5 Reasons Why Dystopian Novels Resonate with Young Adults: A Guest Post

Please welcome to Feed My Need, the fabulous blogger and editor, Debra Johnson!

This guest post is contributed by Debra Johnson, blogger and editor of nanny housekeeper. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: - jdebra84 @ gmail.com.

5 Reasons Why Dystopian Novels Resonate with Young Adults

Dystopian novels have been around for decades, and every few years there is one stand out novel among the rest; however it is just recently that the genre itself has exploded past one best seller at a time, and book after book dissecting different dystopian societies have been published and devoured by young adults everywhere. The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Mockingjay are all stand-out examples of this obsession that young adults have with dystopian societies. So what is it about these novels that make them so widely appealing to young adults?

1. Young adults identify with the discord. As people enter the young adult phase of their lives they are just beginning to understand the confusion and discord in our society. Before entering young adulthood they saw the world through rose-tinted glasses, relying on parents to make decisions for them and trusting that everything would work out. Now they are finally forced to make their own decisions regarding life and are beginning to understand that everything isn’t as black and white as they previously thought.



2. The heroes are almost always teenagers. The protagonist in all of the popular dystopian novels is almost always a teenager who is on the brink of entering adulthood and is forced to grow up much too quickly. Young adults are also teenagers on the brink of adulthood, or adults who have just left the realm of being a teenager, and it is easy for people within that age group to intensely identify with the struggles the protagonist encounters.



3. Dystopian novels force big questions. Every dystopian novel forces the reader to ask themselves really big questions: what would you do for freedom? Would you blindly follow society or are you willing to question the general public’s beliefs? Does society really have your best interests at heart? What is the bigger picture? These, and many other deep questions, are the root of these novels, and are questions that young adults are just beginning to encounter in their real lives.



4. Dystopian societies are always intensely monitored. This is in direct correlation to the world we currently live in, where we never know who is actually monitoring our movements and tracking what we do. In each dystopian novel there is always someone who is keeping a very close eye on what is happening within the society and is pulling the strings to spur events.



5. The protagonists always take the road young adults want to take. The protagonist in the popular dystopian societies always rebels against what is expected from the people in charge, bucking against expectations and forging her own path. This stance against conformity is one that many young adults yearn to take, and they are able to live vicariously through the characters as they read these novels.

Dystopian novels offer young adults more than just a good romance or a thrilling mystery; they offer the idea that you can be different and that you can change the world. It is this very idea that makes them so vastly appealing to young adults everywhere.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Blurb

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

My Thoughts:

I have to say, I didn't fall head over heels with this book. 

I know! So surprising, right? 

The cover is gorgeous, the blurb is interested and yet . . . I couldn't get into it.

Why?

Well, let's break this down.

Plot: To me, this was predicable. I mean, I won't ruin it for y'all but I could see what would happen. It reminds me of an old romance book actually. In fact, I know which one it reminds me of.

Luxe is basically a YA romance novel which takes place in the 1800s. I read this book thinking the same thing, beautiful cover, historical YA fiction. It should be a match made in heaven.

Apparently not.

I didn't even finish the book because I knew what was going to happen.

Maybe because the whole, distressed wife and distressed servant escape together plot is just plain ol' worn out. And everybody KNOWS how it's going to end.

I mean, I know it's a classic and that it's very realistic, but I just can't stand reading an old plot. Even if you put it in a new spin on it (i.e. new setting) I still know what's going to happen. I already know that it has been done. There are only so many ways you can beat a dead horse. Especially when it has been done SO many times.

Anyway, that's what I thought about the plot.

Characters: I did LOVE the characters. Especially the sister wives, Cecily, and the other two. Yeah, sorry, I can't remember their names. I know Gabriel's name, since his name is so ironic. But I'm not even going to touch that. Anyway, I loved the characters. I could identify with all of them.

Rhine! That's her name! Yeah, I liked her. Such a fighter. I love strong female lead character and she certainly had the spunk. Not enough to make me want to cheer and say she kicks ass, because she doesn't. But she did have some spunk and I like that. She was stubborn and determined. Not to mention smart.

But yeah, love the characters! There seemed to be a bigger lesson

Dialogue: It was realistic. The emotions were real from the characters in the dialogue. I bought it.

