Books like 'A Guardian and a Thief'
Readers who enjoyed A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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They Call Her Dirty Sally by Amy Matayo
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFor years, the town of Silver Bell, Arkansas has quietly mourned the hospital fire that claimed the lives of nine of its residents—the town doctor, a young expectant mother, and seven infants...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction mystery contemporary womens-fiction small-town drama -
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...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age -
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 69 ratings"As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker."A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered... if indeed there were crimes.The youngest of forty - a child with no name and no past - she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic book classics -
Hard to Be a God by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe novel follows Anton, an undercover operative from the future planet Earth, in his mission on an alien planet, that is populated by human beings, whose society has not advanced beyond the Middle Ages...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
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Asfixia by Alex Mírez
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPlaneta tierra.Población: 1No logramos entender cómo pasó.El primero de septiembre de 2019, sucedió. Todos estábamos bien y de un momento a otro las personas comenzaron a morir asfixiadas. Poco a poco, el mundo se sumió en un pasmoso silencio.Sobreviví a ese misterioso y catastrófico incidente gracias a mi padre. Cuando desperté, me encontré con el horroroso panorama de millones de cadáveres... -
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 fiction post-apocalyptic sci-fi contemporary apocalyptic audiobook -
Protect by R.D. Brady
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSURVIVOR, MOTHER, LEADER ...HUMANITY'S LAST CHANCE The pulse-pounding, action-packed dystopian novel from Amazon best selling author, R.D. Brady.Deep within the remnants of the United States, Lyla Richards oversees a camp of two hundred survivors...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure audiobook book children-books colonization 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:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary crime -
The Time Machine/The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThe Time Machine and The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book classics contemporary -
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... -
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAt forty-three Jeff Winston is tired of his low-paid, unrewarding job, tired of the long silences at the breakfast table with his wife, saddened by the thought of no children to comfort his old age. But he hopes for better things, for happiness, maybe tomorrow ...But a sudden, fatal heart attack puts paid to that... -
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... -
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... -
Lord of All Things by Andreas Eschbach
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWinner of the 2012 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for best German science fiction novel, Lord of All Things is also a story about love against all odds.They are just children when they meet for the first time: Charlotte, daughter of the French ambassador, and Hiroshi, a laundress’s son. One day, Hiroshi declares that he has an idea that will change the world...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure audiobook book contemporary drama fiction -
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The Marriage Act by John Marrs
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills — the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single... -
Among the Betrayed by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratings"Everything that had happened to Nina was real. She had real handcuffs on her wrists, real scars on her back, real fear flooding her mind. "'They're going to kill me,' Nina whispered, and it was almost a relief to finally, finally give up hope...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction action-adventure alternate-history betrayal book children contemporary -
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 55 ratingsIn 2019, humanity finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post picks up exquisite singing from the planet Rakhat. While the U.N. debates possible contact missions, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an 8-person expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be human...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens audiobook -
Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn the near future sci-fi world of Qualityland, algorithms help create an idyllic life for its citizens, but what if the perfect world wasn't built for you?Welcome to QualityLand, the best country on Earth. Here, a universal ranking system determines the social advantages and career opportunities of every member of society... -
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 literary-fiction apocalyptic terrorism survival serial-killers multi-pov audiobook -
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time."This is when your life begins."Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary drama -
Le Problème à trois corps by Liu Cixin, Gwennaël Gaffric
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsPremier volume d'une trilogie culte, récompensé par le Hugo du meilleur roman en 2015, Le Problème à trois corps signale l’arrivée d’un auteur majeur sur la scène de la hard SF... -
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...Categorized as:
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Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsOne choice. Two possible timelines. And a world hanging in the balance.It’s the summer of 1986 and reluctant prodigy Nick Hayes is a student at Cambridge University, working with world-renowned mathematician Professor Halligan. He just wants to be a regular student, but regular isn’t really an option for a boy-genius cancer survivor who’s already dabbled in time travel...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary fiction -
The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwright, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. He comes bearing two things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for thirty years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult aging audiobook book coming-of-age -
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Second Variety: Short Story by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war between the United Nations and the Soviet Union, sophisticated robots nicknamed “claws” are created to destroy what remains of human life. Left to their own devices, however, the claws develop robots of their own. II-V, the second variety, remains unknown to the few humans left on Earth. Or does it?Philip K...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult ai anthologies apocalyptic -
The Scholar of Moab by Steven L. Peck
