Netflix's Squid Game, the dystopian horror series from South Korea, is currently the most popular show around the world. The premise is that hundreds of debt-ridden men and women are invited to join a mysterious game on an island where they are pitted against each other in children's games. The prize to the winner—45.6 billion won (almost 40 million dollars)—will change their life forever. But losers will pay the ultimate price—their lives. The show is dark, disturbing, and violent (definitely not for the squeamish) as it taps into our fears, explores moral choices, and critiques class and power inequities.

Squid Game's central themes of survival and morality are familiar ones in literature and the show has drawn comparisons to classic works like William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game," (both of which you likely had to read in high school), and more recent books like Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series and the Japanese bestseller Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. While Squid Game is certainly its own unique (and intense!) experience, the books below cover some of the same anxiety-inducing ground. 

The Long Walk by Stephen King

In the near future, when America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules—keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you're out—permanently.

 

 

 

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami; a new translation by Nathan Collins

In a dystopian future Japan, forty-two junior high school students are outfitted with weapons and bid to kill one another until there is only one left standing. Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller envisions a nightmare scenario: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill until only one survivor is left standing. 

 

 

 

Arena by Holly Jennings

The RAGE tournaments—the Virtual Gaming League's elite competition where the best gamers in the world compete in a no-holds-barred fight to the digital death. Every bloody kill is broadcast to millions. Every player is a modern gladiator—leading a life of ultimate fame, responsible only for entertaining the masses. And though their weapons and armor are digital, the pain is real. Chosen to be the first female captain in RAGE tournament history, Kali Ling is at the top of the world—until one of her teammates overdoses. Now, she must confront the truth about the tournament. Because it is much more than a game—and even in the real world, not everything is as it seems. 

 

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food and each other.

 

 

 

 

S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett

Ignored and bullied at an elite boarding school where privileged students dictate the social order, a token scholarship student is unexpectedly invited by a ruling clique to an exclusive weekend retreat of outdoor hunting as part of her initiation into the group, a situation that turns deadly when she discovers that she is the intended prey.

 

 

 

 

The Running Man by Stephen King

Ben Richards is a desperate man. With no job, no money, no way out, and a young daughter in need of proper medical attention, he must turn to the only possibility of striking it rich in this near-future dystopian America: participating in the ultra-violent TV programming of the government-sanctioned Games Network. Ben soon finds himself selected as a contestant on the biggest and the best that the Games Network has to offer: The Running Man—a no-holds-barred thirty-day struggle to stay alive as public enemy number one, relentlessly hunted by an elite strike force bent on killing him as quickly as possible in front of an audience all-too eager to see that happen. 

 

 

The Lottery, and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

Dark and nightmarish, Shirley Jackson's short stories represent a singular and ever-powerful genre unto themselves. "The Lottery" remains one of the most terrifying stories ever published—all the more so for its lucid, convincing realism—and one of the most controversial; it has become an essential classic of American fiction. 

 

 

 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through a televised survival competition pitting young people against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

 

 

 

 

Snow Piercer Vol. 1: The Escape by Jacques Lob (graphic novel)

In a harsh, uncompromisingly cold future where Earth has succumbed to treacherously low temperatures, the last remaining members of humanity travel on a train while the outside world remains encased in ice. The surviving community are not without a social hierarchy; those that travel at the front of the train live in relative luxury whilst those unfortunate enough to be at the rear remain clustered like cattle in claustrophobic darkness. Yet, things are about to change aboard the train as passengers become disgruntled...

 

 

#MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil

In a near future world, where good and honest citizens enjoy watching the executions of society's most infamous convicted felons streamed live on The Postman app, 17-year-old Dee Guerrera and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, must prove that she's innocent of committing a heinous crime before she ends up being wrongfully put to death for the world to see.

 

 

 

City of Thieves by David Benioff

During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

 

 

Endgame: The Calling by James Frey

Twelve teens who have prepared their entire lives for an ancient life-or-death game must finally come to terms with its arrival, forming tenuous alliances and kiling each other for the chance to be the last one standing and the winner of the ultimate prize: the ability to save a select group of people from the end of the world

 

 

 

 

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround them is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying: Remember. Survive. Run.

 

 

 

Gone by Michael Grant

In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: on your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else. .

 

 

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Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.