Setting: I loved the setting but the world she created wasn't very realistic.

Um, America is the only continent left after World War 3? That would never happen! We would be the first one blown to bits. I may love America and all (we are on a love/hate relationship right now) but we have a lot of enemies.

But I think DeStefano is actually pulling our leg on that one and that Americans THINK they are the only ones left but in actuality, the world is still alive and kicking.

One can only hope since if that's not the case, then someone is very ethnocentric.

Ending: Realistic and boring. Sorry, but like I said earlier, I knew what was going to happen, how it was going to happen and blah blah blah. I just wasn't into it.

I almost didn't finish it. I contemplated leaving the book.

But I didn't.

Luckily for the author, I wanted to escape reality for a few hours, so yeah.

Anyway, let's get to the final question: Would I recommend this book?

I wouldn't recommend this book to younger readers. There are A LOT of adult situations that the author mentions that 14 year olds shouldn't know about. I think the youngest the reader should go is like 15-16 year old.

But in general? I would. But with slight hesistation hoping that they will like it more then I did.

I just didn't fall in love with it.

But you know which book I'm falling for head over heels right now?!



Ahh, yes, I HEART this book right now. So dark. So haunting. So lovely. I love it! I miss this author so much that I almost cried. She writes just for me. I just know it!

:)

Anyway, I'm going to head back to Dia Reeves and hopefully, I'll have this book reviewed along with one other book.

Oh, I almost forgot!!

Are y'all on LibraryThing?!

Do you want Everblossom: A Short Story and Poetry Anthology for free?!

*head nods*

Good! Check out my book here for free!!!

http://www.librarything.com/er/giveaway/list

Don't you just love me?

:D I can tell!! And with that, I bid you good reading! 

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Blurb:

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee — whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not — stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden — a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

My Thoughts:

This book really surprised me. You would think as an English teacher some things would drive me crazy. Like the run-on sentences, the lack of spelling correctly, and the whole lack of punctuation but you know what?

I loved every flipping minute of it.

Another oddity: This book is a futuristic science fiction novel.

And I still loved it. Every bit of it.

I was sitting on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book, waiting to see what happens next, waiting to see what other problem will come up next and not for one minute did I think that this book was boring.

Which is saying a lot because I like challenging novels to my brain anyway.

But omg, it was fantastic. And I didn't want it to end. It was just a surprisingly beautifully written novel. And I loved the suspense! I was literally hanging on the edge of my seat and never knew what was coming next.

The characters were great too. Believable. Real. Thoughtful. And identifiable. I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say there was something in the book for everyone. Even if it doesn't seem that way at first especially with a 12 year old boy as the main character.

I was like, "It's a boy? And I'm suppose to identify with him?" But I did. Even though he was a bit younger then me, all you have to do is flip the number around and tada!, but I really felt his emotions. His pain. His hurt. His hunger.

Oh, that reminds me: This book is a little bit bloody. I wouldn't say it would make anybody squeamish, but just as a warning. It didn't bother me. I guess because we could all see it coming and because I sorta write stuff like that so it didn't bother me. Plus it's in the title, and sorta a symbol played with throughout the novel.

Can someone say essay? :) My poor future students, lol.

Anyway, the plot was really good. Where the author left it made me scream NOOOOO! I definitely wanted more of that, but it clearly says on the book cover Chaos Walking Book One, so that gives me hope!

It was the perfect ending. I have to say. If it was available in the bookstore, I would have bought it right then and there. I have to admire the way he ended it from a writer's perspective. It was just perfect.

Um, what else? The setting threw me for a loop. At first, I thought we were on planet earth like hundreds of years ago because of the whole New World thing. But interestingly enough, it was really a whole new world. Alien world. Not on earth! So once I got that straight, I understood why everyone could hear people's thoughts and all of that stuff. And why there were two moons.

Dialogue was believable. Everything was just perfect. Even the teacher/perfectionist inside me didn't even realize all of the mistakes and stuff until like the end of the book!

I know, right?! You would think my attenas would have gone off, but it didn't. I guess because Patrick Ness did it on purpose. :)

But I will have to warn writers right now: Just because Patrick Ness broke the rules, doesn't automatically mean the rules aren't valid.

