A Book for Every Episode of Black Mirror

Feed, by Mira Grant
Thankfully, there’s nothing in literature quite like the first episode of Black Mirror. That’s not because the premiere isn’t brilliant, but is instead a testament to its groundbreaking and wildly provocative nature (oink, oink). Mira Grant’s grounded zombie thriller Feed is a solid pairing (hear us out) in that it shares many a target: the book stars a brother-sister team of news bloggers in a world that’s technically post-apocalyptic, but in which not that much has changed. It’s less about the zombie action and more about the interactions between media and politics, and the ways in which we’re manipulated by both.

“Fifteen Million Merits” (Season 1, Episode 2)

Broadcast, by Liam Brown
Bing rides his power-generating stationary bike every single day in exchange for “merits,” with which he can buy all sorts of (mostly virtual) stuff. One can also use the merits for a shot at stardom on one of several mind-numbing reality shows. Liam Brown’s recent Broadcast goes in a different direction, but stares a similar hook: MindCast is a chip implanted in your skull that transmits every thought, feeling, and memory to a global audience. A man named David Callow becomes a viral sensation before it all goes rather dramatically wrong. The semi-plausible-tech-taken-to-extremes angle is, generally, very Black Mirror.

“The Entire History of You” (Season 1, Episode 3)

Made for Love: A Novel, by Alissa Nutting
In the episode, almost everyone has a “grain” implanted that allows for the recording of everything seen and heard. Users can easily play back moments, either for amusement or to settle an argument. In the novel, Hazel has escaped from a marriage with a tech CEO who pioneered smart tracking tech that rendered her a prisoner in her own home—and that was before he decided to test out brain chips that would link their minds and allow him to experience her every thought and feeling. She decides she’s had enough.

“Be Right Back” (Season 2, Episode 1)

Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan
The episode is a quiet, somber love story, while the novel is a future cyberpunk detective story. What they have in common is that each is a fascinating exploration of a technological afterlife. In Carbon (also soon to be a Netflix series), personalities can be stored and downloaded into new bodies called “sleeves.” Catholic refuse the procedure, arguing that what remains after death would be form but no soul. Martha of “Be Right Back” likewise struggles to decide if the artificial version of her dead husband possesses his substance, or is just a clever counterfeit.

“White Bear” (Season 2, Episode 2)

More Than This, by Patrick Ness
Though they have very different concluding twists, the episode and novel share very similar beginnings: two characters (Victoria in the show and Seth in the book) awaken lost and alone in desolate and largely abandoned surroundings. Neither knows how they got there, and they both have horrific experiences on their roads to discovering the truth.

“The Waldo Moment” (Season 2, Episode 3)

Infomocracy, by Malka Older
This polarizing episode goes well with a much more universally appreciated book: Older’s 2016 cyberpunk political thriller. In the novel, 20 years have passed since a powerful search engine monopoly has come to dominate the world’s political landscape. That’s a far cry from scatalogically minded blue bear Waldo, but each explores the political fallout of our modern information technologies, some of it speculative, and some of it very much already creeping into our own elections.

“White Christmas” (2014 Special)

A Maze of Death, by Philip K. Dick
You’re a colonist on a distant planet with an unclear mission. Or are you? Without giving too much away, Dick’s darkest novel follows a similarly twisty-turny structure in which you never know quite what’s real, and in which the rug is similarly pulled out from under you by the wrap-up. As in the episode, what you believe is happening might not be happening, and the reasons why it’s happening at all might not be the reasons you suspect.

“Nosedive” (Season 3, Episode 1)

The Status of All Things, by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
In “Nosedive,” social media had bled over into real life. It’s not just online interactions that are subject to rankings, ratings, likes, and reviews, but day-to-day encounters too. Kate finds something similar in this charming novel about a woman who discovers her Facebook posts are begining to impact the real world in a very literal way. She’s obsessed with creating a perfect online persona, but finds it’s all for nothing when her fiancé dumps her at their rehearsal dinner. Realizing her newfound power, she sets about rewriting their relationship, only to have it backfire spectacularly. It’s less pointed that “Nosedive,” but it’s still a neat exploration of our online lives.
(Alternate: The recent non-fiction book Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, by Adam Alter, talks about tech addiction and how to turn it around into something positive.)

“Playtest”

Ubik, by Philip K. Dick
A story of psychics on the moon might not seem a natural fit with Black Mirror‘s (relatively) grounded haunted house story—but they both hook us up to horror via sci-fi means. Ubik pairs nicely with this one by inverting the central premise: Cooper in “Playtest” experiences a virtual world infested with the fears of his real life, while in Dick’s classic novel, Glen Runciter finds himself lost in a dream state in which his own presence begins to infect the real world in horrific ways. In either case, reality becomes highly subjective.
(Alternate: Or, if you’d prefer to skip the scary stuff in favor of a romp through a virtual world, Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline might fit the bill.)

“Shut Up and Dance”

The Treatment, by Mo Hayder
Among Black Mirror‘s bleakest episodes, “Shut Up and Dance” trafficks in ideas of justice and revenge, along with particularly grim material about why someone might or might not be a worthwhile target. Hayder’s masterful detective novels are, generally, a strong fit for the tone: pessimistic, frightening, and cynical. The Treatment involves a child abduction from a London home that ties back to the family history of Detective Jack Caffery. Without giving everything away about either, the criminals here share similar vices, requiring a similarly strong stomach.

