The Best Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic Teen & Young Adult Books 2024

1. Safe Lands Captives, Book 01, (Paperback)

One choice could destroy them all. When eighteen-year-old Levi returned from Denver City with his latest scavenged finds, he never imagined he'd find his village of Glenrock decimated, loved ones killed, and many--including his fiancée, Jem--taken captive. Now alone, Levi is determined to rescue what remains of his people, even if it means entering the Safe Lands, a walled city that seems anything but safe. Omar knows he betrayed his brother by sending him away, but helping the enforcers was necessary. Living off the land and clinging to an outdated religion holds his village back. The Safe Lands has protected people since the plague decimated the world generations ago ... and its rulers have promised power and wealth beyond Omar's dreams. Meanwhile, their brother Mason has been granted a position inside the Safe Lands, and may be able to use his captivity to save not only the people of his village, but also possibly find a cure for the virus that threatens everyone within the Safe Lands' walls. Will Mason uncover the truth hidden behind the Safe Lands' façade before it's too late?

Safe Lands Captives, Book 01, (Paperback) Author: Blink ISBN: 9780310724223 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2013-04-02 Page Count: 416

2. Rebels

Rebels

Rebels

3. A Long, Long Sleep (Hardcover)

It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep. But this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone -- and her future full of peril. Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose -- hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire -- is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes -- or be left without any future at all.

It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep. But this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone — and her future full of peril. Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose — hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire — is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes — or be left without any future at all.

4. Kindred

9780807083109

From the New York Times bestselling author of Parable of the Sower and MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Nebula, and Hugo award winner The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now. “I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.” Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present. Blazing the trail for neo-slavery narratives like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer, Butler takes one of speculative fiction’s oldest tropes and infuses it with lasting depth and power. Dana not only experiences the cruelties of slavery on her skin but also grimly learns to accept it as a condition of her own existence in the present. “Where stories about American slavery are often gratuitous, reducing its horror to explicit violence and brutality, Kindred is controlled and precise” (New York Times). “Reading Octavia Butler taught me to dream big, and I think it’s absolutely necessary that everybody have that freedom and that willingness to dream.” —N. K. Jemisin Developed for television by writer/executive producer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen), executive producers also include Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields (The Americans, The Patient), and Darren Aronofsky (The Whale). Janicza Bravo (Zola) is director and an executive producer of the pilot. Kindred stars Mallori Johnson, Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, and Gayle Rankin.

5. Inheritance (Hardcover)

9780316198004. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 480. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 480 p. Intended for a young adult/teenage audience. The sequel to "Adaptation." When teens Reese and David are kidnapped after revealing that they were adapted with alien DNA, Reese is forced to reconcile her new love for David, a human, with feelings for Amber, an Imrian, and make a world-changing choice.

Reese and David are not normal teens-not since they were adapted with alien DNA by the Imria, an extraterrestrial race that has been secretly visiting Earth for decades. Now everyone is trying to get to them: the government, the Imria, and a mysterious corporation that would do anything for the upper hand against the aliens. Beyond the web of conspiracies, Reese can't reconcile her love for David with her feelings for her ex-girlfriend, Amber, an Imrian. But Reese's choice between two worlds will play a critical role in determining the future of humanity, the Imria's place in it, and the inheritance she and David will bring to the universe. In this gripping sequel to Adaptation, Malinda Lo brings a thoughtful exploration of adolescence, sexuality, and "the other" to a science-fiction thriller that is impossible to put down.

6. Cradle and All, (Paperback)

Two teenage girls claim that they are pregnant virgins. But only one is carrying the child of Christ . . . and the other will deliver the son of Satan. In Boston, seventeen-year-old Kathleen is pregnant, but she swears she's a virgin. In Ireland, another teenage girl, Colleen, discovers she is in the same impossible condition. Cities all around the world are suddenly overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, famines, floods, and worse. As terrifying forces of light and darkness begin to gather, Kathleen and Colleen find themselves at the center of the final battle for the very soul of humanity. Each of the girls must convince a young detective that she is the true mother of God . . . and that the other is carrying the devil. The stakes couldn't be higher in this page-turning thriller. You won't be able to put it down until the final reveal: which baby is the miracle . . . and which the monster?

