8 Mind-Bending Books Like The Truman Show

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“We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented. It’s as simple as that.”

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Have you ever come to the end of watching The Truman Show and found yourself wondering, What if my reality isn’t real? If you’re craving more stories that blur the line between truth and illusion, you’ve come to the right place. These books like The Truman Show dive into themes of surveillance, identity, media control, and the terrifying idea that your whole world may be staged. Whether you’re pulled to psychological fiction, dystopian worlds, or simulated realities, each of these novels explores what happens when characters start questioning everything they know. Much like Truman, these protagonists are being watched, manipulated, or trapped – sometimes by society, sometimes by forces far more personal. From mind-bending thrillers to thought-provoking literary fiction, join us here at What We Reading for the best books like The Truman Show that guarantee to leave you grappling with what is real. 

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Dark Matter – Blake Crouch

Kicking off our list of the best books like The Truman Show is Blake Crouch’s sci-fi thriller, Dark Matter. One evening, Jason Dessen is walking home through Chicago, looking forward to a night in with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie. Suddenly, a masked abductor knocks him unconscious, uttering the words: “Are you happy with your life?” He soon wakes up strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers dressed in hazmat suits. 

In this world he’s woken up in, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is no longer an ordinary college physics professor, but rather a lauded genius who has achieved something impossible. Is this world or the other one a dream? To answer this burning question, Jason finds himself embarking on a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could have imagined, one that forces him to confront the darkest parts of himself as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. 

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Check Out The Best Books Like Dark Matter

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Soon I Will Be Invincible – Austin Grossman

Doctor Impossible has tried to take over the world in every way imaginable. He’s travelled backwards in time, forwards into the future, commanded an army of robots, summoned alien invasions, and attempted mass mind control. All total failures. But this latest attempt, he is certain, will be different. 

Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world’s most famous superteam. She’s a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built for the next generation of warfare. Joining the team after their last member was slain, Fatale finds a team reeling from a damaged past, trying to come together in the face of exceptional evil. Austin Grossman’s thrilling first novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible, is a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to the notions of power, glory, responsibility, and, naturally, good and evil. 

Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaardner

One day, fourteen-year-old Sophie Amudsen comes home from school to find two notes in her letterbox, with one question on each: “Who are you?” and “Where does this world come from?” From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her humble village in Norway. 

Through those letters, she enrolls in a different kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, whilst receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? Similar to The Truman Show, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning to uncover the truth; however, the truth soon turns out to be far more complex than she could have ever imagined. 

Foe – Iain Reid

From the author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid’s Foe opens with Junior and Henrietta living a comfortable, if solitary, life on their farm. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with the alarming news that Julian has been randomly chosen to travel far away from the farm. Very far away. The most bizarre part? Arrangements have already been made for when he does leave, Henrietta won’t have to worry about being alone. Because the company has been arranged. Familiar company. 

Delivered with Reid’s sharp and evocative style, Foe is a book like The Truman Show in how it explores the dynamics of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it truly means to be an independent person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first page to its final shocking climax.

Super Sad True Love Story – Gary Shteyngart

Super Sad True Love Story is a sharp, satirical dystopian novel set in a near-future America governed by hypercapitalism, digital obsession, and total surveillance. In this reality, everyone’s movements are tracked through a device called an “apparat,” which streams personal data in real time, from credit scores, health stats, and sexual compatibility, turning privacy into a relic of the past. 

The story orbits around Lenny Abramov, a middle-aged man working for a life-extension company, who falls in love with Eunice Park, a far younger woman navigating the same collapsing society. As America descends into authoritarianism and media controls intensify, Lenny and Eunie’s relationship is put to the test by both personal differences and the overwhelming pressure of a world where everyone is being watched and judged. With biting humour and a terrifyingly plausible depiction of the future, Gary Shteyngart’s work is one of the best books like The Truman Show for anyone looking for a read about illusion, control, and questioning the systems we live in. 

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

As a child, Kathy lived at Hailsham, a private school in the picturesque English countryside, where the children were sheltered from the world outside. They were brought up to believe that they were special, and that their well-being was crucial not just for themselves, but also for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put that idyllic past behind her; however, when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory. 

And so, Kathy recalls her years growing up inside Hailsham, and the immediate years stepping out and realising the school’s true nature. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, comforted by their isolation. She also hints at the misunderstandings that point to a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. Similar to The Truman Show, Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel, Never Let Me Go, is a philosophical speculative work about three students who slowly uncover the disturbing truth of their existence. 

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Check Out The Best Books Like Never Let Me Go

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The Warehouse – Rob Hart

Paxton never believed he would be working for Cloud, the humongous tech corporation that has swallowed most of the American economy. Much less than he would be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities. But compared to what he’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan office space, and vast warehouses, well, it doesn’t seem so bad. 

Zinnia never thought she would be infiltrating Cloud. But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking everything to expose the company’s darkest secrets. As the truth about Cloud unfolds, Zinnia must gamble everything on a desperate plan, one that risks both hers and Paxton’s lives, even as it forces Paxton to wrestle with everything he thought he knew about his life. Together, they’ll discover just how far this company will go to make the world a better place, in their design, naturally. 

The Unit – Ninni Homqvist

One day in early Spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a plush apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in peace and comfort. Here, women and men over the age of fifty and sixty-five, respectively, without children, are sequestered for their final few years. They are seen as outsiders. 

In the Unit, they are expected to contribute themselves to drug and pharmaceutical testing, and donate their organs, little by little, until their final donation. Despite the ruthlessness of this practice, the ideology of the Unit is one of helping others. Dorrit is prepared to go along with things until she meets and falls in love. One of the best books like The Truman Show, through its exploration of surveillance and control, The Unit follows Dorrit as she must grapple with compliance or escape, and whatever follows on from that.