Are there any books out there that are fiction but about a pandemic or epidemic? These intrigue me. Thanks
Are there any books out there that are fiction but about a pandemic or epidemic? These intrigue me. Thanks
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Old school, but the hot zone.
Good one though.
Nora Roberts Year One
@Katrenia seconding this. 2 of the 3 books are out so far, but it’s really good! Very different from her other books.
@Katrenia YES!! I loved the first two.
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is about the plague in England in 1666.
Seconding this, SO good.
Great book! I was going to suggest this one as well.
The Stand by Stephen King
World War Z – I really enjoyed this book. Very different than the movie.
The Plague by Camus
@Stefanie existentialism brings me back to college and writing papers on the Absurd lol
@Jillian I hated Candide but liked this one
@Stefanie I think I hate everything Camus at this point. My professor was a Camus scholar and that’s all we did for an entire semester.
The stand
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is pretty good.
@Debra this was my first thought!
One of the favorites I’ve read in a few years!
The Girl With All the Gifts
The Arisen series is great.
The Lunar Chronicles deals with one
Mia Grant has a great trilogy, but the titles are escaping me right now!
Fifth Wave and Station 11
@Ashley I think my son read these books, are there at least 7 of them? Are they teen novels? I loved station 11 looking for something similar ?
Im not sure how many there are, but they are YA so might be the same ones…
Oh, Warm Bodies too. It’s more zombie than plague perhaps, but it’s similar and a great book
@Ashley the 5th wave is a trilogy. So good!
The Passage trilogy! Justin Cronin is the author, I believe.
I second this.
I third!
Not a pandemic, but I loved One Second After. Scarier because this seems it could happen any day. I’ve told more people to read this book and they have loved it.
reading the second one now!
@Brooke – so good!!
This one terrified me because it felt so realistic
Not going to lie…I started my end of the world collection after reading this. I have a friend who ran to Target and spent $300 on stuff after finishing it. Now when I’m in a place and the power flickers, I think for a second “is this it? I need to get to the kids and back home. I need more food”. I don’t think you can ever “unknow” after reading this book.
p.s. Did you guys read the second one? It explains what happened to start it and what happens going forward.
I agree. That series is particularly sobering since it’s very possible.
Under A Graveyard Sky by John Ringo
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
@Stephanie my choice too!
agreed! His books are so good.
The Things that Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley. Sooooo good!
Was coming here to recommend this one. It was SO DAMN GOOD. I loved this one.
I ugly cried so hard. Loved it too!
The Hot Zone (nonfiction) is good. For fiction:
The Stand by Stephen King
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Passage by Justin Cronin
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
World War Z by Max Brooks
I read the Hot Zone fiction trilogy. It was pretty good
@Erica??
Who wrote that? Never heard of it.
I forget. It wasn’t about ebola, but it’s also called The Hot Zone. Mysterious disease makes people zombie-like
The things that keep us here—very good!
@Tara I was going to suggest this. Loved it.
The Atlantis Gene. Wayward Pines novels.
“The Hot Zone” is non fiction about the Ebola virus and “Outbreak” was fictional novel about Ebola outbreaks in US. I apparently was into Ebola in the late 80’s! ?
I’m reading one second after. It’s about what happens to a small community in the U.S. after a nuclear war. It’s horrific.
I Am Legend was fantastic. I loved the movie as well.
Pestilence by Ken McClure, read it more than 20 years ago when I was a teen but loved it. It is about a plague outbreak in the modern world.
Station Eleven is an interesting take on the world post-pandemic
Ooh – I will have to
check these out! I love reading them and then stock up on hand sanitizer and canned goods.
Haha I totally think the same way!!
Black Plague: THE DOOMSDAY BOOK BY CONNIE WILLIS; Years of rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson;
The Plague Tales by Ann Benson;
The Decameron;
A Journal of the Plague Year a Novel by Daniel Defoe
@Sharon Hearty agreement and ?? for The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.
@Sharon Doomsday Book one of my all time favorite
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson is about a cholera outbreak in London (non-fiction).
Not totally plague related, but The Maze Runner series and the Life As We Knew It series are great YA apocalyptic novels!
The Hot Zone- a classic!
Technically true, but written in the style of fiction, if that makes sense
The Stand
Check out the books by Robin Cook!
Station 11
just life – Neil Abramson. Dogs and viruses. What more could ya ask for ?
Hot zone
One that I loved in High School (a long time ago) was On The Beach. So good. I might need to read it again to see if it still holds up.
Theresa Douglas I loved that book too! It didn’t have the same impact a second time but watching millennials not have children because of climate change makes me feel we are already characters in that book.
@Theresa author Neville Shute. That book really stuck with me
Yes! Required summer reading for Honors English IV in high school!! I’m gonna have to reread that now!
Vox. I think. Definitely dystopian. Very good
Devon C. Ford’s After it Happened series.
Pandemic by Robin Cook comes to mind…
The coming plague. And outbreak.
The Stand
Year of wonders
The Passage
Who knew there were so many romance novels with the title Hot Zone. ?
@Rachel I noticed that !!
The Atlantis Gene trilogy.
The Painted Veil. Beautifully done movie too.
Hot Zone
As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner
I thought this was a great read.
The Dreamers and Severance are two newer ones that I loved
@Sarah Yes! I was just coming to recommend The Dreamers…though I’m still not sure about the ending.