Cradle and All, (Paperback) Author: Jimmy Patterson ISBN: 9780316468916 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2017-10-17 Page Count: 352

7. Cradle and All (Hardcover)

9780316315265. Pre-owned: Good condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 336. Glued binding. Paper over boards. 336 p. Contains: Illustrations. Intended for a young adult/teenage audience. "Based on an earlier James Patterson novel of the same title. This revised edition includes scenes and characters from that book"--Title page verso.

Two teenage girls claim that they are pregnant virgins. But only one is carrying the child of Christ . . . and the other will deliver the son of Satan. In Boston, seventeen-year-old Kathleen is pregnant, but she swears she's a virgin. In Ireland, another teenage girl, Colleen, discovers she is in the same impossible condition. Cities all around the world are suddenly overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, famines, floods, and worse. As terrifying forces of light and darkness begin to gather, Kathleen and Colleen find themselves at the center of the final battle for the very soul of humanity. Each of the girls must convince a young detective that she is the true mother of God . . . and that the other is carrying the devil. The stakes couldn't be higher in this page-turning thriller. You won't be able to put it down until the final reveal: which baby is the miracle . . . and which the monster?

8. Pre-Owned Crazy House (Hardcover 9780316431316) by James Patterson, Gabrielle Charbonnet

9780316431316. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 368. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 368 p. Crazy House, 1. Intended for a young adult/teenage audience. In a future world where teenagers are taken, imprisoned, and forced to fight for their survival, well-behaved Cassie will do whatever it takes to save her rebellious twin sister from Death Row.

Pre-Owned, Crazy House, (Hardcover)

9. Pre-Owned The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Paperback 9780385736824) by Carrie Ryan

Pre-Owned - In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. Now, she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death? STAR] A bleak but gripping story...Poignant and powerful.-Publishers Weekly, Starred A postapocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line.-Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series and Leviathan Intelligent, dark, and bewitching, The Forest of Hands and Teeth transitions effortlessly between horror and beauty. Mary's world is one that readers will not soon forget.-Cassandra Clare, bestselling author of City of Bones Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora's box: a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour out. This is a beautifully crafted, page-turning, powerful novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.-Melissa Marr, bestselling author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange Dark and sexy and scary. Only one of the Unconsecrated could put this book down.-Justine Larbalestier, author of How to Ditch Your Fairy

Pre-Owned, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, (Paperback)

10. Pre-Owned, Children of Eden, Volume 1, (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - The electrifying #1 New York Times bestselling debut novel from YouTube sensation Joey Graceffa dares to ask the question: What would you do in order to survive if your very existence were illegal? Rowan is a second child in a world where population control measures make her an outlaw, marked for death. She can never go to school, make friends, or get the eye implants that will mark her as a true member of Eden. Outside of Eden, Earth is poisoned and dead. All animals and most plants have been destroyed by a man-made catastrophe. Long ago, the brilliant scientist Aaron Al-Baz saved a pocket of civilization by designing the EcoPanopticon, a massive computer program that hijacked all global technology and put it to use preserving the last vestiges of mankind. Humans will wait for thousands of years in Eden until the EcoPan heals the world. As an illegal second child, Rowan has been hidden away from the ruthless Center government in her family's compound for sixteen years. Now, desperate to see the world, she recklessly escapes for what she swears will be only one night of adventure. Though she finds an exotic world, and even a friend, the night leads to tragedy. Soon Rowan becomes a renegade on the run. An instant #1 New York Times bestseller, Children of Eden is a thrilling and completely absorbing work from one of social media's brightest young storytellers. Taking the genre of dystopian fiction far beyond where it has traveled before, viral sensation Joey Graceffa's first novel introduces us to an empowering and endearing young protagonist and a world that contains as many perils as it does illuminating surprises, perfect for fans of the Divergent and Maze Runner series.

Pre-Owned, Children of Eden, Volume 1, (Paperback)