5 Must-Read YA Books for Black Mirror Fans

Need, by Joelle Charbonneau
One of my favorite aspects of Black Mirror is how it delves into the consequences and impact of social media. Episodes such as “Hated in the Nation” and “Nosedive” explore the consequences of living in a society obsessed with image, whether those consequences are personal or on a global scale. Similarly, Charbonneau’s novel explores how far we’re willing to go when someone else is calling the shots. Website Need shoots up overnight at Nottawa High School, promising to fulfill the deepest desires of the entire student body in exchange for tasks fulfilled. While most of her classmates go for dates or popularity, Kaylee tries to use it to find a kidney donor for her younger brother. But as Need’s tasks turn more sinister and Kaylee’s classmates more deadly, she has to decide what’s more important—her brother’s life, or her own?

Unwind, by Neal Shusterman
The truly terrifying thing about Black Mirror is how close its reality feels to our own. Neal Shusterman’s disturbing dystopian YA is just as relevant today as it was when it was published—perhaps even more so. In a world where teens can be retroactively aborted through a process called “unwinding,” Shusterman explores pro-life and pro-choice arguments in a terrifying way. Some teens, like Lev, are unwound as a religious tithing. Some like Risa, a ward of the state, are unwound due to budget cuts. And some, like Connor, never thought they’d be unwound—until he overhears his parents discussing unwinding him due to his behavior issues. The three teens’ paths cross as they each run away from their own unwinding, in a thrillingly fast-paced series starter that could easily be a Black Mirror episode.

Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld
Scott Westerfeld’s debut was my favorite dystopian YA before dystopian became the huge booming genre it grew into. Social status is one of Black Mirror‘s preoccupations, and it’s easy to see that focus spurring an evolution toward the society Westerfeld has created in the Uglies series, where appearances are literally everything. Sixteen-year-old Tally has long awaited the operation that will turn her “pretty” on her sixteenth birthday. It’s something she’s never questioned—until she meets Shay. Shay doesn’t think being “ugly” is all that bad, and tries to convince Tally to agree. But when Tally goes ahead with the operation while Shay runs away, Tally’s faced with choosing between what she’s always wanted and betraying her friend.

They Both Die at the End, by Adam Silvera
Technology plays a huge role in Black Mirror, whether through social ranking as in “Nosedive” or in how you relive pieces of your past, as in “The Entire History of You.” In Adam Silvera’s third novel, hyper-advanced technology has sobering consequences. Set in a near-future similar to Black Mirror, two boys named Rufus and Mateo both receive a phone call from Death-Cast, a service that lets them know they both have fewer than twenty-four hours to live. Neither wants to live out the end alone, so they meet up on an app called Last Friend. Through the course of their final hours, Mateo and Rufus get to know each other, trying to fit a lifetime’s worth of memories into a single twenty-four hours. Like “San Junipero,” Black Mirror’s beautiful standalone, They Both Die At the End is brimming with technology, queerness, and hope, and is almost certain to make you cry.

I Crawl Through It, by A. S. King
Few YA authors today can match the weird twistiness of Black Mirror, but A. S. King does so perfectly. Many of her novels are strange, grounded in reality yet never quite fully there, much like the show. I Crawl Through It is one of my favorites, following four high school students each dealing with trauma in their own ways: Stazi, who is obsessed with biology; Gustav, who creates an invisible helicopter; China, who swallows herself whole; and Lansdale, a liar whose hair grows like Pinocchio’s nose. It’s an odd, surrealist book filled with deeper meaning on how we respond to the world around us and is perfect for fans of the show or anyone who likes to question the world.