Books like 'Census'
Readers who enjoyed Census by Jesse Ball also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi literary-fiction dystopia realistic family grief magical-realism apocalyptic drama
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Third Shift: Pact by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe third and final chapter of the Shift saga. This is part 8 of the Silo Series, which began with Wool... -
![Fever by Deon Meyer]()
Fever by Deon Meyer
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNico Storm and his father Willem drive a truck filled with essential supplies through a desolate land. They are among the few in South Africa--and the world, as far as they know--to have survived a devastating virus which has swept through the country... -
![The Transfer by Veronica Roth]()
The Transfer by Veronica Roth
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsComplete your Divergent library with the Four stories!Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be captivated by "Four: The Transfer," the first of four stories, each between fifty and seventy-five pages long, set in the world of Divergent and told from Tobias's perspective... -
![Promise Me Once by Paige Weaver]()
Promise Me Once by Paige Weaver
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOnce with him was never enough.I am the girl you dislike. The girl you snub at parties. I am the one who flirts with men and knows no boundaries. I am the one you whisper about. The one who has no rules. I am the one who takes and uses without any regret or excuses.On the outside I am perfect... -
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![We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson]()
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the author of The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley comes a brand-new novel about a teenage boy who must decide whether or not the world is worth saving.Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button.Only he isn’t sure he wants to... -
![Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy]()
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsFranny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica... -
![Vengeance in the Ashes by William W. Johnstone]()
Vengeance in the Ashes by William W. Johnstone
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"We're bringing law and order back in this nation."--Ben Raines Scourge Upon The Land While ending the rule of slavers, thugs, and the cannibalistic Night People on the Hawaiian Islands, Ben Raines and his rebel army learn of a new threat to America... -
![Falling Stars by Kyla Stone]()
Falling Stars by Kyla Stone
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThey survived the Grand Voyager. They believed they were safe. They were wrong. After a violent ambush, the survivors find themselves thrust into a harsh, unrecognizable world. No communications. No shelter. No food. All they have is each other—a ragtag group of elites and misfits. Amelia faces her deadliest test yet. Guilt-ridden Willow must save her brother at any cost...Categorized as:
apocalyptic drama dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure aliens book contemporary -
![The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders]()
The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNovelette, Free online fiction.From newyorker.com“The Semplica-Girl Diaries” deals with a family in a not-too-distant future (or perhaps an alternate present or past?) that is struggling to keep up with the Joneses—which, in this society, means leasing some unusual garden ornaments... -
![Flight 3430 by Jacqueline Druga]()
Flight 3430 by Jacqueline Druga
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn a small Montana town, it takes four minutes for every man, woman and child to die.It isn’t a virus or biological attack, but rather the beginning of a geological event that triggers a chain reaction across the globe with devastating effects.A repeat of an extinction event that occurred millions of years earlier.There is no stopping it. The only way to survive is to stay ahead of it... -
![Locker Nine by Franklin Horton]()
Locker Nine by Franklin Horton
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGrace Hardwick’s dad is a science fiction writer who makes his living destroying the world. When Grace decides to go away for her first year of college her dad, Robert, can’t help but think of all of the potential ways that society could collapse and strand his daughter hundreds of miles from home. Then, near the end of her freshman year, it happens...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia literary-fiction male-mc action-adventure audiobook book contemporary -
![We of the Forsaken World... by Kiran Bhat]()
We of the Forsaken World... by Kiran Bhat
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn a distant corner of the globe, a man journeys to the birthplace of his mother, a tourist town destroyed by an industrial spill. In a nameless remote tribe, the chief’s second son is born, creating a scramble for succession as their jungles are being destroyed by loggers... -
![Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel]()
Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVincent Spinetti is an archetypal tortured artist ? a sensitive young writer who falls victim to alienation, parental neglect, poverty, depression, alcoholism, illness, nervous breakdowns, and unrequited love... -
![Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker]()
Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe baker's dozen stories gathered here (including a new, previously unpublished story) turn readers into travelers to the past, the future, and explorers of the weirder points of the present...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
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![Heading Home by Susan Kiernan-Lewis]()
Heading Home by Susan Kiernan-Lewis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat happens when the one thing you’ve been praying for turns out to be the one thing that will destroy you and everything you love? After two years of living and adjusting to life after the bomb, Sarah and her son, John, have discovered that happiness can trump grief and loss... -
![Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine by Stanley Crawford, Ben Marcus]()
Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine by Stanley Crawford, Ben Marcus
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsForty years ago I first linked up with Unguentine and we made love on twin-hulled catamarans, sails a-billow, bless the seas . . .So begins the courtship of a certain Unguentine to the woman we know only as “Mrs. Unguentine,” the chronicler of their sad, fantastical tale. For forty years, they sail the seas together, alone on a giant land-covered barge of their own devising...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism philosophical 20th-century adult book contemporary fiction -
![Under the Blue by Oana Aristide]()
Under the Blue by Oana Aristide
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world?Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program...Categorized as:
