Books like 'Friday Black'
Readers who enjoyed Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi horror mystery dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc social-commentary satire
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Global University Entrance Examination 全球高考 by Mu Su Li, 木苏里
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne day, You Huo and his famiIy was puIIed into an exam caIIed the GIobaI University Entrance Examination. Going through exams together with other unfortunate examinees, their Iives are put at stake and they can only Iive by passing each exam... -
First Shift: Legacy by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma... -
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... -
Fire & Ash by Jonathan Maberry
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIn the gripping conclusion to the action-packed standard bearer (Booklist) of zombie series, the threat of death is given new life.Benny Imura and his friends have found the jet and Sanctuary, but neither is what they expected. Instead of a refuge, Sanctuary is a hospice, and the soldiers who flew the plane seem to be little more than bureaucrats who have given up hope for humanity's future... -
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The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsA classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man's dreams control the fate of humanity. In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism politics social-commentary 20th-century adult -
Blindness by José Saramago
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 72 ratingsFrom Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago, a magnificent, mesmerizing parable of lossA city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism politics social-commentary 20th-century -
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsA writer in a totalitarian state is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of child-murders that are happening in his town.'Sometimes you don't even know what you've been craving until the real thing comes along.' New York Times'McDonagh is more than just a very clever theatrical stylist. His tricks and turns have a purpose... -
Shift by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech outlined the hardware and software platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, a TV program aired the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia politics 21st-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
Wool by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 74 ratingsIn a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside... -
The Stranding by Kate Sawyer
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRuth lives in the heart of the city. Working, drinking, falling in love: the rhythm of her vivid and complicated life there is set against a background hum of darkening news reports from which she deliberately turns away...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction apocalyptic dark fiction post-apocalyptic sci-fi contemporary -
Surviving the Collapse by James Hunt
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCaptain Kate Holloway moved her family to New York to start over, and break the barriers that her work had created. But when an EMP brings New York to its knees, Kate must fight to survive amid the terror descending upon the city and rescue her family...Categorized as:
apocalyptic crime dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary -
State of Vengeance by Summer Lane
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsVengeance is coming. Monterey Bay, California, has barely survived a brutal attack from the evil invasion forces of Omega, and Cassidy Hart is exhausted. She has lost a friend and gained a new enemy. The militias seem to be weakening, and Omega seems to be getting stronger... -
The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNausea, then microamnesia, then the laughing jag, then sex. Be patient. The clear light comes next. Then we can discuss Truth. As if we haven't been discussing it all along. -Hagbard Celine, The Golden Apple Illuminatus! Part II, from the original and genuine trilogy of conspiracies, is performed in all its unabridged brilliance by a full ensemble cast... -
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 78 ratingsSet in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia literary-fiction realistic 21st-century action-adventure audiobook -
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The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out, but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia family humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire 21st-century -
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 61 ratingsHere are stories of other worlds: of the rain-gutted forests of Venus and the deep canals of Mars; of the empty blackness of space and of planets that have no name. Here are stories, too, of Earth - new and unfamiliar in the glow of a wondrous future. And here- above all - is the story of The Illustrated man - tattooed by a witch with the most fantastic images ever seen on Earth.. -
The Pulse by Skylar Finn
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn EMP means the end of the world as they know it for a family who fights to survive. When disaster strikes in the form of an EMP, Charlie's family flees to their homestead. They fortify their ranch and prepare to ride out the worst of the chaos. Unfortunately, the gang of scavengers who followed them from the city have other plans... -
Renegades: Badlands Next Generation by Natalie Bennett
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOf the devil’s flesh and bone, the prince is ready to claim his throne.I want power.Cam wants penance.I've got a black cult religion backing my decisions.He's got demons hungry for carnage.Everything was going smoothly.Until her.She's the forbidden fruit we're supposed to beware of, but something carnal is growing between us... -
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsOryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved... -
Heathens by Natalie Bennett
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCobra Wildcard. Sinner. Frequently misunderstood. I can be your best friend or your worst fucking nightmare. The Savages are my family and the Badlands is our paradise. When that’s threatened, no one is safe. Carnage and chaos unfold around me. Loyalties are tested. Truths start to unravel... -
Bitter Harvest by Michael R. Hicks
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA year has passed since the Sutter Buttes incident. Jack Dawson and Naomi Perrault, having failed to find the elusive bag of lethal New Horizons seed, are fired, and their secret agency shut down. In Los Angeles, Naomi is recruited by a self-made billionaire in the pharmaceuticals industry. Her colleagues have made such progress, they must have New Horizons seed... -
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsRed Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products... -
Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFurnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries... -
The Darkness We Crave by Katie May
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsMost people don't think about where they're going to be when the world ends. On the beach drinking margaritas? In the arms of a lover? How about in a shit-ass resort run by your shit-ass parents? I have always lived my life as the perfect daughter. At seventeen, I had no other option than to follow my parents' strict regiment... -
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1984: An Audible Original adaptation by Joe White, George Orwell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the age of uniformity.From the age of solitude and doublethink.From the age of Big Brother.From me, Winston Smith.Greetings.It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith... -
Blood and Water by J. David Osborne
