“First we only want to be seen, but once we’re seen, that’s not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered.”
Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven is a haunting and beautifully delivered portrayal of a dystopian future where art, memory and human connection endure even against a chaotic backdrop. Set in a post-apocalyptic world that has been ravaged by a pandemic, St. John Mandel intertwines the lives of her characters across time, exploring themes of survival, resilience and the importance of culture in rebuilding society. A global bestseller, Station Eleven won acclaim for its lyrical storytelling, atmospheric tension and poignant reflections, providing one of the ultimate escapist reads. If you loved reading St. John Mandel’s work and are looking for another story that blends dystopian unease with profound emotional depth, join us today at What We Reading for the best books like Station Eleven!
Sea Of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel
First up on our list of books like Station Eleven is another one of Emily St. John Mandel’s best novels, Sea of Tranquility. Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, where he picks up the notes of a violin being played in an airship terminal, leading to a discovery that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later, Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. In her bestselling pandemic novel, a man plays his violin in the echoing corridors of an airship terminal. When Detective Gasprey-Jacques Roberts is hired to investigate an anomaly in the wilderness, he stumbles upon a series of lives upended. Similar to Station Eleven, Sea of Tranquility is a story about art, love and plague that whisks readers on a tour from Vancouver in 1912 to the far-flung future and a black-skied colony on the moon.
The Dreamers – Karen Thompson Walker
In an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a freshman girl staggers into her room. She falls asleep but never wakes up. Her roommate, Mei, is unable to bring her around. The paramedics and doctors are also unable to stir her as she is whisked away to the hospital. Then another college girl falls asleep, and then another. Before long, the entire town is in a panic, classes are cancelled, shops begin to run low on supplies and the National Guard is called in.
Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric, idealistic classmate. Two visiting professors attempt to protect their newborn baby as the world around them implodes. A father falls victim to the illness, leaving his daughters behind to fend for themselves. A new life grows within a girl still asleep in the hospital. Meanwhile, the infected begin displaying unusual levels of brain activity. They are dreaming heightened dreams – but of what?
The Dog Stars – Peter Heller
Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that wiped out everyone he knew. Now his wife has gone, his friends are dead and he lives in the hangar of an abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a gun-toting recluse called Bangley.
But, when a radio transmission comes through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice instantly ignites a hope that a better life might be on offer outside the tightly controlled perimeter he has become accustomed. Risking everything, he sets off past the point of no return. He soon discovers something that is both better and worse than anything he could have ever imagined. Similar to Station Eleven, Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars is a post-apocalyptic novel that emphasises the importance of human connection and the enduring power of hope over despair.
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Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
Another one of the best books like Station Eleven utilises an uneasy dystopian feel with quiet character-driven stories about how people find meaning in art from Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me Go. Kathy, Ruth and Tommy are three students at Hailsham, a renowned boarding school where the students are taught all about art and literature and are prepped to be the sort of individuals society wants them to become. Curiously though, they are taught nothing of the outside world.
Within the walls of Hailsham, Kathy grows from a schoolgirl to a young woman. However, it is only when the three friends venture out beyond the grounds of the school that they slowly come to realise the full dark truth of what Hailsham really is.
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Severance – Ling Ma
Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is dedicated to routine. So much so, that she barely when notices the plague of apocalyptic proportions sweeps through New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Companies seize their operations. The subway grinds to a halt. Families leave the city. Soon finding herself entirely alone, albeit unfazed, Candace begins photographing the eerie abandoned remnants of New York as the anonymous blogger, NY Ghost.
Candace knows that she won’t be able to make it on her own forever though. Enter a band of survivors, led by careerist techie Bob. The group are heading for a place known as the Facility where Bob promises they will find everything they need to begin life anew. Brimming with rituals, routines and missed opportunities, Ling Ma’s Severance is the perfect dystopia read for anyone who loved Station Eleven.
The Death Of Grass – John Christopher
The Chung-Li virus has devasted Asia, eradicating the rice crop and leaving countless riots and mass starvation in its wake. The rest of the world looks on with concern, though content in the knowledge that the counter-virus will be developed any day. Then Chung-Li mutates and starts to spread. Soon, no grass crop is safe from its effects and a global famine looms.
In Britain, the government lies to its citizens. They plan to preserve the lives of a few at the expense of the many. John Custance and his family learn of this plan and decide they must flee their home in London and head for John’s brother’s remote farm in the northern valleys. As they begin their long trek, they experience a country freefalling into barbarism. In this new world, the law of the gun trumps all, and the civilised values they once knew become the price they must pay to survive.
Oryx And Crake (MaddAddam #1) – Margaret Atwood
Snowman, once known as Jimmy before humanity was overrun by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he might just be the last human left. He is still in mourning for his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx, whom the pair of them both loved deeply.
In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey. Aided by the green-eyed Children of Crake, it is a journey that takes him through the lush wilderness that was once a great city. That was before the corporations pushed mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. In the opening book of her MaddAddam trilogy, Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood introduces readers to a near future that is both beyond our imagination and frighteningly recognisable, perfect for any readers who loved Station Eleven.
Parable Of The Sower (Earthseed #1) – Octavia E. Butler
In 2024, Lauren Olamina and her family reside in one of the few remaining safe neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, tries to cobble together what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war and crippling shortages. While her father attempts to lead people on the path of the righteous, Lauren grapples with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extremely sensitive to the feelings of others.
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family are killed and she is forced to confront a world rife with danger. Along with a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety. Along the way, she begins to ponder a revolutionary idea that could mean salvation for all of humanity.
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The Road – Cormac McCarthy
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Apart from the ash on the wind, nothing else moves in the ravaged landscape. The sky is dark, the snow that falls is grey and the cold is cold enough to crack stones. The pair are heading for the coast. Although, they have no idea what, if anything, is waiting for them there. Between them they have nothing; save for their clothes, a cart of scavenged food, a single pistol to defend against the rogues that stalk the roads. And each other.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is another one of the best post-apocalyptic books like Station Eleven for readers looking for another moving story of how love and hope can endure even in a world where they appear to have vanished.
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The Book Of M – Peng Shepherd
One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears – an anomaly that science is unable to explain. Soon, the phenomenon is spreading like a plague. The afflicted gain a strange new power, but it comes with a harrowing price: the loss of all their memories. Ory and his wife, Max, have evaded the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new routine almost begins to feel normal. That is until Max’s shadow disappears too.
Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she becomes to her husband, Max flees. But Ory refuses to surrender the time they have left together. Desperate to find his wife before her memory leaves her for good, he follows her trail across a dangerous and unrecognisable world. Like Station Eleven, the journeys of Ory and Max feature a search for answers about love, survival and hope.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
