Dystopia Shelf is one reader's attempt to map the quiet end of the world. I review dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction — the canonical stuff everyone means when they say "dystopia", and the indie novellas nobody means yet.
I prefer short, character-driven books where the horror is structural rather than gory. If a dystopia can be summarized as "one horrible rule enforced every day", I will read it.
How books get rated
Five stars means I would press it into a stranger's hand. Three means worth the evening. One means the world was more interesting than the book. I don't review books I haven't finished, and I don't take money for reviews — if a review copy was provided, the post says so up front.
Disclosure
I also write dystopian fiction. When my own novella appears on a list or in a review on this site, it is labeled as mine in the first sentence — no hiding it in the middle of the pack. The classics still get reviewed against the same bar, which is why my book sits in the indie section, not on the top shelf.