Books like 'Surviving Autocracy'
Readers who enjoyed Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Night Window by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratings#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz brings Jane Hawk's one-woman war to an explosive climax as the rogue FBI agent wages her final battle against a terrifying conspiracy--for vengeance, for justice, and for humanity's freedom."Jane Hawk is arguably the best character Koontz has created. Simply put, wow... -
One Among Us by Paige Dearth
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA kidnapped girl is forced into human sex trafficking Eleven- year-old Maggie Clarke is abducted from her loving family and thrust into the indescribably horrific and largely unknown underworld of human sex trafficking. In captivity, Maggie's life turns into a nightmare most children couldn't imagine... -
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsSome inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.The story "Omelas" was first published in New Dimensions 3, a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won Le Guin the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story...Categorized as:
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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 92 ratingsThe stunning third and final novel in Stieg Larsson’s internationally best-selling trilogyLisbeth Salander—the heart of Larsson’s two previous novels—lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital... -
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Never Be Alone by Paige Dearth
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA fatal car crash. A young orphan. Can she survive the harsh life of the seedy city streets?Eight-year-old Joon has no time to grieve her parents’ sudden death. Ripped from the security of a loving family, she endures horrific abuse in a system intended to protect her... -
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 82 ratingsThe new novel by George Orwell is the major work towards which all his previous writing has pointed. Critics have hailed it as his "most solid, most brilliant" work. Though the story of Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place thirty-five years hence, it is in every sense timely. The scene is London, where there has been no new housing since 1950 and where the city-wide slums are called Victory Mansions...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary 20th-century alternate-history audiobook book classics contemporary -
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:
politics social-commentary 20th-century adult aliens alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
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:
politics social-commentary 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book -
Born Mobster by Paige Dearth
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSeven year old Tony has one...choice to live or to die.Tony Bruno just wants to fit in, but the bullies at his school are cruel and relentless. At home, he leans on his mother Teresa for strength and comfort, but she’s no match for his father, Carmen. His father, a fighter and bully himself, hates Tony. He is embarrassed by the child for not fighting back and wishes that Tony was never born... -
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 101 ratingsHarriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of iniquity and corruption... -
Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley, Christopher Hitchens
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsThe astonishing novel Brave New World, originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley's vision of the future--of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary 20th-century audiobook book classics contemporary dystopia -
The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"‘I have heard all of the stories about girls like me, and I am unafraid to make more of them.’ If you read this story out loud, please use the following voices:Me: as a child, high-pitched, forgettable; as a woman, the same.The boy who will grow into a man, and be my spouse: robust with his own good fortune.My father: Like your father, or the man you wish was your father... -
4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings4.48 Psychosis sees the ultimate narrowing of Sarah Kane's focus in her work. The struggle of the self to remain intact has moved in her work from civil war, into the family, into the couple, into the individual, and finally into the theatre of phychosis: the mind itself. This play was written in 1999 shortly before the playwright took her own life at age 28... -
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 101 ratingsWinston Smith is a low-rung member of the Party, the ruling government of Oceania. He works in the Ministry of Truth, the Party's propoganda arm, where he is in charge of revising history. He is but a small brick in the pyramid that is the Party, at the head of which stands Big Brother. Big Brother the infallible. Big Brother the all-powerful...Categorized as:
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The Couple at No. 9 by Claire Douglas
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsIt was the house of their dreams. Until the bodies were found . . . BODIES FOUND UNDER PATIOWhen pregnant Saffron Cutler moves into 9 Skelton Place with boyfriend Tom and sets about renovations the last thing she expects is builders uncovering a body - two bodies, in fact.POLICE INVESTIGATEForensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years. Nothing Saffy need worry herself over... -
The Flesh Cartel #18: The Long Road by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the exciting final season of the Flesh Cartel . . . With the help of the FBI, Mat Carmichael has let himself be re-taken by the Flesh Cartel. Objective? Rescue his brother, exact revenge, and destroy the entire organization from the inside... -
The Flesh Cartel, Season 3: Transformation by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWith a wedge at last driven between Mat and Dougie Carmichael, courtesy of Nikolai Petrovic’s expert manipulations, the brothers must each accept their new path forward: Dougie, a perfect slave, sweet and obedient and loving. Mat, a tightly reined dog, snarling and snapping but never allowed to bite. Unfortunately, no transformation, however well planned, is without its growing pains... -