Station Eleven
Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry
Pandemic by Robin Cook. he has others, too….
Hot Zone is nonfiction but reads as fiction. It is unputdownable. Also great are The Coming Plague and The Great Influenza. For fiction, Year of Wonders, The Passage, The Stand are good reads.
LOVED Year of Wonders
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
Wonderful read
So good!
Thank you for posting this! I loved her previous book (The Age of Miracles) and I had no idea that there was a new one!
It’s a great read
One of my favorites in a while
So different and intriguing
@Heather Yes! Just read that-it was a People magazine recommendation.
I was so into it and then felt like the ending was a bit flat. But at the same time I loved it. Was coming to see if it had been recommended.
Just read Year One by Nora Roberts. Good story. Think it will be first of a series
That was good! I’m reading the second one now.
Blindness by Jose Saramago
That was a crazy book!
Huh. No one said Dog Stars. Loved that one. Peter Heller is the author.
I loved that one too!
I love the Jakarta Pandemic by Steve Konkoly.
One of my favorites!
@Dawn pretty realistic for the most part.
Check out Robin Cook!
Just finished Station Eleven. It was good.
The Pepper McCallan series by author Alexi Venice. They are very good!
The program by Suzanne Young. It’s YA but is a series or the blondes by Emily Schultz
I love this thread! So many good recommendations!
it’s not a novel but it was great reading! https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Map-Londons-Terrifying-Epidemic/dp/1594482691
I enjoyed that one!
Station Eleven! Excellent read. More about the relationships between people than the actual virus itself but.
Scott Sigler
Another vote for station eleven. Great book.
The one I’m thinking of is historical fiction called Fever 1793, about the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, by Laurie Halse Anderson. It is YA.
We All Fall Down by @Dan! Out today. And he’s a doctor!
Read Inferno by Dan Brown!
Would the latest Nora Roberts series count? Year One
Fever series by Karen Marie Moning is post-apocalyptic fantasy genre
The Stand?
The Passage
Robin Cook wrote some books on this
Patient Zero by Fritz Galt
The Stand, The Passage trilogy, The Forest of Teeth and Hands, Road to Niwhere(Book of the Unnamed Mudwife), Zootopia trilogy (Margaret Atwood).
Also Swan Song, The Rift series, and World War Z.
@Tara the Atwood ones are soooo good!
The Program Series by Suzanne Young
Station Eleven
Inferno by Dan Brown
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Year of wonders
I love reading about them also. Great question ?
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis about the Black Plague
Julie O’Brien have you read The Plague Tales by Anne Benson? If you loved Doomsday Book you will love this book.
@Johanna I have not, I will check it out, thanks.
A Fierce Radiance about the development of penicillin and As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner about the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.
And The Band Played On.
Still so heartbreakingly great, even though we know so much more now about HIV/AIDS, it’s a phenomenal reminder of all of the pits in the road to the treatments we have.
The Fireman by Joe Hill
“Year of Wonders”… by Geraldine Brooks.
Pandemic by robin cook
The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin
Love in the Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Reality is stranger. Go for the real deal!
Station Eleven and The Book of M. Both great. Also, The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is fabulous as is The Plague Tales by Anne Benson. These last two I recommend often. The first two are new favorites.
The Last Town on Earth. Author is Mullen. About 1918 Spanish flu epidemic
Soo good
Thank you all so much for the recommendation!! I will look into some of these
Connie Willis The Doomsday Book – it’s about the plague. Historical fiction
Station 11
The Stand by Stephen King
I know, I love that genre too! The Stand got my started on that type of novel. SO GOOD!!! I re read it every couple of years! It’s a long book, but worth every page!! Give it a try!!
Another good one is Fever 1793…
The Last Town on Earth!! Such a good book!! Historical Fiction. Loved it.
It’s not historical fiction, but I loved The Ghost Map about Jon Snow…
Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
Another vote for station eleven!
Justin Cronin – The Passage; also World Made By Hand (James Kunstler), sort of on that theme
@Kristen loved The Passage and it’s sequels, now it’s a show and I have been watching…and keep saying, “that’s not the way it was in the books “, still a good show, though. Casting was excellent.
Sometimes Brillant-autobiographical but very interesting about the eradication of smallpox in India
Here’s some good books that are based on a time period when the Black Plague was in full force…The Last Hours, Years of Wonder, The Doomsday Book, World Without End. Happy Reading!
Bonnie Thomas Anjoorian so excited about Minette Walters new book and the fact that it’s about the plague makes it even more exciting!!!
I just read The Dreamers and really enjoyed it. Similar theme.
The Dominion Trilogy by Joe Hart
Station Eleven is a really good read about the impacts of a global pandemic. Set in the future but not science fiction-y
The Stand. Wonderful book.
Hot Zone
Most books by Mira Grant.
@Stacy what’s her best?
I love the zombie ones, and am reading “Into the Drowning Deep” now. Also, EVERY THING SHE WRITES under her real name, Seanan McGuire.
The Fourth Horseman by Alan Nourse is an old book, but soooo good. The story holds up really well.
Stephen King’s The Stand is a must.
The Stand is the first thing I think of. The Passage as well though I have only read 2/3 of the Trilogy.
The Last Town of Earth by Thomas Mullen about the 1918 Spanish Flu