Authors of young-adult books are asking some of the most prescient, pressing questions about technology today—and they’re also imagining some of the most disastrous consequences.

Here are seven novels (all suitable for young adults, if not specifically written for them) about how society deals with the fallout of ominous technologies.

Being by Kevin Brooks
Bildungsroman reaches a new level in this story: What could be more alienating than discovering your own body is full of machinery? After stealing the footage of his own insides, Robert must find whether he’s a cyborg, an alien, a robot, or some new kind of human.

More Happy than Not by Adam Silvera
A 16-year-old boy in the Bronx considers a memory-altering procedure to forget the pain of his life—including the fact that he’s gay. A powerful, character-driven new book from a debut author.

Feed by M.T. Anderson
Librarians love to recommend this soon-to-be-classic YA novel about a dystopian future where  a steady stream of media is plugged directly into everyone’s brain.

After the End by Amy Plum
Juneau and her clan have been living off the grid in the Alaskan wilderness for three decades, after nuclear fallout from World War III rendered the planet almost completely uninhabitable… or did it?

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Start at the very beginning with this classic, which takes place in a totalitarian regime maintained via complete censorship. Technology played a part in setting the stage, as citizens willingly gave up books in favor of other types of media.

The Circle by Dave Eggers
Imagine an omnipresent Internet company that knows everything about everyone, and then imagine going to work there.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
It’s a vicious circle: As the physical world crumbles, people want to escape more and more into their ubiquitous virtual reality. And the more time people spend in that virtual reality, the more the physical world crumbles—to the point where they become almost indistinguishable from one another, and one teen’s race to find a hidden Easter egg in a video game is the most real thing of all.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks! Leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend.