Books like Squid Game are gripping, disturbing, and emotionally charged stories that delve into human nature, power dynamics, and survival. If you are still not over the ending of the latest season of Squid Game, now is the perfect time to revisit the intense emotions, impossible choices, and moral dilemmas that made this show so unforgettable. While we wait for the American version to come out, why not immerse yourself in these books that capture the same unsettling energy? From psychological thrillers to dystopian classics, these reads are twisted, tense, and deeply human. Just like Squid Game!
If you’re searching for books like Squid Game, this list features gripping titles that reflect the show’s raw tension, layered storytelling, and bleak societal critique. These Squid Game themed books explore survival, power, inequality, and the limits of human endurance.
9 Books Like Squid Game to Read Right Now
Here are nine books similar to Squid Game that echo its themes of survival, desperation, and the complexity of human nature:
1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
A group of schoolboys stranded on a deserted island attempt to govern themselves, only to descend into savagery. This classic novel exposes the fragility of civilization and the primal instincts that surface when survival is at stake. Like Squid Game, it reveals how quickly order collapses when fear and power take hold.
2. Animal Farm by George Orwell
Don’t let the talking animals fool you, Animal farm is one of literature’s sharpest political allegories. Orwell lays bare how revolutions can devour their ideals, as the pigs who lead the rebellion against humans end up replicating the very systems they overthrew. Much like the masked elites in Squid Game, Animal Farm shows how power corrupts and hierarchy thrives, even in supposed equality.
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3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
In a dystopian society where women are stripped of rights and turned into reproductive servants, survival is its own quiet rebellion. Atwood’s chilling tale of control, obedience, and resistance resonates with Squid Game’s own oppressive power structures, where rules are rigid, punishments are severe, and hope is a dangerous thing.
4. 1984 by George Orwell
Another Orwell masterpiece, 1984 explores a totalitarian regime where surveillance, propaganda, and psychological manipulation rule. Winston Smith’s fight for truth and freedom parallels the hopeless struggle of Squid Game participants against a game rigged from the start. Both leave you questioning whether escape is ever truly possible.
5. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
While not a thriller, Pachinko is a deeply human story of a Korean family navigating generations of discrimination, poverty, and sacrifice. It reflects Squid Game’s underlying commentary on class, injustice, and the brutal systems that people are forced to survive. It’s a slower burn, but just as emotionally intense.
6. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Set in a seemingly idyllic boarding school, Never Let Me Go slowly reveals its horrifying truth: the students exist solely to be harvested for their organs. Like Squid Game, it confronts the commodification of human lives and the quiet tragedy of those born into roles they never chose. Ishiguro’s calm, haunting prose mirrors the eerie stillness of the games.
7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
A toxic marriage becomes a psychological battleground in this modern thriller. When Amy Dunne goes missing, her husband Nick becomes the prime suspect, but nothing is as it seems. Gone Girl explores manipulation, control, and hidden identities with the same sinister edge that makes Squid Game so compelling.
8. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
An unreliable narrator, a missing woman, and buried secrets make this novel an addictive page-turner. As with Squid Game, the suspense lies in trying to figure out who you can trust. Hawkins masterfully builds tension while examining the human tendency to look away from uncomfortable truths.
9. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
A journalist returns to her small hometown to cover a series of murders while grappling with her own traumatic past. Sharp Objects is disturbing and psychologically intense, with themes of generational pain, self-destruction, and buried violence, all familiar territory to fans of Squid Game.
Whether you’re drawn to stories of survival, social critique, or slow-burning psychological unraveling, these books like Squid Game will scratch the same itch that the show left behind. Just like the series, they challenge our perceptions of morality, expose the cracks in society, and remind us how fragile the line between order and chaos really is.
So if you’re ready for a mental game just as gripping as the physical ones, dive into one of these twisted, tense, and deeply human reads today.
