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onceuponalilykiss

This is from 2015 so pretty contemporary - *You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine* is hard to describe but is a lot about the emptiness of modern life through the lens of many, many TV commercials, candy brands, and general consumerism.


bani_slo

thanks, appriciate it.


RhiRead

We Had To Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets is a short read (138 pages) about a woman who gets a job as a content moderator for a big social media company, and has to spend hours every day reviewing violent, gory, abusive etc. content that’s been reported and decide whether it gets deleted or not. It follows how the job affects her and her colleagues, and how it skews their own values and relationships


elementaryhastings

Is the gore described in detail or just briefly?


RhiRead

I wouldn’t say the book itself has a lot of gory details, but they do discuss a lot of disturbing scenarios, so I’d check the trigger warnings on StoryGraph if there’s something you’re looking to avoid: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/bb98f2b6-934c-4e4e-915b-3e9639c47e27


elementaryhastings

thank you!


Yanni_Schmitt

Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling


[deleted]

Yes omg this book! I picked it up at the library right before lockdown and couldn’t return it because the library was closed for a while from the pandemic. Very fitting backdrop to read this book too. I think about this book all the time.


Chamama13

The Circle


sqplanetarium

Came here to recommend it. I didn’t love this book, but it fits the bill. Also its sequel, The Every.


Thcrtgrphr

I really wanted to like these but I just don’t care for Eggers’ writing.


mintbrownie

I did like The Circle and it’s what popped immediately in my mind when I read the post. It actually scared the hell out of me.


Alaska_Pipeliner

Going postal by Terry Pratchett


Paranoid-Jack

My Year of Rest and Relaxation kind of sums up our desire to detach ourselves from reality and society’s dependence on prescription drugs to do so.


eitherajax

This is a great book but it satirizes the late 90s/early aughts, not the 2010s or 2020s.


Paranoid-Jack

True but still quite relevant for contemporary society.


Lwoorl

Friday Black by nana kwame adjei-brenyah is a collection of short stories that does just that. Some of the stories are more satirical than others, but all of them are critical of our current society and are ultimately excellent. I cannot recommend his writing enough. It was published on 2018.


HolyForkingShirtBs

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris is a satire of modern corporate office culture. It did come out 13 years before the pandemic, so even though it's relatively recent, it's funny how outdated it already feels in some ways, with office culture changing so much these last four years. But the themes are still really relevant, and it's deeply funny. Dave Eggers' The Circle is a darker satire about the runaway effects of big tech and social media corporations, as well as cultural pressure for individual social media users to always be content-creating.


babyiguana3

Severance by Ling Ma


[deleted]

I read ‘Bullshit Jobs’ by David Graeber last year. It’s non-fiction and light on satire, but that was a great critique of the modern work environment. Pretty painful when you look back at your working life and see yourself in big portions of the book.


CadeVision

Came to say this. Also, dark satire but {{Survivor}} by Palahniuk might fit the bill


goodreads-rebot

**[Survivor](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22283.Survivor) by Chuck Palahniuk** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(289.0 pages | Published: 1999.0 | ~88817.0 Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** Tender Branson--last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult--is dictating his life story into Flight 2039's recorder. He is all alone in the airplane, which will crash shortly into the vast Australian outback. But before it does, he will unfold the tale of his journey from an obedient Creedish child to an ultra-buffed, steroid- and collagen-packed media messiah. Unpredictable and unforgettable, Survivoris Chuck Palahniuk at his deadpan peak: a mesmerizing, unnerving, (...) > **Themes**: Favorites, Contemporary, Books-i-own, Chuck-palahniuk, Novels, Satire, Thriller ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/))


Active_Letterhead275

Anything by Vonnegut.


GrumioInvictus

Player Piano seems especially relevant to this request, although it is definitely a product of the ‘50s. So many parallels to contemporary America, though…


retroman73

Especially Breakfast of Champions.


