In Canada, the middle of winter can feel like the apocalypse. For those of you who enjoy reading, I have a few books to offer to you that relate to that post-apocalyptic feeling. That way, you won’t feel like you are the only one struggling to make it through these tough, cold months.

The first novel to pick up is Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari. It tells the story of a teenage girl fighting her way through the world after a terrible disease wipes out most of the population and her fight against the people trying to eradicate all life left behind after the event.

Our next dystopian book is called The Loners, and it comes from a series called Quarantine by Lex Thomas where — you guessed it —  people are quarantined. The thing is that these people aren’t in a hospital or somewhere else where you would assume people under quarantine would be.

After a deadly disease affects an entire school and kills everyone over the age of 18, the government seals all the students in their schools. Gangs begin to form, and David Thorpe realizes that he and his brother are the only ones left to fend for themselves.

They struggle through normal teenage drama. Between girls and hunting down epilepsy medication for David’s younger brother, this three-book series is a great action-filled read with plenty of relatable events.

Now, have you ever thought about what it would be like to have a superpower? Maybe, that has been one of your “super” interesting questions in a “get to know you” game. I’m sure the characters in the Gone series by Michael Grant weren’t expecting to actually obtain weird mutations or superpowers. 

In the opening novel, every adult disappears in the blink of an eye and so does all technological communication except old-fashioned face-to-face talking. Fights break out among the survivors, and they become increasingly dangerous as their powers develop and they grow stronger. 

But it isn’t only the adolescents that strange things happen to — animals start to mutate and become dangerous as well. Which adolescent will figure out what is happening before they all vanish?

The last book is less dystopian and more along the lines of science fiction and alternate dimensions. Undercurrent is a book you won’t be able to read over multiple sessions because you’ll be too hooked to put it down. 

Paul Blackwell keeps the reader’s attention by piling on new mysteries and questions for the reader and the main character, Callum Harris, to explore. One second, he’s going over a waterfall, and the next, his best friend is trying to smother him to death in his hospital bed.

His best friend isn’t the only one who wants him dead, either. His parents seem to have him mixed up with his amazing sports star of a brother — but they are still calling him by the same name. Strange things are happening, and it is up to him to figure out what exactly is going on. 

Science fiction has a way of helping us make sense of our lives and paralleling our own experiences. Compared to this list of light dystopian and apocalyptic reads, maybe your gripes about cold weather and midterms will feel smaller in comparison.

—

Hope N.S. Jeffery

Photo: Riley Deacon / Photo Editor