BVBook Verdict

If you liked

Books like The City of Mirrors

Loved The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin? Here are 10 books with a similar appeal — drawn mostly from dystopian, ranked by how confidently we'd recommend them next.

10 books · ranked

  1. 1

    The Road

    Cormac McCarthy · 2006 · Dystopian

    A father and son walk through a dead, ash-grey world; stripped-bare, unbearably tender post-apocalyptic fiction.

  2. 2

    Never Let Me Go

    Kazuo Ishiguro · 2005 · Dystopian

    Three friends at a strange English boarding school slowly learn what they were made for; restrained and heartbreaking.

  3. 3

    The Handmaid's Tale

    Margaret Atwood · 1985 · Dystopian

    Women reduced to their fertility in a theocratic America; chillingly plausible and fiercely written.

  4. 4

    Fahrenheit 451

    Ray Bradbury · 1953 · Dystopian

    A fireman whose job is burning books begins to question why; a passionate defence of reading.

  5. 5

    1984

    George Orwell · 1949 · Dystopian

    Total surveillance, rewritten history and a man who dares to think for himself; the defining dystopia.

  6. 6

    Brave New World

    Aldous Huxley · 1932 · Dystopian

    A future engineered for comfort and conformity; the other great dystopia, warning against pleasure rather than fear.

  7. 7

    Cadáver exquisito

    Agustina Bazterrica · 2015 · Dystopian

    Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tr

  8. 8

    The Heart Goes Last

    Margaret Atwood · 2015 · Dystopian

    "Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs.

  9. 9

    The Water Knife

    Paolo Bacigalupi · 2015 · Dystopian

    The American Southwest has been decimated by drought. Nevada and Arizona skirmish over dwindling shares of the Colorado River, while California watches, deciding if it should just take the whole river

  10. 10

    Station Eleven

    Emily St. John Mandel · 2014 · Dystopian

    A travelling theatre troupe keeps art alive after a pandemic; quietly hopeful and beautifully structured.

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