Dystopian Reading List

I've tried to pick books that are actual dystopias, rather than post-apocalyptic, etc.  Meaning, books wherein the governments (or other entities) tried to create a utopic society but failed, creating instead a society that limits freedoms in some way or another, or is simply controlling society.  I've bent my own rules at the end of the fiction section by adding some books that don't quite fit this definition, but which may interest readers who like this type of fiction.  And I'll admit that in a few instances I had to guess if they fit my definition, as I haven't had the chance to read all of these - they're set off from the rest of the fiction list.  I got a few of the books listed here from the book of essays by Erika Gottlieb.

I know this list isn't complete, so if there's a book you know of that should be on it, mention it in the comments.

With one exception, the links go to the Indigo website, where you can learn more about the books.

I've put asterisks next to books I thought were especially good for one reason or another.  And as usual with my reading lists, this is also a display at the World's Biggest Bookstore.

Essays:

Dystopian Fiction East and West: Universe of Terror and Trial - Erika Gottlieb

Fiction:

Brave New Worlds - John Joseph Adams, Ed.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

We - Yevgeny Zamyatin

1984 - George Orwell

* This Perfect Day - Ira Levin

Feihrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

* Battle Royale - Koushun Takami

* Metropolis - Thea Von Harbou

Stand on Zanzibar - John Brenner

The Sleeper Wakes - H. G. Wells

Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut

* V for Vendetta - Alan Moore and David Lloyd

* The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

* Veracity - Laura Bynum

* When She Woke - Hilary Jordan

He, She and It - Marge Piercy

Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy
Logan's Run - William Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

Inverted World - Christopher Priest

The World Inside - Robert Silverberg

Jennifer Government - Max Barry

Pure - Julianna Baggott
The Long Walk - Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)

The Bradbury Report - Steven Polensky
* The Third - Abel Keogh

The Foundation Pit - Andrey Platonov

The Trial - Franz Kafka

The Running Man - Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)

The Games - Ted Kosmatka

Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth

Technicolor Ultra Mall - Ryan Oakley

Everyone in Silico - Jim Munroe

The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick

* Postmortal - Drew Magary

* Eutopia - David Nickle

Seed - Rob Ziegler

YA:

The Giver - Lois Lowry

* The Unidentified - Rae Mariz

Uglies - Scott Westerfield

Matched - Megan McCafferty,

Divergent - Veronica Roth

* Unwind - Neal Shusterman

* The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Delirium - Lauren Oliver

* The Declaration - Gemma Malley

* Legend - Marie Lu

Article 5 - Kristen Simmons

* Shatter Me - Tehreh Mafi

Feed - M. L. Anderson

The Pledge - Kimberly Derting

XVI - Julia Karr

The Blending Time - Michael Kinch

Inside Out - Maria Snyder

Water Wars - Cameron Stracher

Incarceron - Catherine Fisher
Eve - Anna Carey

Swipe - Evan Angler (forthcoming)

Reader Suggestions:

Swastika Night - Katharine Burdekin (writing as Murray Constantine)
Benefits - Zoe Fairbairns
The Carhullan Army - Sarah Hall
> Wither - Lauren DeStefano
> Birthmarked - Caragh O'Brien
> Anthem - Ayn Rand
> The Line - Teri Hall
> The Gate to Women's Country - Sheri Tepper
The Vaults - Toby Ball
The Fifth Sacred Thing - Starhawk
# Among The Hidden - Margaret Peterson Haddix
# The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer
# Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (I consider this more pure SF, but there is a birth cap and little adult presence among the chosen teens, so I can see how it made their list.)
# Partials - Dan Wells (I didn't add this to my list as I wasn't sure how much of a government presence exists, and it sounds more post-apocalyptic to me)
^ A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (I REALLY don't know how I missed this one)
^ A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
^ Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo
^ Ghost in the Shell - Shirow Masamune
^ Children of Men - P. D. James
^ Neuromancer - William Gibson

(books marked with > come from the fantastic Tor.com article Dystopian Birth Control by Caragh O'Brien and its comments.  Which reminded me that Tor.com had a dystopia week, so I looked up some of those articles.  John Joseph Adams, who edited the Brave New Worlds anthology, as a fantastic definition of dystopian fiction here.  You can read some of the stories from the anthology on its website.  Adams also hosted a round table talking about favourite examples of dystopian fiction, which lists several books I don't.

books marked with # are from this Flavorwire article.

and marked with ^ are from this article.)

Lee & Low Books has come up with a list where the protagonists/authors are from diverse backgrounds (people of colour, LGTB, etc.).  You can see their list here.