Books to read if you like Black Mirror

A chillingly plausible twist on tech and parenthood, this genre-defying thriller dives headfirst into the dark side of family life. With overpopulation spiralling, people turn to MetaChildren—AI-generated kids raised in the Metaverse—for a chance at parenthood. But when contestants enter a reality show to win a virtual child (or gamble it all for a real one), ethics, identity, and emotion blur in terrifying ways.

Hugo award-winning Arkady Martine's latest novel reads just like a Black Mirror episode. The famed – and reclusive – architect Basit Deniau is dead, but his final creation, an AI-integrated house, remains sealed and watchful. The house refuses entry to all but one person: Dr. Selene Gisil, Deniau’s estranged former protégé. When a dead body is found inside an own AI-integrated home, an investigator must navigate the house’s cryptic intelligence to uncover the truth of how it came to be there. Haunting and cerebral, Rose/House echoes Black Mirror at its best: a meditation on memory, surveillance, and the boundaries between creator and creation.

Taut, terrifying, and breathlessly paced, Run plunges readers into a near-apocalyptic nightmare where survival hangs by a thread. As the world spirals into chaos and an unexplained violence spreads like wildfire, the government begins reading out names—kill lists broadcast to the nation. And now, your name is one of them. From the mind behind Dark Matter and Upgrade, Blake Crouch delivers a pulse-pounding thriller that fuses speculative horror with breakneck suspense. If Black Mirror ever met The Crazies, it might look a lot like this.

In a world reshaped by the mysterious, ever-present hum of the Soundfield, survival depends on silence, secrecy, and sacrifice. Hannah, once a scientist chasing answers, now lives only to protect her gifted son Isaac—from the heat, from the authorities, from the truth. But as danger closes in, the line between love and control begins to blur. The Quiet is a haunting, slow-burn dystopian thriller that explores maternal obsession, environmental collapse, and the unbearable weight of secrets.

Juice is a post-apocalyptic odyssey that strips survival down to its rawest edge. A man and child on the run find fragile hope in a ruined landscape, but danger—and the cost of staying human—lurks everywhere. Booker-shortlisted Tim Winton delivers a haunting vision of a scorched world that feels all too close. With echoes of The Last of Us and The Road, this is cli-fi at its most emotionally charged—spare, unflinching, and impossible to forget, with the same lingering dread that Black Mirror so masterfully provokes.

The Centre presents us with an unbelievable and ethically-dubious solution to a human problem, just like the Black Mirror episode ‘Arkangel’. The Centre is an elite, invite-only programme that guarantees total fluency in any language in just ten days. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols, sacrificing her belongings and contact with the outside world in order to comply with The Centre’s strict protocols. Despite the organisation's strange processes, she’s seduced by all that it’s made possible, realising too late the hidden cost of its services. Dark, funny and surreal, this is a Black Mirror take on the politics of language, translation and appropriation – you won’t want to miss it.

This high concept thriller written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten will have you looking twice over your shoulder and bears similarities to some of Black Mirror’s more action-packed episodes, such as ‘Metalhead’. To test out a new piece of spyware for the CIA, ten people are given two hours to vanish (and stay vanished) for thirty days, with a $3million prize to those who successfully evade capture. If the spyware remains unbeaten, it will revolutionise modern surveillance forever. However, there’s more than just the prize fund at stake for contestant Kaitlyn Day. . . Like the best episodes of Black Mirror, this is a timely narrative that makes us question the direction our world is taking, in this case, how access to personal information is increasing more than ever and what exactly the dangerous consequences could be.

If you enjoyed Black Mirror’s interactive film ‘Bandersnatch’ that played with alternative timelines, then you’ll be bewitched by Emily St John Mandel’s time-bending Sea of Tranquility.  The truly original novel takes readers on a mesmerising literary journey, where lives separated by time and space have collided. An exiled Englishman, a writer trapped far from home, and a girl destined to die too young, have each glimpsed a world that is not their own. Together, their intertwining lives will solve a mystery about the nature of time itself. Prepare to be swept away by parallel worlds and possibilities where the lines between reality blur like never before . . .

We Had to Remove This Post gives us a cautionary, no-holds-barred glimpse into the dark recesses of social media. As her last resort of employment, Kayleigh takes a job as a content moderator, reviewing the hate and horror that people post online. Kayleigh is good at her role and meets not just friends, but a new girlfriend too. But as the things she sees on screen infiltrate her mind, she begins to lose her sense of self. As Kayleigh grapples with her identity, you’ll likely be reminded of the classic Black Mirror episode, ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ . . . Subtly unnerving but astute, you’ll be relieved to hear that your exposure to this unchartered online territory only lasts 144 pages, which is enough to give you that addictive Black Mirror thrill without totally crippling your outlook on humanity. 

Based on the hit podcast from the Public Radio Alliance, Rabbits is the novel for fans of the darker episodes of Black Mirror, like ‘Playtest’. The fate of the entire universe lies on a secret, dangerous and sometimes fatal underground game called ‘Rabbits’. The rewards for winning the game are unclear, but there are rumours of money, CIA recruitment or even immortality. But everyone knows that the deeper you get into the game, the higher the stakes, and the body count is rising. The eleventh round is about to begin, and something has gone badly wrong . . . This electrifying, compulsive read will have you in a reading rabbit hole – you won’t want to put the book down. 

If what you really love about Black Mirror is the variety of its episodic structure, then you’re sure to enjoy Exhalation by Ted Chiang, a collection of captivating science-fiction short stories that raise big questions on what it means to be human. You’ll be transported through a portal in time to ancient Baghdad, encounter an alien scientist who makes a life-changing discovery and follow a woman who cares for an AI ‘pet’ for over twenty years.  It’s probably one of the most philosophical books on this list, so prepare for some seriously thoughtful introspection – there’s no doubt these stories will linger in your mind long after you've turned the final page.