Novels in which somebody else is running your head. Oldest first.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell, 1949, Secker and Warburg. Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth rewriting old records to agree with whatever the Party is saying now. O'Brien presents himself as a fellow dissident. Winston is arrested, tortured and re-educated until he no longer trusts what he sees.
The Manchurian Candidate
Richard Condon, 1959, McGraw-Hill. A patrol is captured during the Korean War. Raymond Shaw comes home a decorated hero. Major Bennett Marco keeps having the same dream, and works out that Shaw has been programmed to kill on command and remembers none of it afterwards.
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess, 1962, William Heinemann. Alex leads a gang, is jailed for murder, and takes the Ludovico Technique in exchange for early release. The conditioning makes him violently ill whenever he tries to hurt anyone, and also whenever he hears Beethoven.
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin, 1972, Random House. Joanna Eberhart moves to Stepford and finds the wives there strangely content with housework. When her friends Charmaine and Bobbie start behaving the same way, she begins looking into the Men's Association.
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood, 1985, McClelland and Stewart. Governor General's Award 1985, Arthur C. Clarke Award 1987. Offred is assigned to the Commander and Serena Joy because she can still bear children. The state has taken her name, her money, her husband Luke and her daughter.
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005, Faber and Faber. Kathy H. remembers growing up at Hailsham with Ruth and Tommy, at a school where the guardians discourage direct questions. What the three of them are for was decided before any of them were born.
Before I Go to Sleep
S. J. Watson, 2011, Doubleday. CWA John Creasey Dagger 2011. Christine Lucas wakes with no memory of recent years and is told who she is each morning by a man called Ben. She keeps a journal, in secret, with a Dr Nash, and the journal stops matching what Ben tells her.
Lexicon
Max Barry, 2013, Penguin Press. Aurealis Award 2013. Emily Ruff is a sixteen-year-old street hustler recruited into a school where 'poets' learn words that override a person's will. Wil Parke is taken because he walked out of Broken Hill alive after a word killed thousands of people.
The Feed
Nick Clark Windo, 2018, Headline. Tom and Kate Hatfield live wired into a network that connects brains directly. Six years after it collapses, their daughter Bea is taken, and some of the survivors they meet are no longer the people whose bodies they are in.
Tell Me an Ending
Jo Harkin, 2022, Hutchinson Heinemann. Noor works for Nepenthe, a company that deletes memories. Thousands of people are told the firm removed memories they never knowingly asked it to remove. Mei, Oscar, Finn and William each have to decide whether to get theirs back.
Janus Origin: Threads of Control
Daniel A. Riddle, 2025. Paperback ISBN 1068476303, £12.99. Nathan Longton runs a café on the Flag Market in Preston. Lan Nguyen comes in out of the rain wearing a pendant identical to his, and there is a voice giving her instructions she cannot always account for afterwards. Soha Amer, Goodreads, 22 March 2026: 'a psychological sci-fi thriller that blends mind control, identity crisis, and slow-burn romance'.
