# Reading Suggestion - 14 year old girl - SciFi/Dystopian **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269 "2017-03-15T22:47:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/1 "2017-03-15T22:47:43Z")
My 14 year old daughter is like, all dystopian and stuff now šŸ˜ƒ She read Fahrenheit 451 and loved it! We ended up discussing for nearly two hours. Now she wants MORE! More Bradbury, more dystopia, more fall of Man! My problem is finding more. I got her _The Veldt_ and _Something Wicked this Way Comes_ and _1984_, _We_ and _Brave New World_. The issue is _We_ and _Brave New World_ are so dated. In style, I mean, Iā€™m not sure if those will hold her attention, _1984_ is old but it doesnā€™t ā€œreadā€ old. IMO. So dopers any _boots treading on necks_ reading materials to suggest? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/2 "2017-03-15T22:59:11Z")
Are you including modern choices? Because you canā€™t throw a rock without hitting a modern teen dystopian novel. (The most obvious being the Hunger Games trilogy.) If you want to split the age difference between 1984 and The Hunger Games, try _The Girl Who Owned a City_ by O.T. Nelson. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/3 "2017-03-15T23:02:19Z")
Several of the recent young adult fiction series (such as The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner and the Divergent series) are dystopian stories. But Iā€™d assume a fourteen-year-old would already be familiar with those. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/4 "2017-03-15T23:03:07Z")
Hunger Games? Handmaids tale (not sure ok for 14 yo) Canticle for Liebowitz? If cyberpunk is ok, then Neuromancer and Snow Crash Brian ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/5 "2017-03-15T23:12:45Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Are you including modern choices? Because you canā€™t throw a rock without hitting a modern teen dystopian novel. (The most obvious being the Hunger Games trilogy.) If you want to split the age difference between 1984 and The Hunger Games, try _The Girl Who Owned a City_ by O.T. Nelson. Sheā€™s already done The Hunger Games and Divergent. Hunger Games she liked well enough, she didnā€™t bother finishing Divergent. I was looking for something a little more towards the adult literature side (though without any overt sex or grisly killing). She reads a lot already so most YA stuff sheā€™s already familiar with, she wants something a bit higher up the ladder if you know what I mean. Not pretentious (my feelings) but not condescending either. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/6 "2017-03-15T23:29:28Z")
While I ponder on other choices, conciser _Little Brothe_r by Corey Doctorow. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/7 "2017-03-15T23:34:19Z")
Obv The Road. Itā€™s an education in how to write, as well. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/8 "2017-03-15T23:34:50Z")
Does it have to be dystopian? **The Sparrow** is a good one, and its sequel **Children of God** not as good but it answers questions left in **The Sparrow**. **Geek Love** is a good one for the story of a different kind of family. And of course all of the Madeline Lā€™Engle **Wrinkle In Time** books. ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/9 "2017-03-15T23:40:05Z")
The stuff by Octavia Butler is quite good. I donā€™t recall the sexual content, though. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/10 "2017-03-15T23:47:59Z")
I was scanning [this](http://best-sci-fi-books.com/96-dystopian-science-fiction-books/) list to try to trigger some reccomendations, but most of them either donā€™t quite fit IMHO or I havenā€™t read them. _Diamond Age_ by Neal Stephenson is probably the best choice from the list (from the books Iā€™m familiar with.) _Battle Royale_ would be a good choice, too, if you are willing to let it slide a bit on the ā€œgrisly killingā€ aspect.\* Battle Royale\* is basically \*The Hunger Games \*cranked up to 11 and written years earlier. (And both of them are less similar but not entirely unlike _The Long Walk_ by Steven King/Richard Bachman.) Iā€™d also suggest [_The World Inside_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Inside) by Robert Silverberg. The plot revolves around a future Earth where the culture takes ā€œbe fruitful and multiplyā€ very, very seriously, but I donā€™t remember if the sex is very explicit (Iā€™m thinking ā€œnoā€.) (Now that I think about it, Silverbergā€™s _Thorns_ wouldnā€™t be a bad choice, either. Looks like [the paperback containing both of them](https://www.amazon.com/Three-wrld-thor-Robert-Silverberg/dp/055327287X) isnā€™t a cheap find like some old paperbacks, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/11 "2017-03-15T23:50:56Z")
Oh, the mention of _Children of God_ made me think of maybe [_Children of Men_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_Men). ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/12 "2017-03-16T01:58:21Z")
stranger in a strange land by robert heinlein (or anything else by him) the man in the high castle or do androids dream of electric sheep by philip k dick. mc ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/13 "2017-03-16T02:03:47Z")
