Last March has come and gone, and with it went the biggest movie event of 2012. The Hunger Games left theaters several months ago and has already started filming its sequel, which promises to be just as successful. With the final books already published and a long wait until Catching Fire arrives, many readers will be suffering the basic withdrawal symptoms of a fangirl, also known as the three Rs: re- reading, re-watching, and re-blogging. But there’s something else that fans can do in order to get over the inevitable longing for another Hunger Games book. They can read books just like it. Here’s a list of the top five books to read to get over The Hunger Games.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent is a fascinating book that tells the tale of a sixteen year old girl named Tris. Though it takes place in Chicago, the society in which Tris resides is extremely different from the one that we know today. In Tris’s world, there are five factions, and when one turns sixteen years old, the person must choose a faction to go live in. The faction that Tris chooses will directly affect the entire course of her life, who she’s friends with, who she marries, and even the way she acts. But in this world, not everything is perfect. After Tris chooses Dauntless, the faction of the brave, she is swept up in a dangerous and very competitive initiation that could easily end up killing her. It doesn’t help that her mysterious instructor, Four, pays far too much attention to her and she can’t figure out why.

This book is good for Hunger Games readers because, like The Hunger Games, it has an excellent balance of romance and action. The author has figured out how to make her book suspenseful and romantic simultaneously, and it never leaves the reader wanting for one or the other. Also, the main character, Tris, has very similar characteristics to those found in Katniss, while Four holds some characteristics that are similar to Peeta’s. Keep your eyes peeled for the sequel, Insurgent, and the unnamed third book coming out in June. 

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Sixteen year old America Singer lives in a society in which people are unable to move up in the world. They are born into a “caste”, which is their place in society, and the only way to move up in life is through marriage. Unfortunately for America, her family’s position in life is very low, causing her family to be extremely poor and always hungry. Worse, the caste that the boy America is in love with is one caste lower, so marrying him will be of no use to her family. Then The Selection rolls around, and America is allowed to enter herself into a contest along with thirty five other girls, all of whom will be brought to the palace and introduced to the Prince. From this selection, Prince Maxon will choose a girl to marry. America has no intention of marrying Maxon, she merely wants the money that will be sent to her family, sustaining them more every week she is there. But Prince Maxon turns out to be different than America had thought he would be, and suddenly the danger in getting sent home is no longer danger for her family. The danger in getting sent home is for her heart.

Though The Selection is not an enormous political statement or a violent, action filled spectacle, it still sustains the reader’s interest and keeps them turning pages. Those who were intrigued by the scenes in the Capitol will enjoy the fact that most of the book takes place in the glitz and glam of the palace.  Hunger Games readers will especially like Maxon, whose character holds the same kindness and sweetness that Peeta’s does. Finally, this book has an edge-of-your-seat love triangle, the end of which is impossible to predict even by the most astute readers.  

City of Bones

Out for a casual night at a teens club in Brooklyn with her friend Simon Lewis, 15 year old Clary Fray’s world is about to be turned upside down. After getting into the club, Clary witnesses a murder that only she can see, only the murderer sees her too; he says the boy killed was a demon.  Confused and tired, Clary returns home, only to see the boy again the next day, who then goes on to question the fact that she can see him because she is a Mundie (slang for the word human).  While they are in conversation, Clary’s mom calls her, warning her not to come home because it is dangerous, so of course Clary runs home. There her apartment is trashed, her mom gone, and a not so great surprise is waiting for her: a demon. Jace shows up to take her to the Institute, a place that mundies cannot see, but where Shadowhunters live. Shadowhunters are part angel part human and live to protect humanity from the demons that lurk in the world. Clary, Simon, Jace, Isabelle, Jace’s adopted sister, and Alec, Jace’s adopted brother, set out to get Clary’s mother back safely and to find out why she was attacked.

The City of Bones is not a Dystopia like The Hunger Games. However, it captures you with a unique setting, the way the Capitol did for only a little while in The Hunger Games,  but with this book there is consistently a setting that is beautiful and can easily transport you to another world. The pace is also similar to The Hunger Games, as soon as you start reading, everything is nonstop. The love triangle, as well, is a point of interest for all you The Hunger Games fans out there. You have your childhood friend of Clary’s, Simon Lewis, who is extremely protective over her, almost exactly parallel to Gale. Then you have the character whose relationship with the main character develops over the course of the book, Jace, and, though his personality is not very Peeta like, he has that aspect of growing romance throughout the book.

Blood Red Road

 In a barren wasteland, Saba and her family are barely surviving. She has a close relationship with her twin brother Lugh, resents her younger sister Emmi, and is disappointed with her father because he does not allow them to go to civilization. So when her brother gets taken by four cloaked riders, and her father dies in the same day, Saba and her sister must go on a treacherous journey to rescue her brother.   On her course to save Lugh, Saba endures sadistic maniacs, who sell her to the coliseum, where she is kept prisoner and must fight other girls in front of a crowd. This place is called Hopetown, the civilization her father wanted to protect her from. While her time in the coliseum, Saba meets a band of girls known as the Freedom Hawks, who are determined bring down Hopetown and all its residents. She, along with her sister, the Freedom Hawks , and John, a man Saba rescued from the fire in Hopetown, set out  to find Lugh and get revenge on the government responsible for their suffering.

Much like The Hunger Games, this book includes a powerful female lead, who is loves her family and will do anything for them. While there is no love triangle in this book, Saba and John first start out as survival partners as Katniss and Gale did but, their relationship grows from into an unselfish love, just as Peeta and Katniss had. Blood Red Road is full of gritty action, heart-wrenching romance, and has a plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Host

 Taking place in a post -apocalyptic America, The Host is not your average sci-fi alien invasion. Instead of bombs raining down on the country or spaceships arriving with green martians exiting, this book has souls (that’s the politically correct term, but to the humans in the book, the ‘souls’ are aliens.) Souls are peaceful, polite, and kind; they are also, cosmic looking worms who are inserted into the back of a human’s neck. From there, the soul overtakes the mind and the human’s mind becomes nonexistent, and the body becomes the soul’s own. Usually no resistant from the human is met; however that is not the case with Melanie Stryder.  Having her younger brother Jaime to protect, and Jared, her boyfriend she met while on the run, she resists completely losing her mind and body to Wanderer, the soul who is hosting Melanie’s body. But Wanderer and Melanie are soon driven to a common goal, when the Seekers, who look for rogue humans, are out to find her Jaime and Jared.  Influenced by Melanie’s memories, Wanderer’s ambitions soon match up with Melanie’s, to protect their loved ones.

The Host does not have all the gore and brutality of The Hunger Games, but this book is written in a way that will make the reader question humanity, and how present humanity is within society. The Host also features a love triangle between Melanie/Wanderer, Melanie’s old boyfriend Jared, and Ian who accepts and loves Wanderer.  Like Peeta and Gale, Ian and Jared both have very different personalities, and which one you cheer for depends on which personality you find most endearing.