Books to read if you like Squid Game

If Squid Game's dystopian premise is what has you hooked, then you'll be equally gripped by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Set in a totalitarian state, impoverished and permanently at war, where everyone is watched twenty-four hours a day (including in their own homes), it follows Winston Smith from the department of propaganda, and his longing to escape. But can anyone truly get away from Big Brother?

The contestants may not be facing death in John Marrs' thriller, but life is still the ultimate prize. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start or raise a family. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative: a monthly subscription fee whereby clients can create a virtual child. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show. The winners' reward? The right to keep their virtual child or risk it all for the chance of a real baby. 

This Japanese novel about a group of high school classmates sent to a deserted island, given weapons and forced to fight each other to the death, is a brutally violent high-octane thriller. Set in a fictional fascist Japan called the Republic of Greater East Asia, it's been adapted into a manga series and a film.

The opening book of Carissa Broadbent's Crowns of Nyaxia series offers a fantasy take on the deadly tournament concept – with vampires. Oraya, an adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, battles for more than mere survival in the Kejari, a legendary contest run by the goddess of death. To win, Oraya must ally herself with Raihn, a deadly vampire and fierce competitor. Despite him being an enemy to her father's reign, Oraya is irresistibly drawn to Raihn. But in the merciless Kejari, compassion is scarce, and love could prove fatal.

Huge gulfs between the wealthy and the poor? Check. A fight to the death for a chance at a 'better' life? Check. The Hunger Games ticks a lot of Squid Games' boxes but as it's YA there's a bit less graphic violence. In the remains of what was North America lies the nation of Panem, with its twelve outlying districts. Each district must send one boy and one girl each year to compete in the Hunger Games, a live televised fight to the death. For sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, the call up means she must choose between survival and her own humanity.

Move aside the outlandish set up and violent deaths, and the South Korea of Squid Game is not a future dystopia; it is right now. With its depiction of desperate people in spiraling levels of indebtedness, the series offers a cutting commentary on social inequality in the country. In Poverty Safari, Darren McGarvey looks at the same issue within the United Kingdom. This award-winning non-fiction book takes the reader inside the experience of poverty to show how the pressures really feel and how hard their legacy is to overcome.