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On January 15th, HBO Max is premiering the post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Based on the video game developed by Naughty Dog, this series is about a smuggler (Pascal) who is given the task of bringing a teenage girl (Ramsey) across the country in a post-apocalyptic world. If you’re a fan of the video games or just love some action, thriller, drama post-apocalypse shows, then here are some books you’ll want to binge on between each episode!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Thomas has just woken up in a lift with no memory other than his own name. He finds himself surrounded by other boys whose memories have also disappeared. Outside the tall stone walls they are confided in lies a never-ending maze that is constantly changing – this is their only escape. With little to no hope of escaping, the arrival of a girl fuels Thomas’s need for survival when she gives him a message to remember, survive, and run.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

The year is 2045 and the world has turned into a dismal place. Wade Watts only feels alive when he’s plugged into the OASIS, which is a virtual world where humanity spends most of their time. After the creator of OASIS dies, a series of puzzles lie in his wake based on pop culture from the past. Whoever can solve these puzzles first can be the one to control OASIS. When Wade solves the first clue, he finds himself on a dangerous path when he realizes others may kill for the prize.

Constance by Matthew Fitzsimmons

In the near future, science has made it possible to clone humans. For the rich, this is a way to cheat death and to those against cloning, it’s cause for outrage. Constance D’Arcy was gifted her own clone from an aunt much to her dissatisfaction. After the monthly upload of her consciousness, Constance wakes up eighteen months later missing all of her recent memories. She is told her original is dead and now Constance must try to find out on her own what happened.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

On the same night famous Hollywood actor Arthur Leander dies of a hear attack, a flu pandemic hit the city and wiped out most of civilization within weeks. Now, twenty years later, Kirsten Raymonde travels with The Traveling Symphony – a small group of musicians and actors whose mission is to keep art alive. Once they reach St. Deborah by the Water, the group is forced to face a violent prophet who could wipe them from what is left of the world.

The Power by Naomi Alderman

The world as we once knew it is now unrecognizable. Across the world, teenage girls now have the ability to cause severe pain and death. A rich Nigerian boy, a foster child with religious parents, an American politician, and a girl from London are about to have their lives all intersect.

The Deluge by Stephen Markley

In the first decades of the 21st century, an ecological crisis looms over the world as America battles violent weather and politics. In 2013 California, Tony Pietrus is a scientist studying undersea methane and has just received a death threat. Tony’s fate will be determined from a cast of characters including a drug addict, a successful advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, an intelligent eco-terrorist, an actor turned zealot, and a young activist named Kate Morris. The story travels all across the country as this cast faces their fears in a world that is doomed to bring them to a chilling climax.

The Stand by Stephen King

After a patient escapes from a biological testing facility, they are unaware that they carry with them mutated strain of the super-flu that has the power to completely wipe out the human population within weeks. Those who still are alive are in need of a leader and must choose between two people who couldn’t be more opposite. Mother Abagail is a 108-year-old woman whose mission is to have a peaceful community and the Dark Man, who wants nothing more than to relish in violence.

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

The Earth has suffered abominable destruction and it seems that it can’t get any worse. Until it does. One final time, the world will end—but the season of endings is just beginning. As ash from a destructive rift blows, it ends up blocking out all light by covering up the blazing sun. Inevitably, death comes next—but not just from natural causes. When a son is murdered and a daughter goes missing, betrayal and unhealed wounds start to surface. As the place they call home continues to deconstruct, those who inhabit the land quickly learn that they must fend for themselves in hopes of finally breaking the curse.

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn, as have the gods, heroes and monsters of legend. Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter. After hunting down a monster that stole a young girl from a small town, what she uncovers is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine. She reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel through a patchwork world of deteriorating technology to discover the truth behind the disappearances.