I’m looking for good post-apocalyptic or zombie books for my teen daughters, who are reluctant readers. So far I’ve got The Stand, Z For Zachariah, and Rise Again. I think World War Z might be a little too disjointed to hold their attention at this stage, but we’re building up to it. Any other recommendations? Not-too-difficult adult books would be ideal. Their being girls, if the book has a female protagonist, that is a definite plus. Thanks!
The Postmortal is interesting and easy to read. It’s in blog format, which might be appealing to reluctant readers. The protagonist is a dude though.
If they can deal with The Stand, World War Z should be a doddle. Indeed, its disjointed nature might be a benefit because they can read a small chunk at a time.
Children of the Dust meets your requirements exactly.
Brother in the Land is from the POV of a boy, but it’s definitely an easy read, has a strong female character and is quite good.
Life As We Knew It and its two sequels are recent and the scenario for their end of the world is unusual - the moon gets pushed closer to the Earth, with much more massive consequences than you’d expect. The first and third books are from the first person POV of a teenage girl.
(Both of those are on the linked page).
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
I remember liking The Girl Who Owned A City, by O.T. Nelson, which is about a group of children in a world where a virus has killed off all the people over the age of twelve. It’s pretty accessible, too.
Let me get some fairly popular stuff out of the way:
The Hunger Games: Post-apocalyptic dystopian future, female protagonist.
Gone: Kids surviving in a world without adults.
Feed: About a young female journalist in a zombie ridden future where the internet is the only mass media.
Swan Song by Robert McCammon - a post-apocalyptic novel that pits good against evil, in many ways similar to The Stand, but better in my opinion. The titular character is the female protagonist.
Sunshineby Robin McKinley. Post-Vampire apocalypse. One fairly explicit almost sex scene, if thats an issue.
Jonathan Maberry has written two in a set: Rot and Ruin and Dust and Decay
Dust and Decay
There’s also the YA steampunk victorian romance zombie novel: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel that’s getting some interesting feedback.
…gonna boomark this thread so I can update it in about a year and half when my book comes out.
Seconded. Both are awesome. And both are ongoing serieses that have multiple books after the first if you find a hit. Gone is on Book 4 with 5 and 6 coming out in the next two years while Feed is a trilogy that will be completed next year.
Lots of great looking choices!
All three books in that series are pretty good
http://www.amazon.com/Pariah-Bob-Fingerman/dp/0765326272 Pariah by Bob Fingerman is pretty decent, and one of the main characters is a teenage girl.
I just read this and it is fantastic. Also has that romance stuff teenage girls like.
Thirded! It’s awesome- a fast, exciting read. I didn’t care for the second one so much, though, I found it more emo, less action.
Dust is about a young vegan woman (might be a teen, I can’t remember) who, after dying in a car crash, awakens as a zombie in the zombie apocalypse. It’s first person and really really grody, but pretty fun stuff.