The wait-list for The Hunger Games a mile long at your library? Grab one of these books instead!

So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, that Hunger Games movie came out and has pretty much blown away everyone  who has seen it (me included). And then they find out that it was based off of a book and they race to their library to check it out. If your library is anything like mine at the moment, the hold list for The Hunger Games has about twenty people on it, which means a lot of people are going home empty-handed and upset. As a librarian, I find this upsetting — I only get asked so many readers advisory questions, so I want my patrons to leave satisfied and know they can keep coming to me for good reading advice.

My solution: create a read-alikes list, which I’m sharing with you all in the blogosphere. Given that there are many reasons to love The Hunger Games, I’ve divided the list between the three main traits that I’ve noticed. If you think of other appealing traits or titles that ought to be added to the list, feel free to shout out in the comments section.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian lit:

• Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth
• Delirium and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
• Chaos Walking trilogy (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men) by Patrick Ness
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Rot & Ruin and Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry (post-apocalypse, zombie style)
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
• Uglies series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras)by Scott Westerfeld
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Partials by Dan Wells
• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• The Giver by Lois Lowry

Survival:

• Ashfall by Mike Mullin (this book is so scarily realistic, I had to stop reading. Freaked me out!)
• Tomorrow, When the War Began (Tomorrow series) by John Marsden
• Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick (I created this section pretty much so I could include this book on the list — Alex reminded me so much of Katniss)
• Life as We Knew It (Last Survivors series) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Strong Female Characters (and not just the kind who can kick literal butt, though you might find those on the list, too, if you fancy that):

The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (not only can these MCs kick butt, but they’re strong mentally and emotionally as well)
Finnikin of the Rock and Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (you can’t beat Ms. Marchetta when it comes to characters of any kind, but Evanjalin, Quintana, Beatrice and Phaedra are some of my favorites)
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (Puck’s feisty, tough, and she enters a race with man-eating horses to save her family’s home. What’s not to love?)

• The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson (Love, love, love Elisa and the transformation she undergoes in this book.)

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (Ismae is an assassin for the convent of St. Mortain, but don’t think this rules out romance for our MC)
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell (I couldn’t resist, seeing how Jennifer Lawrence plays the MC in the movie)

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