What do I mean?

Well, it means that you have to be an EXPERIENCED writer to do this correctly and effectively like Patrick Ness did it. Plus, newbie writers, you must know the rules before you can break them. So learn the rules first, then get a couple of books under your belt (get them read through and stuff) then break the rules.

I know I broke quite a few in Angel Diaries. :) Ah, I love it!

Anyway, main question: Would I recommend this book?

To anybody who can value a really great book, HECK YES! Science fiction lovers tired of the machines taking over theme, HECK YES! With anybody with a pulse, HECK YES!

It's an awesome book that I'm so glad I took the time to pick up and read. I will be buying this book for my classroom library. I know if I love it, I know another student will. I was a bit worried about the age group since the main character is a little young, but I think it'll appeal to them. Besides, I put Bruce Coville in my classroom library, and I know he's really connected to middle school readers. So why not?

So I would definitely give this book a chance. Even for people who don't read science fiction (like I am), I think you will flip the switch and start loving science fiction.

If this is what science fiction is about, then I'm totally in!

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Well, it is your lucky day! Another book review!

Summary:

Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.
Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.

But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires.
Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.
Faerie intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning 21^st century faery tale.

My Thoughts:

     When I first heard all of the good reviews, saw the fantastic cover and read the blurb I was confident that I would fall deeply in love with the book like I did with Nightshade. However, I did not. The prologue was great, caught my attention and then I kept reading and I slowly but surely got annoyed with the author. It wasn't the characters. I loved Aislinn and her boyfriend. I liked Keenan even though he got on my nerves at times and I could relate to Dora, I think her name was, she was the girl in the beginning who thought she was meant to be the Summer Queen but turned out not to be and got the Queen's Winter frost. Maybe that was the problem. The prologue started off with a side character and not the most important character in my opinion was Aislinn. It seemed like Melissa Marr was so focused with developing the faery world and didn't focus on the main character, Aislinn. She kept flipping between all three characters. I think she was trying to focus on all three characters and make them into main characters but it didn't work.

     Why? Because her focus was mostly on Dora who wasn't the main character, it was Aislinn. It seemed like we got maybe a fourth of the book dedicated to Aislinn and the rest of the chapters dealt with Keenan and Dora. I wanted more of Aislinn and unfortunately I didn't get that. Other than that, I didn't have any issues with the book. I liked the plot and the characters but I had some problems about the way she went about protraying the different points of view.

     Since I didn't like the way she did the first book, I thought I would give her another chance with her other books.

  

      Okay, so there's a funny story with this. For the first time, I think ever, in my reading career I read the series out of order. I started off with Fragile Eternity which I understood most of it but I was a bit confused, of course, about happened. When I found out that I skipped a novel, I laughed. I can't recall the last time I did that. So I returned Fragile Eternity to the library (thanks Hampton Public Library!) and got Ink Exchange. Now when I started reading this book I was doubly confused. Who the hell was Leslie and what happened to Aislinn?! I was furious. I think that was my breaking point with Melissa Marr.

      I understand that she is a fabulous writer but introducing a whole new set of characters and not even considering the reader's attachment to the previous set really ticked me off. I know she didn't do it on purpose, but I had it. I really did. I really tried to trudge through it to be a trooper. The inner reader tried to convince me that there was some mysterious master plan behind her reasoning of leaving out Aislinn but by the time I reached like page 50, I stopped. I stopped picking up the book when I had spare time and started thinking about my plot to my books and thinking of grocery lists instead. That is like the kiss of death to books.

   Despite all of this, I decided to give her one final try.

Now someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but Melissa Marr gave a good review for this book, so I thought to give a chance.

To say Matched was not my cup of tea is an understatement. Basically this book about a future dysopian soceity where the main character, Cassia, figures out that it's not all perfect as it seems.

Now what didn't I like about this book? I think the writing showed a glimmer of talent, but it just lacked some sort of refinement or something to grab me. The beginning was okay but it was misleading. It seemed like she was flying and I was like cool, she's some sort of winged creature. I can get down with that. I'm currently editing my book, Angel Diaries, so obviously I would relate to that. Um no. She was dreaming that she was flying which is just sort of cliche. To start of with a dream. But I shook it off my disappointment and continued on anyway.

