Books like 'The Lake'
Readers who enjoyed The Lake by Bianca Bellová also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi coming-of-age dystopia literary-fiction
-
天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratings...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction fiction young-adult magic family contemporary children -
![The Warrior Race by T.C. Edge]()
The Warrior Race by T.C. Edge
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKira Blackstone’s reputation precedes her. Rebel, warrior, genetically enhanced killer. She’s fought since she was a girl to save the city of Haven. Now, unfortunately, her friends are going to have to fight their war without her. Kidnapped during a fight by a group of mysterious soldiers, garbed in fine silver armour and flowing red robes, Kira finds herself waking in total darkness... -
![The Kitchens of Canton by Isham Cook]()
The Kitchens of Canton by Isham Cook
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJeff Malmquist is unaccountably catapulted to the year 2060. He finds himself in New Gary, Indiana, a labor camp of one million Chicagoans, their identities hacked and incriminated as pedophiles through the collusion of a corrupt US Government, the Russian cybermafia, and China...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure book contemporary fiction journey new-adult -
![The Untethered by S.W. Southwick]()
The Untethered by S.W. Southwick
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhat Roble wants to create is illegal...if not impossible.And everyone seems determined to stop him from trying. But when a few unrepentant ladies join his fight to live free, the Las Vegas desert is going to light up like the 4th of July. ----------------------- "If you want a cross-breed between an Ayn Rand novel and a techno-thriller, this is the best you'll read...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction action-adventure adult book classics contemporary fiction -
-
![Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones by Torrey Peters]()
Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones by Torrey Peters
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the future, everyone will be trans. So says Lexi. She's a charismatic trans woman furious with the way she sees her trans friends treated by society and resentful of the girl who spurned her love... -
![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... -
![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:
dystopia literary-fiction adult anthologies apocalyptic audiobook contemporary female-author -
![Of Mice and Mooshaber by Ladislav Fuks, Mark Corner]()
Of Mice and Mooshaber by Ladislav Fuks, Mark Corner
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLadislav Fuks (1923-94) was an outstanding Czech writer whose work, consisting primarily of psychological fiction, explores themes of anxiety and life in totalitarian systems... -
![Les Portes d'Occident by Pierre Bordage]()
Les Portes d'Occident by Pierre Bordage
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEn l'an 2212, le monde est divisé en deux par le REM : une immense barrière électromagnétique. D'un côté, on trouve les pays occidentaux, à l'origine de la séparation et de l'autre, le reste du monde.À l'Est, les croisades successives, religieuses ou idéologiques, contre la science ont fait retomber ces pays dans un quasi Moyen Âge. Confort et nourriture sont des denrées rares... -
![Motorman by David Ohle]()
Motorman by David Ohle
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFiction. It is curious that a reprint could be heroic. It is more curious that a book this good could go out of print so quickly. And it is most curious that an introduction would even be required for a novel that, if you examine it carefully in the right kind oflight, might actually be seen to be steaming... -
![When the Power Is Gone by P.A. Glaspy]()
When the Power Is Gone by P.A. Glaspy
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsRuss and Anne Mathews live in a rural suburb in Tennessee. Regular people, with regular jobs, living a normal life - except for one thing. They are what many people call "preppers." They have stocked up on supplies to survive any kind of event they can think of that may occur to disrupt life as they know it. When that event comes, they start preparing for the new way of life they will face...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary female-mc -
![Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban]()
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the far distant future, the country laid waste by nuclear holocaust, twelve-year-old Riddley Walker tells his story in a language as fractured as the world in which he lives. As Riddley steps outside the confines of his small world, he finds himself caught up in intrigue and a frantic quest for power, desperately trying to make sense of things...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic book -
-
![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... -
![How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth]()
How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Earth has been sold to aliens. What could possibly go wrong?It’s the Year 2024. Drowning in debt following the pandemic and facing ruin, the world's leaders have taken the only logical decision.They’ve sold the planet... -
![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... -
![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... -
![Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G. Coney]()
Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G. Coney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt was an alien planet - yet not too alien from Earth. It had its differences; its ice goblins, its curious furry lorrin, its thickening water, and its unearthly tides, but for a young man like Alika-Drove thinking of a vacation by the sea these oddities were the norm.But this vacation was different...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dystopia 20th-century action-adventure bildungsroman book classics contemporary -
![The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey]()
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBeyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don't venture beyond the walls...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dystopia literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book -
![Every Version of You by Grace Chan]()
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction sci-fi fiction mental-illness lgbtq contemporary pollution-climate-change -
![Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson]()
Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP ANOTHER PERSON. PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP NOT A PERSON AT ALL.”From the “master of literary horror” (GQ) comes a collection of new stories tracing the limits and consequences of artificial intelligence and “post-human” relationships... -
![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 -
![The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor]()
The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings'Joelle Taylor has a Midas touch with words' Diana Souhami The tattoo was a reclamation, a flag we mounted in the centre of our own landscape.A woman walks into a tattoo parlour. But this is no ordinary woman, and this is Hackney in 2233... -
-
![Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar]()
Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor years Kitty Hawke has lived alone on Wolfe Island, witness to the island’s erosion and clinging to the ghosts of her past. Her work as a sculptor and her wolfdog Girl are enough. News of mainland turmoil is as distant as myth until refugees from that world arrive: her granddaughter Cat, and Luis and Alejandra, a brother and sister escaping persecution... -
![Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes]()
Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Marcos moves to town, Milo is forced to acknowledge the feelings he's kept hidden, especially from his religious parents. But as natural disasters begin to befall them the closer they become, Milo and Marcos soon begin to wonder if the universe itself is plotting against them in this young adult debut by playwright and creator of The Two Princes podcast, Kevin Christopher Snipes... -
![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 literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary family female-author fiction -
![Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong]()
Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"The Guide" is a former South Korean dissident and tour guide who speaks a fluid fabricated language; "the Historian" interviews the Guide and annotates the commentaries. Cathy Park Hong's passionate and artful poem sequence weaves an ultimately revitalizing dialogue on shared experience in a globalized world, using language as subversion and disguise... -
![From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami]()
From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Fatherland, with Love is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed and Japan's economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of rebels in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can't cope with the surprise onslaught of Operation From the Fatherland, with Love...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction adult alternate-history asian-mc book contemporary fiction -
![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 literary-fiction adult alternate-history book contemporary family female-author -
![Dog Logic by Tom Strelich]()
Dog Logic by Tom Strelich
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIf "Dr. Strangelove" and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" got together and had a litter of puppies you'd get "Dog Logic", a duck-and-cover fable and love story. Funny, inflammatory, and weirdly propheticHertell Daggett is the divorced and damaged caretaker of a failing pet cemetery on the outskirts of Bakersfield, and he's just discovered a lost civilization... -
![A Better World by Sarah Langan]()
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... -
![Low Flying Aircraft And Other Stories by J.G. Ballard]()
Low Flying Aircraft And Other Stories by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsContents:The Ultimate CityLow-Flying AircraftThe Dead AstronautMy Dream of Flying to Wake IslandThe Life and Death of GodThe Greatest Television Show on EarthA Place and a Time to DieThe Comsat AngelsThe Beach...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction -
![Hard Wired by Len Vlahos]()
Hard Wired by Len Vlahos
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Morris finalist Len Vlahos comes a contemporary sci-fi story about a boy who might not be human—for fans of Westworld and Black Mirror.Quinn thinks he’s a normal boy with an average life. That is, until he finds a trail of clues the father he barely knew left behind.After Quinn unravels his father’s puzzles, he “wakes up” ... and realizes his world was nothing more than a virtual construct... -
-
![Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba by Basma Ghalayini, Mazen Maarouf]()
Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba by Basma Ghalayini, Mazen Maarouf
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPalestine + 100 poses a question to twelve Palestinian writers: what might your country look like in the year 2048 – a century after the tragedies and trauma of what has come to be called the Nakba? How might this event – which, in 1948, saw the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes – reach across a century of occupation, oppression, and political isolation, to shape the...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary fiction poc-author politics -
![American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh]()
American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSaid Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories—some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories—is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders... -
![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... -
![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:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies apocalyptic contemporary epistolary -
![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... -
![Terrienne by Jean-Claude Mourlevat]()
-
![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:
dystopia literary-fiction adult anthologies apocalyptic classics contemporary fiction -
![Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson]()
Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYou can survive a nuclear blast. All you need is some luck, and maybe a customized business suit coated in cockroaches. It could work. At least that's what Dean believed before the bombs actually dropped and his suit led him to murder a Very Important Man at the foot of a blackened obelisk. Now D.C. is looking awfully empty. Life on Earth is pretty much coming to an end...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary fiction -
![Noah's Ark: Survivors by Harry Dayle]()
Noah's Ark: Survivors by Harry Dayle
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMay 1st 2014 the Earth is scorched by a stray asteroid, wiping out almost all life. Almost, but not quite. Three thousand souls aboard a cruise ship visiting the north pole are spared by a freak of nature.The ship’s First Officer, Jake Noah, was looking forward to getting back to dry land once and for all...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary crime -
![The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson]()
The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter a catastrophic storm destroys Melbourne, Isobel flees to higher ground with her husband and young daughter. Food and supplies run low, panic sets in and still no help arrives. To protect her daughter, Isobel must take drastic action. The Glad Shout is an extraordinary novel of rare depth and texture...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction adult alternate-history book contemporary disaster epidemy -
-
![Clean Slate Complex by Megan Thomason]()
Clean Slate Complex by Megan Thomason
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMeet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Worldwide non-profit and do-gooder organization. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Life(TM). Reality: hidden behind every kind act is a dark agenda designed to gain control and force societal and moral extremes...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dystopia action-adventure alternate-history anthologies contemporary family fiction -
![Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumarasamy]()
Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumarasamy
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the near future, a young woman finds her mother's body starfished on the kitchen floor in Queens and sets on a journey through language, archives, artificial intelligence, and TV for a way back into herself...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction fiction sci-fi contemporary lgbtq historical-fiction magical-realism -
![What We Can Know by Ian McEwan]()
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message, but no copy has yet been found.2119: The lowlands of the UK have been submerged by rising seas. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction fiction sci-fi historical-fiction contemporary 21st-century mystery -
![A Minor Apocalypse by Tadeusz Konwicki]()
A Minor Apocalypse by Tadeusz Konwicki
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAs in his novel The Polish Complex, Konwicki's A Minor Apocalypse stars a narrator and character named Konwicki, who has been asked to set himself on fire that evening in front of the Communist Party headquarters in Warsaw in an act of protest. He accepts the commission, but without any clear idea of whether he will actually go through with the self-immolation... -
![Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy]()
Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOriginally published in 1970, Marge Piercy’s second novel follows the lives of four teenagers in a near-future society as they rebel against a military draft and “the system.” The occupation of Franklin High School begins, and with it, the open rebellion of America’s youth against their channeled, unrewarding lives and the self-serving, plastic society that directs them...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dystopia literary-fiction adult book contemporary female-author feminism -
![The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio]()
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn arresting collection of contemporary fiction at its best, these stories explore a vast range of subjects, from love and deception to war and the insidious power of class distinctions. However clearly spoken, in voices sophisticated, cunning, or na-ve, here is fiction that consistently defies our expectations...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
