12 Sci-Fi Books About Pandemics That You Won't Be Able to Put Down

Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven tells the story of a global swine-flu pandemic, known as the Georgia Flu, which takes out most of the world's population. Twenty years after Year Zero, a group of traveling thespians move between populated settlements in the Great Lakes region, attempting to provide entertainment to those who remain — that is, until they encounter a mysterious prophet who threatens the group's existence.

In Ling Ma's Severance, a first-generation American named Candace tries to contend with the recent death of her Chinese immigrant parents by sticking to the routine of her dull Manhattan office job. However, when Shen Fever sweeps the city, Candace suddenly finds herself part of a group of survivors — led by a megalomaniac IT tech — and life as she knows it changes forever.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker revolves around a small college town in Southern California, where an inexplicable illness triggers perpetual sleep, first targeting the students of the local college, and later, the members of the town itself. Though doctors can't seem to rouse the patients, they notice that the dreamers are displaying unusual levels of brain activity — but what they're dreaming about is a mystery.

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake is the first novel in a trilogy, telling the story of Jimmy — now known as Snowman — who mourns the deaths of his best friend, Crake, and his crush, Oryx, while navigating a new world leveled by a plague. When Snowman encounters a group of primitive green-eyed creatures whom he calls the Crakers, he embarks on a foraging expedition with their help, and the story of how the global pandemic came about is slowly revealed.

In Peng Shepherd's The Book of M, people mysteriously start losing their shadows — along with their memories — and society breaks into two factions: the shadowed and the shadowless. Married couple Max and Ory try to escape the Forgetting by holing up in a remote hotel in Virginia, but when Max succumbs to the plague and loses her shadow, the pair must contend with the consequences.

In Zone One by Colson Whitehead, a devastating virus takes over the planet, turning those who are infected into contagious flesh-eating zombies. Once the worst of the plague has passed, survivors band together on the island south of Canal Street (aka Zone One), and they begin the task of clearing lower Manhattan of remaining zombies to make it habitable again.

Rory Power's Wilder Girls tells the story of Hetty, who's trapped at her all-girls island boarding school after an illness known only as the Tox puts the school under quarantine. When one of the students goes missing, Hetty must decide whether to remain within the walls of the Raxter School For Girls, where she thinks she's safe, or break quarantine in order to find her friend.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller follows the journey of Hig, a man who somehow survives the flu pandemic that claimed the lives of his wife, his friends, and pretty much everyone else he knows. While living in the hangar of an abandoned airport with his dog, Hig receives a transmission through his old radio, and he seeks out the source of the message, though he's not sure whether it came from a rescuer or a threat.

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen takes place six years after a global pandemic wipes out the majority of the planet, following the survivors as they attempt to rebuild the country and move on from their loses. Four strangers who want to escape their pasts decide to band together, but their attempt to start over is challenged by reports of another outbreak.

In Edan Lepucki's California, two young lovers named Cal and Frida retreat from their home in Los Angeles to a shack in the wilderness after a flu epidemic cuts the population in half. However, the two are forced to seek out fellow survivors after Frida realizes that she's pregnant, which leads them to a local community filled with secrets, paranoia, and a rigorous voting process to determine who's allowed in and who's kicked out.

Lawrence Wright's The End of October tells the story of Henry Parsons, a high-ranking CDC official who is sent on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate a deadly new pathogen working its way around the globe. Despite how experienced Henry is, the pathogen is always several steps ahead of him, and he's as powerless to stop the deaths as he is to stop the recession, cyber attacks, and biological warfare caused by the outbreak.

In Blindness by José Saramago, an unnamed city is struck by a mass epidemic of blindness, affecting nearly everyone and forcing authorities to confine the blind to an overcrowded asylum. When the patients trapped in the hospital find themselves victim to looters and rapists, the one person who has managed to keep her sight attempts to lead a small band of strangers to safety.