I then drudged through the author describing the dress, the scenery and just going on and on without actually getting into the action. The main character was just walking to the event and the author took her sweet time, or at least it felt like it, to get to the actual event. Then when she did get to it, I was a little curious about what was happened. So I continued on. Another thing happened that was interesting but not like YOU MUST KEEP READING sorta thing. So I continued on. But then nothing else happened. It just got depressing when her grandfather was going to his killing ceremony and that's when I put my foot down. I didn't want a book to make me sad unless there was a point. It didn't seem like there was a specific reason to it and it was making me just depressed so I just decided to stop there.

I know there are probably people out there who absolutely loved the book and I'm fine with that. Please enjoy books. However, for me Matched was just not well written, not enough action and just not enough magic flavoring or spice or anything to just force me to read on.

Now moving on to happy news! I do have other recommendations:

 

I know this author's writing doesn't come close to Melissa Marr's but there is a difference: Consistency. I loved the consistency and the plot and the characters in this book. I loved the fact that we are slowly introduced to the fairy world and to all of its component (later on in the series of course) right along with the main character and the science behind it as well (not too sciency like Kathy Reichs or Patricia Cornwell. Just the basics). I also love the way Aprilynne Pike flips the idea of what a fairy is on its head. I love what she has done with the legend. I also loved how she showed the conflict of what the main character, Laurel, could be in both worlds. Like two halves of a whole slowly coming apart or trying to compromise one side of herself with another. I just simply loved how Aprilynne Pike started off simple and slowly layered it and showed off her talents. Additionally, Stephenie Meyer recommended it. Enough said on that, huh?



I guess you know by looking at it that this is not a fairy book. It's not. I haven't read a lot of fairy books hence the reason why I can't really recommend a lot of them. I've been meaning to read more of them, but lost track of time. Anyway, this is an awesome book nonetheless and got me hooked onto zombies. Yeah, that's right, zombies. Even though it's not like the typical zombie and it's not the apocalypse. Sort of. Let me explain. Basically, this starts on a normal day during this current day and age except teens are starting to come back from the grave. This phenomenon only occurs in America with teenagers. There were many theories as to why this has happened but nothing has been found why. Anyway, there are three main characters: Adam, Phoebe, and the other guy who's name is escaping me. The conflict starts when Phoebe starts to date the living impaired/differently biotic/zombie named Tommy Williams. A lot of people do not approve of these differently biotic people and are actually out there to destroy them because 'they are abonimations' of sorts and the media is keeping it under wraps about how many zombies are being murdered.

Sorry I'm just blabbing on and on about this book. I could really keep going on all day about how much I love this book, how much I love the deeper meaning to this book and how it can relate to not just the past but to the present time . . .  And yet I'm still blabbing! :D Excuse my ranting and excessive praise of this book, I will really move on this time.

Last one:

Gorge cover! I just love looking at it! *sighs* Anyway, love love love this book. Basically, this is a young adult fantasy about this young girl Hanna who flees from her aunt who she smashed with a lamp to her mother who she has never known in Texas. Btw, she's manic depressive hence the mood swings and hitting her aunt with a lamp. And she only wears purple hence the cover and the title. She's also African American and Finnish. So high score on the main character being biracial and not being confused. Not to mention that there aren't many women of color in the young adult fantasy section. So double high five. Anyway, she moves to Texas, meets her mother, lives with her mother, and goes to school.

The first day lets her know that this school is not an average high school. I don't know if I could describe it accurately but in baby terms there are creatures and demons that attack the school and this group that wears all green tries to keep them from attacking it. It's really an interesting and fascinating read and I would highly recommend it. I wish I could describe it better, but I would like to say that this book is for an older crowd since there are some graphic scenes. Not like sex but like bloody. Especially near the end. Anyway, great book!

Has anyone else read Wicked Lovely and loved it? Or read the whole series and loved it? What about Matched? I would love to hear comments about these books and about any other fairy books that can be recommended reading. I know I want to read like Tithe by Holly Black and The Faery Path by Frewin Jones. Thanks in advance!