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter discovering a body in a local fishing hole, two brothers come to terms with their own poverty as they're inescapably drawn into a surreal world of dangerous criminals.Set against a rural Oklahoma backdrop, Blood and Water is a story of family responsibility, the lure of easy outs and even easier scores, and our own violent impulses... -
The Final Stand by James Hunt
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPrepare and survive. An EMP cripples the nation on the day Detective Mike Thorton was supposed to bury his father. Fighting a panic-stricken city, an unknown enemy, and his own grief, Mike must rescue his family before the city devours them all...Categorized as:
dystopia apocalyptic literary-fiction crime terrorism survival serial-killers multi-pov -
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... -
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 55 ratingsIn a small American town, the local residents are abuzz with excitement and nervousness when they wake on the morning of the twenty-seventh of June. Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win. “The Lottery” stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history... -
One of Us by Michael Marshall Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt's not what you've done that counts it's what you remember....If you could sell your conscience, could you get away with murder?Hap Thompson works the gray area between truth and lies. He works for REMtemp, taking on other people's memories. It's illegal, but usually harmless. Maybe a petty criminal wants to pass a lie detector test. Or an unfaithful spouse wants to enjoy a guiltless affair... -
2666, Part 1: The Part About The Critics by Roberto Bolaño
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsComposed in the last two years of Bolaño's life, 2666 has been greeted as his greatest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness,beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters include academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student caring for her widowed, mentally unstable father... -
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsTold by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism... -
All These Monsters by Amy Tintera
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom New York Times best-selling author Amy Tintera, a high-stakes sci-fi adventure about a teen girl who will do anything to escape her troubled home—even if that means joining a dangerous monster-fighting squad. Perfect for fans of Warcross and Renegades. Seventeen-year-old Clara is ready to fight back... -
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The Trial by Franz Kafka
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsWritten in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information... -
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.But there are rules:He cannot look inside the box.He cannot ask questions... -
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsShana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia family literary-fiction politics 21st-century action-adventure -
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong, Jason Pargin
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements.An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move.Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes.A young woman from the trailer park.And her very smelly cat.Together, they will decide the future of mankind... -
Bloom by Kenneth Oppel
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe first book in a can't-put-it-down, can't-read-it-fast-enough action-thriller trilogy that's part Hatchet, part Little Shop of Horrors!The invasion begins--but not as you'd expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout--overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom--and release toxic pollens... -
The Trial by Franz Kafka, Arthur H. Samuelson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsWritten in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka's death, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information... -
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsA boy drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. He dies. Then he wakes, naked and bruised and thirsty, but alive. How can this be? And what is this strange deserted place?As he struggles to understand what is happening, the boy dares to hope...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia family magical-realism action-adventure afterlife audiobook -
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsNew York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real ... a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages ... A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP)...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia family politics realistic action-adventure adult alternate-history -
The Starving Years by Jordan Castillo Price
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLibrarian's note: This is an alternate cover edition for ASIN: B007H0KETIImagine a world without hunger. In 1960, a superfood was invented that made starvation a thing of the past. Manna, the cheaply manufactured staple food, is now as ubiquitous as salt in the world’s cupboards, pantries and larders.Nelson Oliver knows plenty about manna. He’s a food scientist—according to his diploma, that is... -
Escape from Eden by Elisa Nader
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSince the age of ten, Mia has lived under the iron fist of the fundamentalist preacher who lured her mother away to join his fanatical family of followers. In Edenton, a supposed “Garden of Eden” deep in the South American jungle, everyone follows the Reverend’s strict but arbitrary rules—even the mandate of whom they can marry... -
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One of the Boys by Jayne Cowie
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIf you could test your son for a gene that predicts violence, would you do it?Antonia and Bea are sisters, and doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end.Antonia had her son tested to make sure he didn’t possess the "violent" M gene.Bea refuses to let her son take the test. His life should not be determined by a positive or negative result... -
Uncanny by Sarah Fine
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTwo sisters. One death. No memories.Cora should remember every detail about the night her stepsister, Hannah, fell down a flight of stairs to her death, especially since her Cerepin—a sophisticated brain-computer interface—may have recorded each horrifying moment. But when she awakens after that night, her memories gone, Cora is left with only questions—and dread of what the answers might mean... -
A Better World by Sarah Langan
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe author of Good Neighbors , “one of the creepiest, most unnerving deconstructions of American suburbia” (NPR), returns with a provocative and disconcerting novel about a woman questioning her new home in an exclusive company town after a night out goes terribly wrong.Welcome to Plymouth Valley... -
No Dominion by Louise Welsh
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt is seven years after the first outbreak of "the Sweats" destroyed the world, almost overnight. Two refugees from the death and decay of London, Stevie Flint and Magnus McFall, have both washed up on Orkney. A rural community clinging to survival, the islands are home to a generation of youth who barely remember a time before the pandemic... -
Freezing Point by Grace Hamilton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the dawn of a new Ice Age, families everywhere are taking to the road to escape the frigid landscape—but you can’t outrun the cold. No one could have predicted the terrifying impact of human interference in the Arctic. Shifts in the Earth's crust have led to catastrophe and now the North Pole is located in the mid-Atlantic, making much of the eastern United States an unlivable polar hellscape... -
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 89 ratingsA searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia family literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult
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