Promise by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the exciting final season of the Flesh Cartel . . .With the help of the FBI, Mat Carmichael has let himself be re-taken by the Flesh Cartel. Objective? Rescue his brother, exact revenge, and destroy the entire organization from the inside... -
Owned by the Lost Boys by A.J. Merlin
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThey say they saved my life, even though I never saw them do it. Cyril, Isaac, Asher, Ezra, and Arlo call themselves the Lost Boys, and they’re just one branch of a ‘family’ that rules everything in the city I grew up in. They’re the bad guys, in every sense of the word, and they don’t care who knows it... -
The One by John Marrs
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsHow far would you go to find The One?A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you'll be matched with your perfect partner--the one you're genetically made for.That's the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate... -
Traumaland by Josh Silver
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Eli has been in a near-fatal car crash. As the anniversary looms, his therapist and family struggle to help him deal with the fall out. The accident has left him emotionally numb, with no memory of the months following the crash. Desperate to feel something again, Eli winds up at an underground club called Traumaland. But this is no ordinary nightclub... -
The Crooked Staircase by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsJane Hawk -- who dazzled readers in The Silent Corner and The Whispering Room -- faces the fight of her life, against the threat of a lifetime in this electrifying new thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling suspense master Dean Koontz. "I could be dead tomorrow. Or something worse than dead." Jane Hawk knows she may be living on borrowed time... -
The Flesh Cartel #14: Independence Day by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMat and Douglas’s time as Nikolai’s wards is finally drawing to a close. Though torn apart by Nikolai’s machinations, their fates are still inextricably entwined: they’ve been sold to the same cruel master, and are united in their desire to go home... -
To the Victor by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the exciting final season of the Flesh Cartel . . .With the help of the FBI, Mat Carmichael has let himself be re-taken by the Flesh Cartel. Objective? Rescue his brother, exact revenge, and destroy the entire organization from the inside... -
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Mad Girl by A.A. Dark, Alaska Angelini
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings**CAUTION-------PITCH BLACK READ** My mother was the Madison Ridge Killer … and I helped her. At nine, I was given a new start—a new life. My adoptive parents did everything they could to help me forget my past, and for a while, they succeeded. But I was never normal. I never truly forgot all I saw or did.Now, twenty years later, I work in the billing department for a small city newspaper... -
Boxed In by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the exciting final season of the Flesh Cartel . . .With the help of the FBI, Mat Carmichael has let himself be re-taken by the Flesh Cartel. Objective? Rescue his brother, exact revenge, and destroy the entire organization from the inside... -
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA sensational new novel from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms that tracks a group of privileged Los Angeles high school friends as a serial killer strikes across the city... -
I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is In Love with a Pedophile: 6 Patient Files From Prison by Dr. Harper
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe highly anticipated sequel to I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to be the Next School ShooterI've counseled the most chilling criminals... A young inmate who fell in love with a pedophile. A man who intentionally infected strangers with HIV. A patient with an extremely unusual addiction. A sociopath who wanted to have a conscience... -
No Exit and Three Other Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn these four plays, Jean-Paul Sartre, the great existentialist novelist and philosopher, displays his mastery of drama. NO EXIT is an unforgettable portrayal of hell. THE FLIES is a modern reworking of the Electra-Orestes story. DIRTY HANDS is about a young intellectual torn between theory and praxis. THE RESPECTFUL PROSTITUTE is an attack on American racism...Categorized as:
lgbtq politics social-commentary 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary -
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsKnock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse... -
PSYCHO NYMPH EXILE by Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsgurowave novella about a disgraced biomech pilot and her girlfriend, an ex-magical... -
No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings, Lucy Patterson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn a hotel room in Venice, where she's just completed a routine assassination, Villanelle receives a late-night call.Eve Polastri has discovered that a senior MI5 officer is in the pay of the Twelve, and is about to debrief him. As Eve interrogates her subject, desperately trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, Villanelle moves in for the kill... -
Death in Midsummer and Other Stories by Yukio Mishima
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRecognized throughout the world for his brilliance as a novelist and playwright, Yukio Mishima is also noted as a master of the short story in his native Japan. Here nine of his finest stories, selected by Mishima himself, represent his extraordinary ability to depict a wide variety of human beings in moments of significance... -
I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is a Vegan Terrorist: 6 Deadly Social Media Influencers by Dr. Harper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Explosive Conclusion to the Dr. Harper Therapy seriesI'm a therapist, and I've worked with the wildest internet celebrities… A vigilante who treated humans as factory farm animals. A germaphobe who warned of the next major plague. My own best friend. A rapist who got cancelled online — and in real life. A psychic medium with a disturbing prediction... -