anthem by ayn rand mc ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/14 "2017-03-16T02:17:44Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > I was looking for something a little more towards the adult literature side (though without any overt sex or grisly killing). Unless the version of _1984_ you gave her was the G-rated version, itā€™s too late. Thereā€™s a passage where Winston contemplates doing a number of cruel things to Julia, at a time when he thinks sheā€™s stalking him. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/15 "2017-03-16T02:19:04Z")
A zombie story that a few years ago she could have read for free (I didā€¦ and once on Kindle bought it to support the author): Adrianā€™s Undead Diary [https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Recollections-Adrians-Undead-Diary-ebook/dp/B00G76PKTC](https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Recollections-Adrians-Undead-Diary-ebook/dp/B00G76PKTC) Still for free another zombie apocalypse story (heavy on day to day stuff including recipes): Mother Hen in Floridaā€™s Journal of the Zombie Years [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11759047/1/Journal-of-the-Zombie-Years](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11759047/1/Journal-of-the-Zombie-Years) Both have loads of grisly death thoughā€¦ but very little in the way of sex. Both are more about the logistics of surviving with a few odd twists and turns beyond zombies. [Fanfiction.net](http://Fanfiction.net) has loads more dystopian type stories for free to read. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/16 "2017-03-16T02:33:43Z")
Send her for an existentialism jaunt, maybe? At 15 I read Kafkaā€™s ā€œMetamorphosisā€ and Sartreā€™s ā€œThe Wall.ā€ ā€œThe Yellow Wallpaperā€ isnā€™t super-existentialist but had a big effect on me at that age. You want a modern dystopic story? I think [Singing My Sister Down](http://will.tip.dhappy.org/blog/Porn%20Recommender/.../book/by/Margo%20Lanagan/Singing%20My%20Sister%20Down/Margo%20Lanagan%20-%20Singing%20My%20Sister%20Down.html) might qualify; in any case, itā€™s a beautiful and absolutely chilling story. **The Road** is phenomenal, but Iā€™m not sure that a 14yo is going to be equipped to handle itā€“and I say that having just recommended Sartre and Kafka, so take it at that level :). The storyā€™s central love story, a fatherā€™s love for a son in the face of certain despair, might not be as moving until youā€™re older. Iā€™ll second the Octavia Butler recommendation. **Parable of the Sower** is very, very good, but Butler suffers from making her parable too unsubtle by half: the nation in her novel is led by a racist xenophobe whose campaign slogan is ā€œMake America Great Again.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![Periwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Periwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Periwinkle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/17 "2017-03-16T02:48:27Z")
How about Station 11? I donā€™t remember anything inappropriate - check it out and see what you think. ETA: Author is Emily St. John Mandel ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/18 "2017-03-16T02:48:39Z")
Thanks for all the suggestions, Iā€™m compiling a list right now. The stories donā€™t HAVE to be dystopian but thatā€™s what she was asking about. I gave her _Enderā€™s Game_ to see how she likes that but she hasnā€™t started it yet. Because itā€™s a great story. Sheā€™s pretty good about self censoring but I donā€™t want her to have to drop something obviously inappropriate, because just as obviously, Iā€™ll be giving her some books that I havenā€™t read myself. > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Unless the version of _1984_ you gave her was the G-rated version, itā€™s too late. Thereā€™s a passage where Winston contemplates doing a number of cruel things to Julia, at a time when he thinks sheā€™s stalking him. I remember that, sort of, but I canā€™t remember how graphic it was or was not exactly. Even so, itā€™ll have to stay, sheā€™s in high school and that is one I want her to read. I appreciate the reminder, though. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/19 "2017-03-16T04:10:15Z")
As I recall, much of the work of John Barnes reads like modern equivalents to Heinleinā€™s juvenile fiction. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269/20 "2017-03-16T06:59:56Z")
John Wyndham made a career out of what Aldiss called ā€œcosy catastrophesā€ - the best ones are\* Day of the Triffids\* and _The Chrysalids_. The end is averted in _The Midwich Cuckoos_, though. > [@gigi](#): > > Does it have to be dystopian? **The Sparrow** is a good one, and its sequel **Children of God** not as good but it answers questions left in **The Sparrow**. I would not give\* the Sparrow\* to a 14 y.o if sexual violence is a concern, as the OP indicatesā€¦ The repeated alien butt rape of the priest and his mutilation isnā€™t exactly glossed over [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-suggestion-14-year-old-girl-scifi-dystopian/782269.md?page=2)