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinner of AML best literary novel of 2011 and a finalist for the national Montaigne Medal. What happens when a two-headed cowboy, a high school dropout, and a poet abducted by aliens come together in 1970’s Moab, Utah? The Scholar of Moab, a dark-comedy perambulating murder, affairs, and cowboy mysteries in the shadow of the hoary La Sal Mountains...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book christian comedy contemporary -
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...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics -
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World, blistering gangster noir meets howling absurdist comedy as the forces of good square off against the forces of evil, and only an unassuming clockwork repairman and an octogenarian former superspy can save the world from total destruction.Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks... -
Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHigh above Manhattan android and human steelworkers are constructing a new Tower of Babel for billionaire Harry Gant, as a monument to humanity’s power to dream. In the festering sewers below a darker game is afoot: a Wall Street takeover artist has been murdered, and Gant’s crusading ex-wife, Joan Fine, has been hired to find out why...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult book comedy conspiracies contemporary -
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...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century absurdism adult audiobook book -
Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License by María Amparo Escandón
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the author of L.A. Weather comes “a whimsical, humorous, and passionate mystery that explores the love and hurt of a father and daughter on the run” (Jorge Ramos, News Anchor for Univision).“1,001 nights in a Mexicali women’s prison . . . González and Daughter Trucking Co. is about our compulsion to make events into stories and stories into bridges of understanding... -
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... -
One Year After by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe thrilling follow-up to the New York Times bestselling novel One Second After.Months before publication, William R. Forstchen’s One Second After was cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read. Hundreds of thousands of people have read the tale. One Year After is the thrilling follow-up to that smash hit...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book -
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... -
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The Body Market by Donna Freitas
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSkylar has been betrayed.By her sister, who was willing to sacrifice Skylar for her own plans, and by Rain, who lied to her about everything.Perhaps worst of all, Skylar and her friends failed to stop the Real World’s plans for the people who are plugged in. The Body Market is now open for business—and Inara, Skylar’s best friend, is for sale... -
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
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... -
Tigerman by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsSergeant Lester Ferris is a good man in need of a rest. After a long career of being shot at, he’s about to be retired. The mildly larcenous, backwater island of Mancreu is the ideal place to serve out his time, a former British colony in legal limbo, belching toxic clouds of waste and facing imminent destruction by an international community concerned for their own safety...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Cogsmith's Daughter by Kate M. Colby
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a desert wasteland, one king rules with absolute power and unquenchable lust, until one woman risks everything for vengeance.When Aya Cogsmith was a teenager, King Archon executed her father for treason. Orphaned and destitute, Aya turns to prostitution to survive and spends years dreaming of vengeance...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction action-adventure book contemporary dark dark-fantasy fiction -
Where the Sweet Bird Sings by Ella Joy Olsen
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this provocative new novel, the author of Root, Petal, Thorn offers a powerful story of resilience, hope, and the secrets that, no matter how deeply hidden, can shape and ultimately unite a family. What connects us to one another? Is it shared history? Is it ancestry? Is it blood? Or is it love? People respond to tragedy in different ways. Some try to move on. Some don’t move at all... -
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 -
Pagans by James Alistair Henry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBritain, 2023… only in this Britain, the Norman Conquest of 1066 never happened. An uneasy alliance of ancient tribes – the Celtic West, Saxon East and an independent Nordic Scotland – has formed, but the fragile peace is threatened by a series of brutal murders. Members of a mysterious ‘Fisher’ cult are being killed one by one...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction europe british-isles united-kingdom england fiction mystery -
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...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction fiction audiobook contemporary family pollution-climate-change suspense -
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...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book contemporary disaster -
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The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn this mind-bending novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Miracles, a young mother and her unconventional psychiatrist encounter strange dimensions of the human mind and love as they try to understand the eerie things that are happening to Jane...Categorized as:
literary-fiction sci-fi fiction mystery contemporary audiobook psychological mental-illness -
Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAnna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility... -
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA dark and witty story of environmental collapse and runaway capitalism from the Booker-listed author of The Teleportation Accident.The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt... -
La Maison by Yves Grevet
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSoixante-quatre enfants vivent coupés du monde, dans une grande maison à l'organisation très stricte. Chacun d'eux sait qu'il devra en partir lorsqu'il aura trop grandi. Mais qu' y-a-t-il après la Maison?... Le premier tome d'une trilogie époustouflante d'Yves Grevet... -
When I Wake by Elizabeth Norris
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMaya Whitaker lives and breathes ballet. On stage, wrapped in music and the movements, she knows who she is. After an argument with her stepfather leaves her financially cut off and forced to quit, she’s completely lost. It’s how she finds herself at an illegal blackout party: one minute she’s drowning in a kiss from a complete stranger, the next they’re running from the cops... -
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDystopian debut about a tech company that deletes unwanted memories, the consequences for those forced to contend with what they tried to forget, and the dissenting doctor who seeks to protect her patients from further harm...Categorized as:
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