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Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA world away from Brewster Place, yet intimately connected to it, lies Linden Hills. With its showcase homes, elegant lawns, and other trappings of wealth, Linden Hills is not unlike other affluent black communities. But residence in this community is indisputable evidence of "making it... -
Midnight Graffiti by Jessica Horsting, Stephen King
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA collection of new horror stories includes contributions by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Dan Simmons, David J. Schow, Nancy Collins, and others...Categorized as:
social-commentary adult animals anthologies contemporary female-author fiction gothic -
Anatomy of a Murderer by Tim Floreen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA teenage sociopath is “fixed” after he gets an implant that’s supposed to cure him in this thrilling coming-of-age tale from the author of Willful Machines.A year ago, Rem Braithwaite watched his classmate Franklin Kettle commit a horrific crime.Now, apart from the nightmares, life has gone back to normal for Rem. Franklin was caught, convicted, and put away in juvenile detention for what he did... -
Guide by Dennis Cooper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsChris is a young porn star who wants to experience death at someone else's hand; Mason has lurid fantasies about members of British pop bands; Sniffles is a teenage runaway whose need for love outweighs his attachment to life... -
The Flesh Cartel #4: Consequences by Rachel Haimowitz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn episode four of The Flesh Cartel, Mat and Dougie Carmichael begin their training with their new master, Nikolai, where they both learn the meaning of servitude . . . and of consequences for their choices.For Mat, destined to be trained but not broken—to always fight but never win—life with Nikolai is suffering stacked on suffering... -
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsThe Turn of the Key meets Parasite in this eerily haunting debut and Reddit hit—soon to be a Netflix original movie starring Blake Lively—about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house’s previous residents unexpectedly visit... -
Painter's Obsession: Volume I by Luna K. Wicked
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"MM EROTIC HORROR" DEPRAVED EROTIC HORROR Dual Pov I wasn’t supposed to feel this way about him... the man dating my sister. But no matter how much I try to focus on other women, my mind keeps circling back to him. It started as unease, an itch I couldn’t scratch, a feeling that there was something off about him. Then it grew... an obsession I couldn’t control... -
I Am Dust by Louise Beech
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Dean Wilson Theatre is believed to be haunted by a long-dead actress, singing her last song, waiting for her final cue, looking for her killer… Now Dust, the iconic musical, is returning after twenty years... -
The Flesh Cartel #9: Trials and Errors by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWith a wedge at last driven between Mat and Dougie Carmichael, courtesy of Nikolai Petrovic’s expert manipulations, the brothers must each accept their new path forward: Dougie, a perfect slave, sweet and obedient and loving. Mat, a tightly reined dog, snarling and snapping but never allowed to bite.Unfortunately, no transformation, however well planned, is without its growing pains... -
The Flesh Cartel #10: False Gods by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWith a wedge at last driven between Mat and Dougie Carmichael, courtesy of Nikolai Petrovic’s expert manipulations, the brothers must each accept their new path forward: Dougie, a perfect slave, sweet and obedient and loving. Mat, a tightly reined dog, snarling and snapping but never allowed to bite.Unfortunately, no transformation, however well planned, is without its growing pains... -
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Splintered by Tal Bauer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEverything in Ben's life was perfect. He had it all. The good career. The perfect partner, Evan. The happy home. They were even talking about turning the extra bedroom into a nursery.But things start to splinter. Evan begins missing time, not knowing where he was or how he got there... -
Caution Tape by Molly Doyle, J.D. Midnight
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCaution Tape is an erotic horror novel co-written by Bestselling Author Molly Doyle and J.D. Midnight, focusing on a game of cat and mouse that turns quickly into a bloody sex fest between two serial killers who meet by chance. This book contains extremely dark content. Reader discretion is advised.CORA It’s exhausting pretending to be normal. Go to therapy. Hold down a job. Smile... -
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsShe's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists...Categorized as:
lgbtq social-commentary 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book classics comedy -
The Flesh Cartel #11: Permanent Record by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMat and Douglas’s time as Nikolai’s wards is finally drawing to a close. Though torn apart by Nikolai’s machinations, their fates are still inextricably entwined: they’ve been sold to the same cruel master, and are united in their desire to go home... -
Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKatrina Kim may be broke, the black sheep of her family, and slightly unhinged, but she isn’t a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms—like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children’s book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious or stressed... -
Paradise Island by Rachel Haimowitz, Heidi Belleau
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMat and Douglas’s time as Nikolai’s wards is finally drawing to a close. Though torn apart by Nikolai’s machinations, their fates are still inextricably entwined: they’ve been sold to the same cruel master, and are united in their desire to go home...
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