“San Junipero”

Love Minus Eighty, by Will McIntosh
Death isn’t necessarily the end in either the (justifiably) beloved episode, nor in McIntosh’s novel. The book tells a series of tech-centric love stories, with the core notion that cryogenic preservation of the future will allow for relationships to continue past death. In one thread, a man named Rob kills a jogger and winds up falling in love while trying to seek forgiveness. In another, a woman is placed in the wrong facility spends years trying to reunite with her partner. Like “San Junipero,” it’s about finding hope and humanity in a largely dystopian future.
(Alternate selection: Ferrett Steinmetz’s The Uploaded isn’t as whistful as “San Junipero,” but it similarly considers the logistics of a society that has organized itself around replacing old-age homes with massive hard drives.)

“Men Against Fire” (Season3, Episode 5)

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
In “Men Against Fire,” soldiers of the near-ish future battle “roaches,” vicious, ugly mutants whose genes risk polluting the human bloodline. Except that they’re not nearly as vicious and ugly as they at first appear. Card’s book, similarly, involves soldiers of the future battling “bugs” that threaten Earth. In both cases, those doing the killing are being manipulated, forced to commit actions they might otherwise abhor via methods of trickery and obfuscation. When it comes to alien genocide, it seems you can never trust what your eyes (or your commanding officers) tell you.

“Hated in the Nation”

Need, by Joelle Charbonneau
There are any number of brilliant sci-fi police procedurals out there, but we’re taking a slightly different tack: the core of the feature-length episode involves social media gone awry—a killer hashtag game where the person with the most votes dies. Charbonneau’s YA thriller takes on a similar idea, but sets it in the horrifying world of high school. A new social media network is the latest thing, offering rewards and setting students against each other in ways that become increasingly violent.
(Alternate: How to Outsmart a Billion Robot Bees, by Paul Tobin, Katie Abey, and Thierry Lafontaine. It’s a middle grade book, and the tone is not in anyway like that of Black Mirror. But it is a fun story about a kid genius tasked with outwitting robot bees.)

“USS Callister” (Season 4, Episode 1)

Redshirts, by John Scalzi
There’s probably no darker take on Star Trek, or sci-fi fandom in general, than this episode about a tech executive whose fantasy spaceship is crewed by virtual slaves, but John Scalzi’s satire winds up in a similarly metafictional place, as fictional characters becoming aware their fates are being controlled by the whims of someone from the “real” world—one in which there’s precious little concern for an endless run of dead crew members.

“Arkangel” (Season 4, Episode 2)

Carrie, by Stephen King
Overprotective mother, much? Marie Sambrell and Carrie‘s Margaret White aren’t all that similar on the surface (it’s hard to picture Carrie’s mom using a tech tracking system), but each is a mom obsessed with safeguarding her daughter in ways that are largely ill-conceived, and which lead to consequences so much worse than if they’d just let the kids out to smoke weed or make out with boys or do whatever it is that they were so afraid of.
(Alternate: Shout-out here to N.K. Jemisin’s Essun, the lead character of the Broken Earth trilogy that began with The Fifth Season. She’s one of science fiction’s most impressively drawn moms: fierce, protective, and not terribly lovable.)

“Crocodile” (Season 4, Episode 3)

The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith
You know who’s not all that great at covering up a murder? Mia from “Crocodile.” She could take a lesson (or twenty) from Highsmith’s charming sociopath, who, like Mia, stacks murder on top of murder in order to cover up the death of the rich pal who was about to cut him loose. Like Mia, he winds up spending his days constantly looking over his shoulder but, unlike Mia, he manages to enjoy the good life along the way.

“Hang the DJ” (Season 4, Episode 4)

Version Control, by Dexter Palmer
There’s no time travel “Hang the DJ” as there is in Palmer’s Version Control, but the causality violation device invented by Philip Wright in the novel serves a purpose here not dissimilar to the System of the episode. Both involve tech solutions that allow the main characters to revisit and revise a particular relationship over and over and over again in an attempt to get things right. Palmer’s book is somewhat less concerned with romance than with ideas about what makes us who we are in a data-directed world, but the two still make for an interesting pairing.

“Metalhead” (Season 4, Episode 5)

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
Given that her career spans six decades, it’s impressive just how relevant Atwood remains, both as an author of classics as well as a writer still doing some of her best work. “Metalhead” is one of Black Mirror’s more straightforward episodes: a a woman traverses a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled over by robotic killer dog-things. Oryx and Crake has a lot more going on (much of which would also fit perfectly well in the universe of Black Mirror) , but starts with the story of Snowman, who makes a dangerous supply run through a burned-out landscape while being pursued by voracious, genetically engineered hybrid animals.

“Black Museum” (Season 4, Episode 6)

Books of Blood, by Clive Barker
Black Mirror goes full-on Tales from the Crypt in its second anthology episode, the closest that the show has ever come to straight-ahead horror. In that spirit, Clive Barker’s groundbreaking and wildly influential anthology is a match in style (if not story), especially given that the stories there also defy genre in a Black Mirror-y fashion, hopping from sci-fi, to fantasy, to horror, to satire, with most sampling a little of all of it. For fans of the clever, the twisted, the creepy.
What’s on your Black Mirror reading list?