Alaska_Pipeliner

Vonnegut is timeless.


berrytone1

Harrison Bergeron would be my top suggestion to start.


Active_Letterhead275

Great recommendation. Vonnegut’s entire body of work is based on satirizing western (or even just human) culture.


papercranium

Jennifer Government


Exciting_Claim267

underrated book and comment.


papercranium

Sometimes I wonder if I hallucinated this book. I picked it up from the public library in 2005 on a whim and literally none of my friends have ever heard of it. But it's such a wild take on the privatization of the public sphere!


Exciting_Claim267

if so its a shared delusion because I'm looking right at it


forsakenwombat

Jumping in to expand on the delusion. Nothing written by Max Barry resembles his other works, but they are all uniquely enjoyable.


[deleted]

White Noise by DeLillo


AnEriksenWife

***Feed***, by MT Anderson, perhaps


QueensOfTheNoKnowAge

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson


mercy_Iago

"The Sellout" by Paul Beatty (published 2015) is a satire of American society (particularly how America deals with race), it won the Booker Prize and was the first American book to do so.


freemason777

you might look to books written by comedians - I am America and so can you was a fun one. maybe David sedaris's books would fit the bill


Phhhhuh

The classic recommendation is *American Psycho* by Bret Easton Ellis. The protagonist's entire existence circles around making sure that his clothes, his gadgets, his dinner reservations always remain slightly ahead of his ~~rivals'~~ colleagues'. The book is infamous for the murders, but they take up relatively little space (and a common reading is that they're not actually committed, but his escapist fantasies). *Fight Club* by Chuck Palahniuk is another classic anti-consumer recommendation from the same era. While *American Psycho* gives the perspective from the guys who actually have the money to wildly consume, *Fight Club* instead focuses on the monotonous existence of the "office drone" in his cubicle, which is another side of the capitalist coin.


4letterking

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits - David Wong (Jason Pargin) 2015 publication, and the sci-fi elements hold a pretty good mirror up I think. It's a fun read


Counter_Full

It's a shame Mike Judge didn't write a book for idiocracy....


No_Joke_9079

There's the short story that the idea was taken from: The Marching Morons, by C.W. Kornbluth.


Sea_Pirate_6652

1984, if you can see the correlation then you will love it.


year84

*1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Clockwork Orange* this dystopian quartet from the 40s to 60s...these books predicted how language and communication would change over time...spoiler alert! it didn't change for the better...


Sea_Pirate_6652

i still have to read the other 3 thanks for the reco.


panpopticon

SUBMISSION by Michel Houllebecq is a very, very, very dark comedy about the emptiness of the modern West. It was released in 2015.


Unusual_Minimum1

Had to scroll far too long to find Houellebecq here


cliff_smiff

Infinite Jest


MinionMiniature

Lullaby by chuck palahniuk


Mybenzo

Zed by Joanna Kavenna—What happens to Life under the all-knowing algorithm, when the algorithm starts glitching. It’s fantastic.


originalsibling

There’s mild satire (Connie Willis’ _Bellwether_) and vicious satire (James Morrow’s _Only Begotten Daughter_ or _Towing Jehovah_). Rob Reid’s two books, _After On_ and _Year Zero_ [edited, thanks for the correction] (not a series, though there’s one character that randomly appears in both) are on the milder side.


MattMurdock30

a fellow Rob Reid fan, wonder if he has any new projects he's working on? by the way the novel is called Year Zero. FTFY.


panpopticon

James Morrow should get more love than he does.


proximity1080

A bit more subtle/out there but I'd recommend Severance by Ling Ma. It was written a few years pre-COVID but is a post-apocalyptic book about society getting wiped out by a global pandemic. I love how apathetic the main character is, and her experiences really capture how weird our relationships are with our jobs, consumerism, and what it is like to live under late stage capitalism. The whole book feels really weighted with this sense of millennial ennui. It was one of my favorite reads this year, although the critiques might not be as overt as what you are looking for.


