Settle into Sunday with the stories Book Riot readers were most interested in this week.
The 25 Best Dystopian Novels of All Time
Do you remember your first dystopian book? My sixth grade teacher read The Giver aloud to my class over the course of a week or two, and I’ve spent the last thirty years trying to recover. I must not be alone because Lois Lowry’s genre gateway drug is among Entertainment Weekly‘s 25 best dystopian books of all time. It’s a solid list with a wide variety of nightmare hellscapes and timelines to choose from and a welcome reminder that while the current political situation has sent dystopian stories back to the bestsellers list, writers have been imagining the worst versions of society for centuries.
BookTok Travel is Ready for Take-Off
EF Ultimate Break, which focuses on experiential travel for 18-35-year-olds, has launched a new series of trips inspired by BookTok faves. Citing their recent survey of Gen Z and Young Millennial travelers in which 40% reported they are in a book club and 62% expressed interest in visiting destinations related to books they’ve read, the company is now taking ACOTAR fans to the Swiss alps that inspired Sarah J. Maas’s Prythian, inviting Emily Henry fans aboard an Adriatic cruise à la People We Meet on Vacation, and guiding history-loving Percy Jackson readers around ancient ruins in Rome, Athens, and Cairo. The trips, which “focus on literary community building,” include book club discussions, themed experiences related to the source material, and visits to literary destinations.
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This isn’t the first travel company to offer book-inspired tours—John Shors Travel has been taking readers on tours with their favorite authors for years now, and Common Ground hosts “pilgrimages” that encourage travelers “make meaning through secular texts, treating novels and other forms of non-religious media as sacred,” to name a few—it’s the first one I’ve seen that caters specifically to younger adult readers’ interests and budgets. It’s a smart move, especially at a moment when 60% of Gen Z adults spend at least four hours a day on social media and nearly half wish TikTok hadn’t been invented. Nothing will make you want to throw your phone into the sea more than an immersive experience out in the world with people to whom you feel genuinely connected. If BookTok can be a vehicle for that, let’s call it a win.
Bookshop.org Sales Are Soaring
Hold onto your butts. Bookshop.org has reported a 65% year-over-year increase in sales in the first half of 2025. This would be an eye-popping number any time, but it’s especially remarkable since industry-wide sales are down so far this year. CEO Andy Hunter attributes $1 million of the additional revenue—just 5% of overall sales—to Bookshop.org’s better-late-than-never ebook platform, which launched in January and another $1.5 million to its recent Anti-Prime Sale. What’s driving the rest of the growth? My best guess is that anti-Amazon sentiment and consumer boycotts have hit a tipping point with the kind of left-leaning, middle- and upper-middle-class readers who are willing and able to pay a premium to avoid supporting companies whose policies conflict with their personal and political values. And it doesn’t hurt that inflation and tariffs seem to have lessened Amazon’s ability to offer deeper discounts and faster shipping than other book retailers.
The It Books of August
Every month, we put 10 of the hottest new releases through a high-stakes knockout round. Which one will be crowned It Book of the Month?