dystopia apocalyptic literary-fiction philosophical fiction sci-fi ai post-apocalyptic -
![Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr]()
Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9781439182840.In the luminous and beautiful title story, winner of a 2010 National Magazine Award, a young boy in South Africa comes to possess an old woman's secret, a piece of the past with the power to redeem a life... -
![The Fall by Thomas A. Watson]()
The Fall by Thomas A. Watson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsWhat would you do in an apocalyptic event? How would your family and friends survive? Could you survive? Join two families on a journey through hell on earth as they try to save themselves and maybe mankind.A super virus has been unleashed on mankind. Our way of life and the modern day speed of travel spread the virus from the jungles of Africa around the world in days... -
![96 Miles by J.L. Esplin]()
96 Miles by J.L. Esplin
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsDad always said if things get desperate, it’s okay to drink the water in the toilet. I never thought it would come to that. I thought I’d sooner die than let one drop of toilet water touch my lips. Yet here I am, kneeling before a porcelain throne, holding a tin mug for scooping in one hand, and my half-gallon canteen in the other. The Lockwood brothers are supposed to be able to survive anything... -
![Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne]()
Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe stunningly fierce conclusion to Emmy Laybourne's Monument 14 trilogy.The survivors of the Monument 14 have finally made it to the safety of a Canadian refugee camp. Dean and Alex are cautiously starting to hope that a happy ending might be possible.But for Josie, separated from the group and trapped in a brutal prison camp for exposed Type Os, things have gone from bad to worse... -
![Not Forgetting the Whale by John Ironmonger]()
Not Forgetting the Whale by John Ironmonger
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen a young man washes up, naked, on the sands of St Piran, he is quickly rescued by the villagers. From the retired village doctor and the schoolteacher, to the beachcomber and the owner of the local bar, the priest's wife and the romantic novelist, they take this lost soul into their midst... -
![Rubicon Beach by Steve Erickson]()
Rubicon Beach by Steve Erickson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA prisoner with a haunted past is released into ravaged Los Angeles, where he pursues an elusive girl to the shores or Rubicon Beach and faces his lost destiny. In his second novel, Steve Erickson creates a decaying world filled with leftover passions and poetic vision that established him as one of the most original and evocative American writers of his generation... -
![Crossing in Time by D.L. Orton, Noah Michael Levine]()
Crossing in Time by D.L. Orton, Noah Michael Levine
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe past isn't over, it's an opening. The future isn't hidden, it's a trap. If she ever wants to see him again, she'll have to take the risk...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia literary-fiction male-mc action-adventure audiobook book contemporary -
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![Noughts & Crosses (Stage Version) by Dominic Cooke, Malorie Blackman]()
Noughts & Crosses (Stage Version) by Dominic Cooke, Malorie Blackman
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsAdaptation of much-loved thriller about racism by award-winning children's author Malorie Blackman... -
![Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children by Reena Mitra]()
Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children by Reena Mitra
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSalman Rushdies Midnights Children, ever since its publication in 1980, has been considered an ingenious piece of literary art and a trendsetter in the field of Indian fiction in English... -
![The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville]()
The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this genre-busting book from award-winning novelist Patrick Somerville characters, stories, and stray thoughts revolve around the "The Machine of Understanding Other People," the story of a Chicago man who is bequeathed a supernatural helmet that allows him to experience the inner worlds of those around him...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary dark -
![Tma 2.0 by Ondřej Neff]()
Tma 2.0 by Ondřej Neff
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOndrej Neff originally released the first version of this book in 1998; however, he never stopped developing the story and as a result of his improvements (but also his disillusionment with the conditions in the post-communist Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic) he later released a darker version of the story.Tma 2... -
![Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson, W Morgan Sheppard]()
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson, W Morgan Sheppard
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn six masterly stories, Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. “Nirvana" portrays a programmer, whose wife has a rare disease, finding solace in a digital simulacrum of the president of the United States...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction realistic 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
![Bewilderment by Richard Powers]()
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAstrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos, invents planets every night for a bedtime story. He raises Robin, 9, after a car crash took their Aly. The family is strict vegetarians, Theo tells us each dish.Robin is bright, but full of anger that explodes in a flash. He suffers over animals tortured, killed to feed humans... -
![A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar]()
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go. [A Guardian and a Thief is] an indelible piece of writing, in equal parts dazzling and devastating...Categorized as:
literary-fiction dystopia fiction sci-fi contemporary historical-fiction mystery book -
![This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub]()
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Harper's Bazaar, Oprah Daily, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Bustle, Marie Claire, PopSugar, Thrillist, Lit Hub and more! What if you could take a vacation to your past? With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a... -
![To the Lake by Yana Vagner]()
To the Lake by Yana Vagner
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA deadly flu epidemic sweeps through Moscow, killing hundreds of thousands. Anya and her husband Sergey decide they have no choice but to flee to a lake in the far north of Russia.Joining them on their journey are her son and father-in-law; Sergey's ex-wife and son; and their garish neighbours... -
![The Affirmation by Christopher Priest]()
The Affirmation by Christopher Priest
