They are gritty heroines. I couldn’t wait to discover what was truly going on and how this situation would ultimately be resolved.

If you’re looking for some apocalyptic fiction and missed this one, give it a try. Wilder Girls definitely meets the criteria for the list of engrossing YA books like The Hunger Games.

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall

“To survive you need to learn to hold contradictory things in your head at the same time. I am going to die; I am going to live. There is nothing to fear; be wary of everything.” ― Kate Alice Marshall, quote from I Am Still Alive

What an amazing page-turner! From the beginning this book grabbed me and didn't let go. It's the kind of story that had me staying up late to read, sitting outside in the shade to read, read, read, reading to finish because I couldn't put this novel down. It starts with a BANG--literally, when strangers kill Jess's father, leaving her stranded in the wilderness of Canada with his dog, Bo. She's still recovering from a car accident that killed her mother, so she doesn't walk well, and she's a city girl so she's not great at hunting and fishing. How will she handle a Canadian winter alone without shelter or food?

She is alive. And she is tenacious.

I loved this girl's grit, and I wanted to see her survive. I wanted to know the answer to the mystery about who the men killed her father.

And after reading this one, I binged on everything that Kate Alice Marshall has written and added her to my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s amazing! She’s near the top of my list of the best YA book recommendations and authors of all time.

If you’re looking for a gripping YA book about survival similar to The Hunger Games, check out I Am Still Alive.

Bonus Round: Darkness Begins (After the EMP) by Harley Tate

My edition actually had the first 3 books together, but I didn't realize this until the transition to the second book.

Harley Tate gives an excellent story about a woman, daughter, and husband who are separated when the power goes out around the world. The daughter has 3 college friends with her. The viewpoint alternates between the mother, daughter, and father as they attempt to find one another in the immediate chaos, so I’ve listed this as a “bonus” book instead of pure YA.

The narrative is fast-paced, and the characters face many serious challenges in their journey. I became invested in the characters and their efforts to reunite, and then, I wanted them to achieve their goal of finding safety at the college roommate's parents' house in the mountains.

If you like The Hunger Games, this is good book and new author to check out. She has a lot of others in her backlist too.

Cell by Stephen King

If you are interested in the political tensions between collectivism/socialism versus individualism, read Stephen King’s Cell. These themes are painted with subtle and beautiful strokes.

I recently read it a second time because I remembered two things: it was a great, fast read and I didn't like the ending (but didn't remember what it was). Now, some 15 years later, I can honestly say that the book remains a fabulous, fast-paced and engrossing read, and I appreciated the ending much better.

The novel is a zombie pandemic of sorts, set off with cell phones, and I read it during quarantine of the cornavirus pandemic of 2020. In Cell, the end of the world came with a single, abrupt pulse that changes everything, and it sends a group of survivors on a journey to find one man's son. Along the way, we learn what happened and is still evolving as a result of the pulse.

If you’re looking for compelling apocalyptic and dystopian books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, you will love this one.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

“You see, a conflict always begins with an issue - a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn't matter anymore, because now it's about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.” ― Neal Shusterman, quote from Unwind

Unwind is Book #1 in a 5-part dystopian YA series in which teens may be sent to "Harvest Camps" to be chopped up for parts if their parents sign the papers. No part is wasted.

Some, like Connor, are signed over because of behavior problems. Others, like Risa, are wards of the state who simply don't make the cut in terms of protegee status. Lev begins as a religious tithe, a willing victim, but after being kidnapped and freed by Connor, he also changes.

The concept of this series and the plotting are great, and I'm interested to see where the rest of the books go. There were moments, though, where I thought the book fell short of greatness. For example:

If a parent is able to bring all the parts of their child back together again, can they recover their child?
Where do the souls of these children go?

There are some attempts at these questions, but I wanted the book to go deeper. The fact that I keep thinking about the unwinding process means that something important is being covered here.

You definitely want to add Unwind to your TBR pile of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Like The Hunger Games, there’s a reason that Veronica Roth’s Divergent series has become a classic series in the category of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian YA science fiction books.

For me, I loved the heroine, Tris, who finds herself thrust into this whole new environment that tests her core character and everything she knew about herself. The book grabs you and takes off running! There’s adventure, moral ambiguity, love, and tons of conflict. What more do you need? It’s very well written and engrossing.

1984 by George Orwell

This one is another political dystopian classic. In modern times, it is eerily disturbing and relevant. Sometimes the story is dense and difficult to read, but it’s worth the time if you liked The Hunger Games. The rat scene is particularly disturbing. It’s not an easy read, but it’s a very good one overall. I definitely recommend reading it.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

As a young person, I read Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and We the Living and was so enamored with Ayn Rand’s work, philosophy, and political ideas.

As an adult, when I reread Atlas Shrugged, I found the story to be must slower and more dense to go through, but I’m still including it as an important, classic book that explores good and evil during a dystopian future. The plot is that the world is falling apart, and in rejection of the social and governmental causes of this, people begin disappearing. I don’t want to give too much away. If you loved the deeper questions in The Hunger Games and the literary commentary on society, then you want to read Atlas Shrugged.

Other Engrossing YA Books Like The Hunger Games

If you are looking for other engrossing YA books like The Hunger Games, check out Books similar to The Hunger Games list on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of Binge-Worthy YA Books So Addicting You Can’t Stop Reading.

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