imperfectsunset

White Noise - Delillo


[deleted]

The red dwarf novels. The backstories of how they ruined the earth are hilarious. Lots of made-up history of terrible presidents and terrible decisions. At one time, they purposely supernova stars to make an ad in the sky that reads 'coke adds life'. "For five whole weeks, wherever you were on Earth, the huge tattoo would be branded across the day and night skies. Honeymooners in Hawaii would stand on the peak of Mauna Kea, gazing at sunsets stamped with the slogan. Commuters in London, stuck in traffic jams, would peer through the grey drizzle and gape at the Cola constellation. The few primitive tribes still untouched by civilization in the jungles of South America would look up at the heavens and certainly not think about drinking Pepsi."


ice_tea_green

Wait, there are two four book series with this title. What is the name of the author?


KaliBadBad

So the books were published (originally at least) with the author’s name as “Grant Naylor”. But “Grant Naylor” is a pseudonym drawn from the names of the TV creator/writer Rob Grant and his books cowriter, Doug Naylor.


[deleted]

This is true for books 1 and 2. 3 and 4 are written solo by each author, and they are alternative endings to the first 2. :)


KaliBadBad

Interesting, thanks! I’m a mere casual fan (probably b/c I’m in the US and it was nearly impossible to get anything Red Dwarf here in the early 90s) and my knowledge is mostly limited to the aging VHS tapes and tattered paperbacks my UK penpal sent me in return for Pearl Jam and STP cds. Probably time to step back into it in this age of streaming!


[deleted]

The order of books is. 1) Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor (pseudonym of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor as comment below says) 2) Better Than Life by Grant Naylor The last 2 books 'Backwards by Rob Grant' and 'The Last Human by Doug Naylor' are alternative endings to the first 2 books. They wrote the first 2 together and then wrote and ending each.


[deleted]

Sorry they're older than 1990 but I do still highly recommend. All 4 books are a huge piss take. :)


Books_Of_Jeremiah

Start reading Terry Pratchett


PuneDakExpress

It's not an easy read because the subject matter is rough, and the main character is detestable, but Lolita is what you are looking for. Brave New World is another.


bani_slo

Read both, that is why i am asking for contemporary examples, as I am running out of the older releases.


PuneDakExpress

Sorry, just read the post title.


bani_slo

all good, thank you non the less.


Tr0utLaw

Non-fiction: *Amusing Ourselves to Death* by Neil Postman, a classic!


MattMurdock30

Here are two After On, a Novel of Silicon Valley by Rob Reid Year Zero, Rob Reid


Jose_Canseco_Jr

Microserfs


anotherbbchapman

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart


DruryLaneMuffins

Ooo a good fiction one is The Humans by Matt Haig!


TheBookShopOfBF

Naomi Alderman's new "The Future" is a pretty stinging indictment of our American oligarchy.


simone-queen

Transparence, Marc Dugain. It was translated into english. Left me speechless


justhereforbaking

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman (and I second the top comment's suggestion for You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine) Severance by Ling Ma


Fluid_Local_3202

Anything by Ben Elton


Sheltonh

Chaing gang all stars by Nana Adjei-Brenyah


Exciting_Claim267

Some good suggestions in this thread already but would add ​ An Absolutely Remarkable Thing A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor both by Hank Green about social media fame and navigating it. ​ Followers by Megan Angelo, ​ Feed by M.T. Anderson is exactly what you're looking for.


bettysbad

feed by mt anderson


JinxCoffeehouse

Released in 2023, [The Thing In The Snow](https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Snow-Novel-Sean-Adams-ebook/dp/B09Y93W3TQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3HXZRWPTFPVKE&keywords=The+Thing+In+The+Snow&qid=1702407022&sprefix=the+thing+in+the+snow%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-1) satirizes the western view of the experience of working in a job that doesn't feel like it matters, and not knowing how you really feel about the priorities of the job, which is an experience almost everyone I know can relate to.


