 You're gonna need something to entertain you. What on earth does that have to do with The Last of Us? That piece really is kind of annoying. It's not just zombies, it's mushroom zombies when The Last of Us is over. I, along with the rest of the world, have been watching The Last of Us. And in talking to other people who are also watching The Last of Us, I started noticing how often I was using comparisons to books and book characters as, like, why I like something or what it reminds me of or recommending things to them like, oh, well, if you like that part of it, then, you know, there's this book I read. So I decided I could do a video talking about some of those books because The Last of Us is about to end and you're gonna need something to entertain you when The Last of Us is over. So I have five books for you today. Some of them are only, like, a very specific part of The Last of Us that it reminds me of. Others are kind of more generally something about The Last of Us. So let's go through it and I'll explain why each of them is in some way reminiscent to me of The Last of Us. First up, I have The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This book is not for the faint of heart but neither is The Last of Us. This was also turned into a film but if you've never heard of The Road and you don't know what it's about, it is a post-apocalyptic story in which a man and a young boy are traveling along trying to make their way through this post-apocalyptic world trying to survive together. Do you see why I think this is reminiscent of The Last of Us? So it's not quite the same structure we don't have, you know, this like zombie plague going on like we do in The Last of Us but there is this kind of like man with a child trying to protect the child, trying to survive unsurvivable circumstances, push to their very limits. It's quite dark as anything post-apocalyptic is and I just feel like the tone of it is in many respects quite similar. So if you like that about The Last of Us, the tone and the general kind of situation, I think you'd probably enjoy The Road. Next I have two books for the same reason. So if what you really like about The Last of Us is this dynamic between Joel and Ellie, this like gruff dude that's been settled with a kid, doesn't really want to be settled with the kid, doesn't really know how to handle being settled with the kid, is probably not the ideal caretaker for the kid except for in some respects such as being able to protect them from violence. If you like just like that piece of The Last of Us, I have two book recommendations for you. First I have Vicious by V.E. Schwab. This was originally I believe intended to be a standalone or at least sold as one. She has written another book and I think there's going to be yet another one planned but you can definitely read Vicious as a standalone. So Vicious, the storyline, the like plot, the concept for the book is extremely different from The Last of Us. This is almost kind of like kind of a grittier take on an X-Men type situation. So like there are people who are developing these kind of extraordinary abilities and so our two main characters meet in college and they unlock some extraordinary abilities in themselves and the story takes place in sort of like flips back and forth between the present day and their days in college and jumps all around but it's clear that they have become like nemeses even though they were like besties in college. So you kind of figure out as the story jumps back and forth why that is and now why what they're doing about it. So the book kind of like counts down towards like zero hour where everything's going to converge. If you're like what on earth does that have to do with The Last of Us? Victor Vail who's like arguably the main character, certainly one of the two main characters but this is Victor Vail in the middle of the title here. So I would say he's the main character. He's saddled with the kid, an extraordinary kid and he is definitely not a good caretaker and not doesn't want to be one but is likewise, you know, he's able to protect her in some respects and there is this, you know, kind of like cute kid with like gruff, violent, not ideal dude looking after her and it is like, I don't want to say cute because it's quite sinister but it does very much remind me of the dynamic between Ellie and Joel except that I like this girl way more than Ellie. Ellie's kind of annoying. So Sydney and Victor in vicious are a lot like Ellie and Joel. And then again for the gruff man with the child the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski which there's also a show of this and one of the main things that I'm really mad about in the show is that the character of Siri was introduced already almost like fully grown almost an adult like a young teen basically which means that the extended portions of these books where Siri is a little, little kid and Geralt the Witcher is taking care of little Siri are not present in the show and it's really, really charming in the books. It's just again, it's quite dark and sinister. Geralt is probably not an ideal caretaker. He is a Witcher and if you don't know what that is because you've never played the games or seen the show or the books he is a monster hunter basically. He's like genetically mutated to be like good at that. So he just goes around killing things like that's his job. So now he's saddled with this little girl who's a princess and has to take care of her and not only is she a princess but she's extremely precocious and so they're going around this dangerous world filled with monsters and there's this princess and he's not particularly excited about the idea of being exiled with her and she's kind of a lot to take on and the dynamic between them is a lot like Ellie and Joel except again, I like Siri better than Ellie because Ellie's kind of annoying. Next up, I have one of pretty much like the only book I like that has like zombies in it. Not just zombies but like kind of does this sort of like overview of kind of like society reacting to this how would society structure itself in response to this not like just having a story about a monster run away kind of looking at how humanity we kind of respond to that situation and that is Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. This is about zombies during the Civil War or like just after the Civil War. That's kind of how the Civil War ends with like a zombie uprising. So we have like that era of America suddenly like history alters because the sudden appearance of zombies and now the trajectory of history is like shifted because people are responding to the existence of zombies and what to do about that. So it does a really amazing job at just being an alternate history and like believably depicting what that would be like. You're like, okay, let's say zombies appeared during the Civil War. How would people respond to that? This book does an amazing job of like realistically depicting that and handling like zombies as a concept very well. So I just highly, highly recommend this book in general. But again, if you like that piece of The Last of Us kind of more just like outside of the narrow character story if you like the kind of the way that it's exploring how the world has responded to zombies what are the different ways people have reacted to this and like built up defenses for it or have thought is the most wise response to this then I highly recommend Dread Nation. And lastly, if what you love about The Last of Us is that it's not just zombies, it's mushroom zombies. It's fungus zombies. If that's your jam, then my like favorite instance that I admittedly have not seen a ton of this. I've seen it a few other times. My favorite iteration of this that I've seen is in What Moves the Dead by T. King Fisher. Again, this story is nothing at all like The Last of Us. This is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Where we are and what's going on and like the types of characters we have is extremely different from The Last of Us. But we do have fungus zombies, mushroom zombies. It's done so well in this book in my opinion. It's subtle and it's eerie and it's disturbing. And I love this book so much. It's a tiny little book, but it's so atmospheric and so well done. And it will put you off mushrooms just as well as The Last of Us does, I promise. And those are the five books that I have for you to read once you're done with The Last of Us. Let me know in the comments down below if you've read any of these books, if you've never read these books, if you plan to read these books, if you never ever plan to read these books. I want everyone to let me know. I post videos on Saturdays at the random times as well, but I think Saturdays will like and subscribe. Join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you.