I’m mostly asking because I’m writing a book (lol yee), but I’m writing in a genre I do not have particularly strong reading background in (yeeeee). I won’t bore you with what my book is about, but it’s a religious dystopian drama with themes such as:
1.) Being extra religious as a coping mechanism (particularly if you’re an insecure teenager) vs religious bc religion is an extension of you but *not* you
2.) Choosing between what you actually want vs “God’s will”
3.) Dealing with life when you can’t find answers in the Bible (one of my characters is a Christian vampire with a 24/7 existential crisis)
I want to explore books of this nature to learn how to write it better. There are many dystopian classics I’ve yet to read (such as The Giver and 1984), but I’m especially looking for something with religious themes and involving teenagers. I feel like these books should be easy to find, but my searches dig up YA adventure trilogies or the aforementioned iconic books.
Please and thank you!
by purpleplumas
3 Comments
*Parable of the Sower* by Octavia Butler is a dystopian novel with a strong religious theme, although it is different from *The Handmaid’s Tale* in that doesn’t have religion/fundamentalism as the main problem. But just like *The Handmaid’s Tale*, it is a truly, believably horrifying book.
I assume you already know *The Testaments* (the sequel to *The Handmaid’s Tale*), but just in case …
When she woke by Hillary Jordan
Suzette Haden Elgin wrote an amazing dystopian trilogy called the native tongue trilogy, it’s not well known anymore, but it focuses on religion, language and women’s issues.