Dystopian Women

After emerging from a coma, Faye Wills opens her eyes to complete darkness and the feeling of being trapped. Soon she discovers she is in no less than a nightmare world and awakens in the worst place imaginable. She is one of thousands of bodies in a makeshift mass grave that was once a football stadium. Left for dead. There are no signs of life and the only sound she hears is the buzzing of flies that follow the stench of death.

Wolfe is the bunker's resident pharmacist. While the inhabitants wait for the outside world to heal, she doles out ibuprofen, sanitary towels and Xanax—all under the watchful eye of the increasingly erratic and paranoid leader. But when the leader starts to ask things of Wolfe, favours she can hardly say no to, her world is thrown off its axis once again. Forming an unlikely alliance with the young Doctor Stirling, her troubled assistant Levitt and Canavan, Wolfe has to navigate the powder keg of life underground, knowing her every move is being watched.

In this darkly comic and surreal collection from celebrated author Alissa Nutting, misfit women scramble for agency in a series of uncanny circumstances. Throughout these breathtakingly creative 17 stories spread across time, space, and differing planes of reality, we encounter a host of women and girls in a wide range of unusual jobs. A space cargo deliverywoman enlists the help of her cybersex partner to release her mother from cryogenic prison.

Charlie Tannehill and her twin sister, Maggie, are just eight years old when an unfortunate scientific discovery upends their world—and the world order. The revelation? Extinction, encoded in every creature’s DNA. The expiration date for humans? Only four generations away. A decade later, unsure of what tomorrow holds, Charlie and Maggie enroll as counselors in a government-run human-husbandry program.

January Day is a detective on the verge of self-destruction, ready to give up on ever finding her brother’s killers. But when she finally unearths a lead and tracks them down, she uncovers a truth that changes everything. Her reality is only one of innumerable others designed by architects. Not only this, but it is a failure and nominated for deletion. If she wants to save herself, her reality, and the lives of countless others in an ever-expanding multiverse, she must first believe she, her reality, and those who live in it deserve to be saved at all.

In this second installment of the Man Hunt trilogy, we see the organization behind Monroe's Island and watch Josie come to terms with and confront her former boyfriend and rapist, Charles. Obe, meanwhile, is thrust deeper into the prison-like atmosphere of The Family of Blue and learns there is a whole other faction of men who are less numerous but even more dangerous. New characters Elton and Heather each have their own challenges to face and find their own paths to the island.

Zuri dreams of being invited to the city island of VainGlory, where she can rise to the top of her field. Everyone knows that in VainGlory, fame is the name of the game. The most elite athletes, artists, and entertainers live in VainGlory. Designed for luxurious living, the state of the art promotes living in individual personal bubbles. Able to go anywhere virtually, the wealthy rarely leave home.

As Antonia Conti continues to make waves in London’s criminal underworld with her fearless investigative work, Rick Grainger, a star reporter for a rival newspaper, brings her a lead nobody else will touch—for good reason. The story reveals corruption at the highest level of government, and she quickly discovers that the people involved will do anything to bury it. And just when Antonia thinks she’s won her battle, Grainger disappears. Can she and her old friend DI Russell Chapman uncover the connection with her investigation and bring Grainger’s abductors to justice?

London, the near future. GRM, a shadowy company running private prisons, has introduced a programme to alter prisoners’ memories, removing those that led to their criminal behaviour. When journalist Antonia Conti hears rumours that the technology has deadly side effects, she decides to investigate.

Centuries after the Cutoff, the secluded island of Sansara has perfected the roles of women. All girls attend the Institute where they are ranked, judged, and trained, and their paths are chosen for them. Elora’s destiny is to rise to the top. Rose wants to make her family proud. Odette dreams of happiness. But in a society that eats women alive, even dreams can turn out to be bitter fruit. All are trapped in a system that values their appearances, not who they are. Will they be crushed by the machine that oppresses them, or will they dare to break free and live on their own terms?

The Feral Women’s Institute is a secret underground organization of older women loosely descended from witches. You'll find them everywhere, but due to their special talents for hiding in plain view and speaking without being heard, you may not notice them. Rose is their lingerie designer. Her life's work is to find the elusive comfortable bra for the older woman. The trouble begins with a genetically engineered parasite. This one only eats Lycra. With her work in ruins, Rose has no option but to find the source of the problem and put a stop to it. Will Rose find the culprit?

With no desire to live in a world void of all human life, Faye sets a goal of making it home to die. Then she encounters Dodge and two young boys, who ignite a spark long lost in her: the will to live. Following radio calls, they discover they are not alone and decide to join a growing camp of survivors. But another discovery threatens their new-found safety and the rules begin to change. As they desperately try to find a safe haven and figure out their place in this new world, Faye must weigh the decision of what she wants to do against what she should do.

Serena McKay, PI, won't be your grandmother's favorite female sleuth, but she might be yours. She’s certainly not of the Jessica Fletcher ilk, and this is not a cozy mystery. It's a dark, dystopian crime story like none other, where Serena McKay kicks some serious butt. Once a detective, now a private eye, she is paid to investigate, to snoop, and to get to the bottom of things. She finds missing persons and explores child abductions.

Not so cute and cuddly! Not a cozy mystery! Not like any crime story you have listened to. Serena McKay, P.I., lives in a post-apocalyptic dystopian time where the rich get richer and the poor are homeless. Existence in August City is nightmarish at best and disastrously chilling at worst. Serena has suffered from devastating emotional and physical abuse but she continues to do her job in spite of it. Can Serena catch The Cellophane Killer who slaughters women with green eyes and then wraps them up in cellophane like a sandwich for her to find? Will she catch him, or will he catch her?

Looking for a strong woman to take on the Apocalypse? They survived the solar flare. They survived without power. They survived bandits. But can they survive a dictator who is determined to become the king of their state? Allison and her community have worked together to build a life after the flare. Can a ruthless man and the inmates he freed from the local prison take away everything they worked for?

The end of the world begins as literal fire rains down from the heavens. Ancient gods are released from their prison, eager to reestablish their long-lost power. But Rachel Deneuve has bigger, more contemporary concerns than a divine war. Her son Adam is in the middle of a fight against leukemia, and Rachel would much rather battle cancer than gods. But when humans begin picking sides and fighting escalates, their home in Baltimore becomes a war zone.

Looking for a book that you can share with your kids and grandkids? Jaden's Journey is based on the popular post-apocalyptic series Allison's Secret: Post Apocalyptic Woman. The school bully is an expert at getting Jaden Gordon in trouble and the last thing Jaden expects when called to the principal's office is that a solar flare will end life as she knows it and things will forever be changed. Jaden's father moves her to a farm outside of town where a handful of families struggle to survive their first winter with no power, no grocery stores, and no law enforcement.

Riley and Will are motorcycle buddies on a mission to rescue Riley's nephew, who's been kidnapped by his father. When a solar flare throws them all together, there's going to be problems.

Six short stories. Worlds of possibilities. The future, both near and distant. Alternate and plausible realities. Messages of hope and of doom. Fate, chance, and definitely choices.