You finished The Hunger Games trilogy and you want more. What to do? Luckily for you, lots of really good YA science fiction books have been published in the last several years. Some have a bit more of a fantasy element, most have romance, including a love triangle, and all have adventure. The titles that follow are recommended by California teacher librarians. I’ve read several and have included links to my reviews. Happy reading!
Delirium by Lauren Oliver :Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, she falls in love.
Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore: In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king. (My review of Graceling is here. My review of Fire is here.)
Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfield:Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can’t wait. Not for her license — for turning pretty. In Tally’s world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. But Tally’s new friend Shay isn’t sure she wants to be pretty. She’d rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world — and it isn’t very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever. (My review is here.)
Divergent by Veronica Roth: In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all. (My review is here.)
Legend by Marie Lu: In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy. (My review is here.)
Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie: All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, whom to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn’t be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky’s face show up on her match disk as well? (My review of Matched is here. My review of Crossed is here.)
Unwind by Neal Schusterman: In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives “unwound” and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to survive until they turn eighteen. (My review is here.)
Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White: In the year 2083, five fourteen-year-olds who were deprived by chance of the opportunity to continue their educations reenact Scott’s 1910-1913 expedition to the South Pole as contestants on a reality television show, secretly aided by a Department of Entertainment employee.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer: As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: Child hero Ender Wiggin must fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race if mankind is to survive.
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman: Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
School Library Lady 
sraslim–On Maze Runner–I read the first one–in fact, I read it about the same time as the first Hunger Games. I have a single review on the two on the blog, and liked both, but said if a kid only had time for one, it should be Hunger Games. Little did I know then how it was going to explode in popularity! Here’s that review: http://colonylibrarylady.com/2009/11/13/the-hunger-games-and-the-maze-runner/
Awesome list! Can’t wait to read a few of these! I’d like to add the Maze Runner trilogy by Dashner. So. so good! A group of young men are forced to run a deadly maze daily in order to try to find their way out of “The Glade.” The day after Thomas is sent and awakes in the Glade, another visitor arrives. A young woman this time, and she starts a scramble that may lead to death, destruction…. or salvation.