Also of interest...in utopian and dystopian visions

Arcadia

by Lauren Groff (Hyperion, $26)

Hippie communes have proved “especially fertile ground for literature,” said Jenny Hendrix in The Boston Globe. Arcadia, the utopian ’60s community in Lauren Groff’s second novel, is a familiar trap of infighting, drugs, and poor personal hygiene. But good things come out of Arcadia too, including Groff’s protagonist, Bit, who carries Arcadia’s values with him as we watch him age up through a dystopian 2018. Groff writes “beautifully and carefully,” sometimes too much so.

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Any Day Now

by Terry Bisson (Overlook $25)

The award-winning Terry Bisson mixes ’60s communalism with alternative history in this “wild, shaggy ride” of a novel, said Michael Lindgren in The Washington Post. Bisson’s hero is a beatnik who hits the road in search of kicks. But shady dealings force him to hide out in a Colorado commune, which becomes his refuge from an America that erupts, around 1968, in civil war. Though full of “imaginative fizz,” the book becomes “increasingly far-fetched” before ultimately going flat.

Ivyland

by Miles Klee (OR, $16)

Miles Klee’s intense debut is “a standout among a recent spate of dystopian novels,” said Sam Sacks in The Wall Street Journal. In a vague near future, a health scare causes Americans to submit to a surgical procedure that leaves many hooked on a new anesthetic, walking around in a haze while insect plagues and anarchic violence rule the day. Klee “depicts the chaos with verve,” issuing a “despairing plea on behalf of a young generation about to be given custody of a crippled planet.”

Starters

by Lissa Price (Delacorte, $18)

Lissa Price’s “outstanding” young-adult novel also paints a grim future for America’s youth, said Susan Carpenter in the Los Angeles Times. After “the Spore Wars” kill off everyone between 20 and 60, teens are at the mercy of wealthy geriatrics who “rent” young people’s bodies, inhabiting them via a “neurochip” in order to indulge in risky activities. Price is a gifted writer. “Readers who have been waiting for a worthy successor to Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games will find it here.”