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPeter Sinclair is tormented by bereavement and failure. In an attempt to conjure some meaning from his life, he embarks on an autobiography, but he finds himself writing the story of another man in another, imagines, world whose insidious attraction draws him even further in.. -
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![Tenth of December by George Saunders]()
Tenth of December by George Saunders
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 52 ratingsOne of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet...Categorized as:
drama dystopia family literary-fiction magical-realism philosophical realistic 21st-century -
![Pixel Juice by Jeff Noon]()
Pixel Juice by Jeff Noon
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratings'In the first shop they bought a packet of dogseed, because Doreen had always wanted to grow her own dog...'Pixel Juice is the collected outpourings of an overactive mind. A selection of fifty stories from Jeff Noon's head, each one strange, telling, disturbing, or sometimes just plain wierd...Categorized as:
dystopia magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary cyberpunk fiction male-author -
![Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell]()
Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers.One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water... -
![Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh]()
Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn her debut collection, Maureen F. McHugh examines the impacts of social and technological shifts on families. Using deceptively simple prose, she illuminates the relationship between parents and children and the expected and unexpected chasms that open between generations...Categorized as:
dystopia family literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary female-author -
![Deadly Design by Debra Dockter]()
Deadly Design by Debra Dockter
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThough technically twins, Kyle and Connor McAdams couldn't be more different. Connor's the star of the track team, the valedictorian, a demigod living among the students at Rose Hill High School. But Kyle is more of a loner who's most comfortable playing video games in the basement. Also, these twins were born two years apart... -
![Neon Green by Margaret Wappler]()
Neon Green by Margaret Wappler
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's the summer of 1994 in suburban Chicago: Forrest Gump is still in theaters, teens are reeling from the recent death of Kurt Cobain, and you can enter a sweepstakes for a spaceship from Jupiter to land in your backyard. Welcome to Margaret Wappler's slightly altered alternative '90s. Everything's pretty much as you remember it, except for the aliens...Categorized as:
dystopia family literary-fiction magical-realism adult alternate-history book contemporary -
![How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton]()
How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings[i]Lazarus Dying[/i]: the man Jesus raised from the dead is alive and living in New York City. [i]The Fecalist[/i]: an author whose best selling work is his latest poop. [i]Christmas[/i]: she loves you, you love her, she has a gun in your mouth. Welcome to the award-winning short fiction of Owen Egerton...Categorized as:
drama dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies comedy contemporary -
![And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips]()
And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Brilliant miniatures. . . . Like the fables of Calvino, Millhauser, or W.S. Merwin. . . . Beautifully blends short story and prose poem. . . . Mermaids, subways, floods, cucumbers, magicians. . . .The book is a gallery of marvels...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies classics contemporary female-author -
![The Measure by Nikki Erlick]()
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsIt seems like any other day: You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism adult audiobook book contemporary female-mc -
![The Stellow Project by Shari Becker]()
The Stellow Project by Shari Becker
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsWhen a killer storm unexpectedly hits Manhattan, seventeen-year-old Lilah Stellow’s dad insists that she and her younger sister, Flori, take refuge at their cabin in the mountains. But instead of joining them with the experimental drug that keeps Lilah alive, he disappears just as news reports name him as a prime suspect in an act of ecoterrorism... -
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![In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster]()
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn a distant and unsettling future, Anna Blume is on a mission in an unnamed city of chaos and disaster. Its destitute inhabitants scavenge garbage for food and shelter, no industry exists, and an elusive government provides nothing but corruption. Anna wades through the filth to find her long-lost brother, a one-time journalist who may or may not be alive...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary epistolary -
![The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger]()
The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTo all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna—the world’s first category 6 hurricane—upends everything they have taken for granted... -
![The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley]()
The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsHow far would you go to protect your family?Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see... -
![Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin]()
Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Like much of Mr. Bellatin’s work, Beauty Salon is pithy, allegorical and profoundly disturbing, with a plot that evokes The Plague by Camus or Blindness by José Saramago."--New York Times"Including a few details that may linger uncomfortably with the reader for a long time, this is contemporary naturalism as disturbing as it gets."--BooklistA strange plague appears in a large city... -
![Dissipatio H.G.: The Vanishing by Guido Morselli]()
Dissipatio H.G.: The Vanishing by Guido Morselli
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom his solitary buen retiro in the mountains, the last man on earth drives to the capital Chrysopolis to see if anyone else has survived the Vanishing. But there’s no one else, living or dead, in that city of “holy plutocracy,” with its fifty-six banks and as many churches...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies classics contemporary -
![Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton]()
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAugustine, a brilliant, aging astronomer, is consumed by the stars. For years he has lived in remote outposts, studying the sky for evidence of how the universe began. At his latest posting, in a research center in the Arctic, rumors of war arrive. The scientists are forced to evacuate, but Augustine stubbornly refuses to abandon his work...Categorized as:
apocalyptic drama dystopia family literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure
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