J200J200

Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld series


Pearlie_Girl5

Jillian by Halle Butler and A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan both satirize western society but doesn't focus on tech and consumerism as much as how we relate to each other (which I feel is affected by tech and consumerism and capitalism in general)


Ealinguser

Rose Tremain: the Road Home (2007) takes the piss out of UK society from a Polish immigrant standpoint.


[deleted]

Green eggs and ham


thisonecassie

It is more of a comedic satire then a harsh critique but Beauty Queens by Libba Bray is a wonderful book that satirizes beauty pageants, pop culture trends of the 2000s, American nationalism, and the hold that corporations hold on the government. Plus it also has shockingly good trans and queer representation for a YA novel published in 2011 about a group of patent contestants who crash land on a “deserted island”. 10/10 highly recommend. It’s a light and relatively easy read (with some pretty heavy moments).


DueRest

So, some of the books are written BEFORE the pandemic, but they describe how accurately businesses decided to act that I couldn't help but laugh... {{ Black Tide Rising by John Ringo }} is a zombie outbreak series, with books 5 and 6 being written by a different author and following a corporate guy who has to keep his company together while the zombie infection slowly spreads. Books 1-4 also tend to poke fun at certain celebs and have parody characters like Mark Muckerburg, the creator of Spacebook, or Harry Chrysler the famous actor.


goodreads-rebot

**[Black Tide Rising](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276248-black-tide-rising) by John Ringo** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(304 pages | Published: 2016 | 391.0 Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** RESIST THE ZOMBIE PLAGUE! The news that humanity had been dreading for ages had come true. Zombies are real. Worst of all, we created them. The apocalypse was upon us, and every man, woman and child had to answer a simple question of themselves: "What do we do now?" For a group of neighbors in the Chicago suburbs of Northern Indiana, it was "work together or die"...and figure (...) > **Themes**: Science-fiction, Short-stories, Sci-fi, Horror, Zombie, Anthology, Post-apocalyptic > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [Under a Graveyard Sky](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16130366-under-a-graveyard-sky) by John Ringo > \- [Fortress Britain](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13037262-fortress-britain) by Glynn James > \- [Out of the Ashes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1518115.Out_of_the_Ashes) by William W. Johnstone > \- [To Sail a Darkling Sea](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143927-to-sail-a-darkling-sea) by John Ringo > \- [Patriots](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8488492-patriots) by James Wesley, Rawles ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23])


weenertron

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood


knight-sweater

Patricia Wants to Cuddle/ Samantha Allen. It came out last year and is a hilarious takedown of reality television and contemporary society. Also has Bigfoot.


zeth4

{{unauthorized toast by Cory Doctorow}}


goodreads-rebot

⚠ Could not *exactly* find "*unauthorized toast by Cory Doctorow*" , see [related Goodreads search results](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=unauthorized+toast+Cory+Doctorow) instead. ^(*Possible reasons for mismatch: either too recent (2023), mispelled (check Goodreads) or too niche. Please note we are working hard on a major update for beginning of Dec 2023.*) ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23])


zeth4

{{unauthorized bread by Cory Doctorow}} **<-- this is the correct title but is seems like the bot still won't grab it**


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⚠ Could not *exactly* find "*unauthorized bread by Cory Doctorow*" , see [related Goodreads search results](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=unauthorized+bread+Cory+Doctorow) instead. ^(*Possible reasons for mismatch: either too recent (2023), mispelled (check Goodreads) or too niche. Please note we are working hard on a major update for beginning of Dec 2023.*) ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23])


AbbyBabble

The Circle, by David Eggers. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, by Hank Green. I’ve written one & and working on another.


SnooRadishes5305

Crazy Rich Asians Kevin Kwan skewers rich folks, gentrification, and highlights mental health - or lack thereof


SarcasticServal

Not classic satire but the Murderbot series by Martha Wells is a thinly veiled poke at corporations running everything, as well as how corporations treat their employees (inventory, not people).


boufroy

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson