This Season’s Best Survival Stories for Teens

Delirium, by Lauren Oliver
In Oliver’s allegorical dystopia, love is the drug that kills—so the government has found a way to eliminate it. Eighteen-year-old Lena is about to receive a procedure—mandatory for all citizens—that will allow her to live a loveless existence. But before that can happen, she meets an intriguing boy named Alex, who makes her rethink her acceptance of a life without love. Like her mysteriously deceased mother before her, she becomes a rebel in this fearsome, totalitarian world.

No Safety in Numbers, by Dayna Lorentz
A biological bomb planted in a mall prompts a quarantine, trapping thousands of shoppers inside. Narration of this taut thriller is passed among four teens: a jock, a hacker, a drama geek, and a mall employee. Lorentz explores the eerie biddability of crowds and the terror wrought by bullies who thrive during disasters, while teasing out the true nature of the threat. You’ll race through this one and fiend for its follow-up, No Easy Way Out.

Unwind, by Neal Shusterman
Shusterman imagines a world where abortion is illegal, but parents have the option to “unwind” their children any time between the ages of 13 and 18. The organs of the doomed teens are then harvested for others’ use, allowing the unwinding to skirt the legal definition of murder. The stories of three unwinding victims—an unwanted foster girl, a reckless teen whose parents have given up on him, and a “tithe,” the son of a religious family that chooses to sacrifice one of their own—become entwined when they escape their fate and go on the run. But in this chiller, there are few places on earth safe for those marked for the unwinding. This is just the first in a long-running series you’ll get hooked on.

Half Bad, by Sally Green
Nathan is the son of a deceased White Witch mother and a father who is the last remaining Black Witch, a vicious and powerful man who’s been on the run since before Nathan’s birth. On reaching age 16, Nathan has one year to claim his magical inheritance from a blood relative. When he goes on the run to escape a brutal White Witch council that’s tortured and imprisoned him in the hopes of luring his powerful father, it’s with the knowledge that he needs to find his father and enact the coming-of-age ritual before he dies.

Endgame: The Calling, by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton
Across the globe, meteorites streak to earth, wreaking horrible destruction and killing thousands. The world braces itself for what’s next, but only a select group knows the truth: the celestial attack marks the beginning of the Endgame, in which 12 teens, each the descendant of an ancient line, must enter into a race to find three keys hidden by a higher alien order that holds the future of the world in its hands. The winner will save not only themselves but their people, while those represented by the 11 losing descendants will die. This book is the first in a trilogy that includes a multi-platform game promising big rewards to readers who play along.

The Program, by Suzanne Young
In a world where emotion is verboten and suicide rates are skyrocketing, even the slightest display of teenaged angst can land you in the Program, a creepy reprogramming system that ensures teens’ recovery from depression—because it will be wiped clean from their minds, along with the rest of their memories. Sloane tries to hide her sadness after the suicide of her brother, as her boyfriend, James, struggles with the loss of his best friend. Though they try to show their pain only to each other, they can’t hide from the Program forever.

Alice in Zombieland, by Gena Showalter
Alice thinks she has an overprotective father—until the night she sees her family die and her father eaten by zombies. Haunted by what she now knows to be true—monsters are real—she moves in with her grandma and enrolls in a new school. With the help of a fellow student and zombie fighter with his own hidden demons, Alice channels her survivor’s guilt into something more productive: fighting back against the undead.

Splintered and Unhinged, by A.G. Howard
In this series based on Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice tales, a descendant of the original Alice Liddell finds herself displaying the same early signs of madness that landed her mother in a mental institution. But the girl, Alyssa Gardner, soon discovers her mother’s insanity is based on a shocking truth: Wonderland is real, and Alyssa must travel through it, righting her ancestor’s mistakes to save her mother. She’s led by tricksy, gorgeous guide Morpheus, a creepy suitor who won’t take no for an answer. In follow-up novel Unhinged, the Wonderland—and Morpheus—intrude on the real world, in a lush parade of creepy imagery as indelible as classic Alice in her pinafore.

The Walled City, by Ryan Graudin
Graudin’s book reads like a dystopia, but its setting, Hak Nam Walled City, is based on a real (now-demolished) city in Hong Kong. Within the tight, twisting streets of Hak Nam, violence reigns and humanity suffers. Three teens—Jin Ling; her missing sister, Mei Yee; and fugitive Dai Shing—contend with crime kingpins, roving gangs, and their own pasts as they attempt to survive their dangerous home, and must learn to depend on each other in a place where hell is other people.

The Infinite Sea, by Rick Yancey
Alien invasion tale The Fifth Wave won readers over with its insistent, action-packed pace, scary plot twists, and all-too-believable world building. Now, follow-up The Infinite Sea has dialed up the tension even more, as the remaining five percent of the human race struggles to survive in the face of a merciless alien threat intent on eliminating it. Much of the story is told from the point of view of Ringer, an equally merciless marksman and supporting character from the first book who joins survivors Ben and Cassie in their mission to both stay alive and fight back. Get ready for endless double crosses and an ending that will shock you.
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