Apocalyptic & Dystopian audiobooks

The Morningside

By: Téa Obreht 

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan

Length: 8 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

“A touching, inventive novel about belonging and loss” (People) from the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland

“I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht’s prose. . . Read in the context of today’s conflicts and injustices, climate emergencies, and political and racial... Read more

Island Rule

By: Katie M. Flynn

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Corey Brill, Erin deWard, Kit...

Length: 9 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of the “urgent and heartfelt” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel The Companions, a genre-bending collection of interconnected short stories in the tradition of Jennifer Egan and Karen Russell.

An angry mother turns into a literal monster. A company in San Francisco can scrub your entire reputation and create a new one…for a price. A... Read more

Your Shadow Half Remains

By: Sunny Moraine

Narrated by: Sunny Moraine

Length: 4 hours

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

The Last of Us meets Bird Box in Sunny Moraine's Your Shadow Half Remains, a post-apocalyptic tale where eye contact causes people to spiral into a deadly, violent rage.

ONE LOOK CAN KILL.

Riley has not seen a single human face in longer than she can reckon. No faces, no eyes. Not if you want to survive.

But when... Read more

The Marrow Thieves

By: Cherie Dimaline

Narrated by: Meegwun Fairbrother

Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions... Read more

Alebrijes

By: Donna Barba Higuera

Narrated by: Cisco Fernandez & Frankie Corzo

Length: 9 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

The next stunning novel from Donna Barba Higuera, author of Newbery and Pura Belpré Award-winning The Last CuentistaThis is the story as it was told to me by Leandro the MightyFor over 400 years, the world has been a barren wasteland. The few humans that survive scrape together an existence in the cruel city of Pocatel—or go it alone in the... Read more

Eden

By: Jim Crace

Narrated by: Ben Allen

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

From the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Harvest and Quarantine, a gorgeous, unforgettable retelling of the myth of Eden.

The inhabitants of Eden are untouched by death. In the garden they care for their orchards and the land, and give thanks for their good fortune, because they know that beyond the garden walls is a world where disease... Read more

Hangman

By: Maya Binyam

Narrated by: Ronnie Butler

Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

An enthralling and original first novel about exile, diaspora, and the impossibility of Black refuge in America and beyond.
In the morning, I received a phone call and was told to board a flight. The arrangements had been made on my behalf. I packed no clothes, because my clothes had been packed for me. A car arrived to pick me up.
A man returns... Read more

Blue Skies

By: T.C. Boyle

Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan

Length: 15 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful fiancé, Cat suddenly craves a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry” to match her black jeans. But when the budding social media star promptly loses the young “Burmie” she buys from a local pet store, she inadvertently sets in motion a chain of increasingly... Read more

Users

By: Colin Winnette

Narrated by: Justin Price

Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Miles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its "original experiences," has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. Wildly popular from the outset, the "game" is simple: a user's simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except they're haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover. However, when a shift in the... Read more

The Q

By: Amy Tintera

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia & Robbie Daymond

Length: 8 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

In this action-packed adventure from a New York Times bestselling author, two teenagers from opposite worlds must fight their way through a vast walled quarantine zone in a dystopian America toward their only chance for survival.

Seventeen-year-old Maisie Rojas has spent her entire life in the Q—a post-pandemic quarantine zone that was once... Read more

Lark Ascending

By: Silas House

Narrated by: Charlie Thurston

Length: 7 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

A riveting story of survival and hope, set in the not-too-distant future, about a young man forced to flee the United States and seek refuge across the Atlantic. 

As fires devastate most of the United States, Lark and his family secure a place on a refugee boat headed to Ireland, the last country not yet overrun by extremists and rumored to be... Read more

Lost in Time

By: A.G. Riddle

Narrated by: John Skelley

Length: 11 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

"Amazing! One of the twistiest time-tales I've ever read ..."—Diana Gabaldon"Crichtonesque thrillers don't come much better than this intricate outing which combines a fantastic premise … with a closed-circle whodunit. Readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough."—Publishers Weekly, starred reviewPANGEA, 202,320,641 BCQuantum physicist... Read more

2 A.M. in Little America

By: Ken Kalfus

Narrated by: BJ Harrison

Length: 6 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

From "an important writer in every sense" (David Foster Wallace), a novel that imagines a future in which sweeping civil conflict has forced America's young people to flee its borders, into an unwelcoming world.



One such American is Ron Patterson, who finds himself on distant shores, working as a repairman and sharing a room with other refugees.... Read more

All That’s Left in the World

By: Erik J. Brown

Narrated by: Barrett Leddy & Andrew Gibson

Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

What If It's Us meets They Both Die at the End in this postapocalyptic, queer YA adventure romance from debut author Erik J. Brown. Perfect for fans of Adam Silvera, Alex London, and Heartstopper by Alice Oseman.When Andrew stumbles upon Jamie’s house, he’s injured, starved, and has nothing left to lose. A deadly pathogen has killed off most of... Read more

Tell Me an Ending

By: Jo Harkin

Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues

Length: 16 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Named a Best Science Fiction Book of 2022 by The New York Times

“Sharply, beautifully written.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Intriguing, frightening, witty, and humane.” —The Wall Street Journal

Black Mirror meets Severence in this thrilling speculative novel about a tech company that deletes unwanted memories, the consequences for those... Read more

A Snake Falls to Earth

By: Darcie Little Badger

Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett & Kinsale Hueston

Length: 10 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

NEWBERY AWARD HONORNATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLISTNATIONAL BESTSELLERNina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He's found a new one on the banks of... Read more

The World Gives Way

By: Marissa Levien

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

A Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Finalist

In a near-future world on the brink of collapse, a young woman born into servitude must seize her own freedom in this glittering debut with a brilliant twist—perfect for fans of Station Eleven, Karen Thompson Walker, and Naomi Alderman. In fifty years, Myrra... Read more

Fragile Remedy

By: Maria Ingrande Mora

Narrated by: James Fouhey

Length: 10 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Sixteen-year-old Nate is a Gem—a Genetically Engineered Medical Surrogate—created by Gathos City scientists as a cure for the elite from the fatal lung rot ravaging the population. As a child, Nate was smuggled out of the laboratory where he was held captive and taken into the Withers—a quarantined, lawless region. He manages to survive by... Read more

Red Pill

By: Hari Kunzru

Narrated by: Hari Kunzru

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2020
ONE OF NPR's BEST BOOKS OF 2020
ONE OF THE A.V. CLUB'S 15 FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020

From the widely acclaimed author of White Tears, a bold new novel about searching for order in a world that frames madness as truth.

After receiving a prestigious writing fellowship in Germany, the narrator of Red... Read more

Afterland

By: Lauren Beukes

Narrated by: Bianca Amato

Length: 14 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Children of Men meets The Handmaid's Tale in this "smartly written" and "splendid" thriller about how far a mother will go to protect her son from a hostile world transformed by the absence of men (Stephen King).

Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, governments still hold and life continues—but a world... Read more

Lakewood

By: Megan Giddings

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo

Length: 8 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

A startling debut about class and race, Lakewood evokes a terrifying world of medical experimentation—part The Handmaid’s Tale, part The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.One of The Millions’ Most Anticipated Reads (The Great First Half 2020 Books)When Lena Johnson’s beloved grandmother dies, and the full extent of the family debt is revealed,... Read more

Surrender

By: Ray Loriga

Narrated by: Michael Patrick F Smith

Length: 4 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

"[A] riveting, and original, achievement."—WIRED

From award-winning Spanish author Ray Loriga comes a dystopian novel about authority, manipulation, and the disappearance of privacy that “calls to mind The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood [and] Blindness by José Saramago” (Alfaguara Prize Winner Citation).

Ten long years have passed since war... Read more

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau

By: Michael Zapata

Narrated by: Coral Peña

Length: 9 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

*Winner of the Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction*

A Heartland Booksellers Award Nominee

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A BookPage Best Book of the Year

A Library Journal Best Winter/Spring Debut of 2020

A Most Anticipated Book of 2020 from the Boston Globe and The Millions

A Best Book of February 2020 at Salon, The Millions, LitHub and Vol 1.... Read more

The Seep

By: Chana Porter

Narrated by: Shakina Nayfack

Length: 3 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

“A unique alien invasion story that focuses on the human and the myriad ways we see and don’t see our own world. Mesmerizing.”
—Jeff VanderMeerA blend of searing social commentary and speculative fiction, Chana Porter’s fresh, pointed debut explores a strange new world in the wake of a benign alien invasion.Trina FastHorse Goldberg-Oneka is a... Read more