Fictional fights to the death! Mostly
The Hunger Games is probably the book with the most readalike lists ever. No great mystery as to why: after it became such a sensation, there was a huge push to “write the next Hunger Games,” and authors grabbing onto Suzanne Collins’ coattails flooded the market with dystopian YA titles featuring badass female leads, resulting in a large number of books that were, in fact, JUST like The Hunger Games.
Another reason is that HG ‘s popularity made even reluctant teen readers curious to check it out, and educators and school librarians scrambled to find similar titles to keep the reading interest strong in kids who hadn’t been into reading before HG. It was also one of the big crossover books attracting adult readers to the YA-lit sphere, wondering what else they’d been missing out on. So—millions* of readalike lists were created, passed around, and updated as new titles came out and when the movies created a second wave of interest.
The only problem with situations like these are that when a bunch of copycat titles are crowding the shelves, they are frequently only superficial matches, mimicking the top-level similarities without capturing the spirit of the original, and reading them can be kind of a letdown after the fun and novelty of HG.
So why am I bothering to make a Hunger Games readalike list if there are already so many available? Partly for the challenge and partly to spread a little readers’ advisory awareness.
This is actually my second attempt—turns out it’s HARD to limit the list to ten titles and still be accurate, original and surprising, while addressing the needs of many different readers, considering the variety of appeal factors Hunger Games contains: likable characters, dystopian setting, emotionally engaging, strong female lead, survival and violence, teenage warriors who can still be compassionate, justice, political/social commentary—social inequality, propaganda, bread and circus situations with oppressed population controlled by privileged class, fast pacing, revolutions/rebellions, love triangle, doesn’t pull punches, children as heroes, the spectacle of reality TV, limited resources, the struggle to retain humanity in extreme circumstances, triumph and loss, etc., etc., yadda.
So I scrapped the first list and am now adopting a “go small or go home!” stance and only focusing on a single aspect of Hunger Games: the idea of formally orchestrated “last man standing” games, in which coercion is used to compel unwilling contestants to survive by sacrificing others, presenting death as a spectator sport—sometimes televised in a reality TV game show scenario, sometimes on a smaller scale, but all involving involuntary battles to the death or suffering as entertainment in one way or another.
The list is a mix of adult and YA titles, but many have crossover appeal that will interest an adult or a teen reader, although some adult titles may contain themes unsuitable for younger teens. Caveat #2—when narrowing the focus down to one narrow appeal factor, many more closely-matched titles won’t make the list, and some of the included titles will not provide the same reading experience as The Hunger Games, but I think the theme is interesting enough that the list will be useful to those of you intrigued by the idea of elaborately-staged survival games or blood sports as entertainment. No judgments here—bullfighting and NASCAR are still around because of this very fascination.
And, yes, you sharp-eyed observers who are already bleating “Wait, Karen, you have TWO books by Stephen King on your list?” Can I help it that he wrote two that fit the bill so well and that I am so very bad at choosing? And since they are technically both by “Richard Bachman,” let’s split the attribution-credit between the two names so it looks less lazy. I assure you, much thought, blood, sweat, and tears went into this list. As well as two Stephen King books.
* Possibly hyperbolic. But a LOT.
In a future America where poverty is rampant, a man trying to save his sick child enters a televised competition with one simple goal; all he has to do is stay alive for 30 days, with a cash prize for every hour he lives and $1 billion for lasting the entire month. The catch? He will be pursued by police, trained killers, and regular citizens who get cash prizes for reports of his location. It’s The Running Games!
A slower-moving, deadlier version of the contest in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?: 100 teen boys assemble annually to take part in a competition whose contestants must walk at a steady pace of 4 mph. Deviating from this pace gets you a warning, 3 warnings gets you shot in the head, in front of cheering crowds, until 1 boy remains. Exhausted teens killed as a spectator sport: The Walking Games! (Last time, I promise)
This is HG set on a much smaller stage: six heroin addicts are abducted by a group of men on a yacht and left on a deserted island in the Florida Keys where they are forced to swim to the next island to receive a stash of heroin and food while the men place bets. It’s a modern-day revamp of The Most Dangerous Game, where the unwilling contestants must survive withdrawal, hungry sharks, and each other in order to win.
Suzanne Collins was accused of ripping this off when she wrote The Hunger Games, but that’s kind of unfair. It’s similar; teens as government-appointed contestants in a fight to the death with punishments for not playing by the rules, but there’s much more graphic violence and sex here, less character development, and it’s darker in tone overall. Plus, it takes place in Japan, so it’s totally different. Fast gory fun.
Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083
YA, ok for MG. In the future, US students watch teleschool from home until 9th grade. Reality programs reenact historical events, and the “actors” frequently die. Selected to recreate Captain Scott’s failed attempt to reach the South Pole, 5 teens risk their lives to win a higher education they can’t otherwise afford. More teens v nature than teens v teens, it’s less brutal than HG, although there’s plenty of peril.
This is a slant-match for HG: reality TV’s effect on perspective. While filming a Survivor–style show, players are off on solo challenges in the wilderness when a pandemic strikes, killing most of the world’s population. One contestant thinks she’s still competing, observed and protected by the show’s staff. She stays in “character,” taking risks for ratings, assuming corpses are props and danger is staged. WWKD?
YA. Although it is unfortunately not the main focus of the book, the badass, crossbow-wielding female protagonist, while tracking her kidnapped twin brother over a barren wasteland containing giant killer worms, participates in several gladiator-style girl-on-girl cage matches that would make Katniss quake. The penalty for losing 3 matches is to be gleefully torn apart by the spectators, so bring your A game, ladies!
YA. Although its premise seems ripped from The Hunger Games, this is definitely its own thing. Yes, there are twelve different “districts,” each offering up a highly-trained teenage participant in a brutal, casualty-heavy race to the finish line, but there are also aliens, codebreaking, and a much larger playing field. Many character POVs, many different specialized skills, many deaths. Try not to get attached.
A 1975 novel envisioning a future (2011) in which Street Football is a popular televised event: 24 hours of football modified to sprawl across an entire city, where players are encouraged to embrace a no-holds-barred path to victory: clad in body armor, toting rifles and knives, skilled in mixed martial arts; it’s time for Killerbowl! Pure goofy fun, and maybe not the purest readalike for HG, but OMG THAT COVER!!
Another HG slant-match addressing the troubling trend of reality TV; how the acceptance of degradation presented as entertainment desensitizes viewers, requiring shows to escalate their shock value to maintain interest, thus making the viewer complicit in the suffering of others. The show here is called Concentration; a televised concentration camp, where “prisoners” are abducted off the street at random. ‘Nuff said.
