Tag Archives: Dystopia

Requiem by Lauren Oliver (Delirium Trilogy)

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Synopsis:
In a world where love is cured by surgery, two former best friends find themselves on opposite sides of a brewing class war.

Review:
I really don’t even know what to say about Requiem. I thought Delirium was a better-than-average entry into the Hunger Games dystopian genre. And I loved Lauren Oliver’s standalone Before I Fall. But this trilogy fizzled out for me. I’m tired of love triangles, team this and team that, and free zones, and teenage girls involved in guerrilla tactics. Nothing about this conclusion felt fresh to me. I wonder how I’d feel re-reading the Uglies trilogy today?

Divergent by Veronica Roth

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Synopsis:
In a world divided into five factions ruled by a defining character trait, a young woman risks excommunication if anyone discovers that she is Divergent–showing tendencies to more than one character trait.

Review:
I initially dismissed Divergent as part of the post-Hunger Games dystopian frenzy and assumed it wouldn’t grip me and enthrall me in quite the same way. I was dead wrong–I actually think Divergent is a better story than HG–at least so far. I felt way more invested in Tris’s dilemma because I didn’t really feel like anyone was protecting her the way that everyone seemed to protect Katniss.

I’m also much more interested in the world created here than in that of Panem because Veronica Roth makes the contrivance of the factions really, really work. This series is a keeper and I’m already reading book 2!

Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation by James Howard Kunstler

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Synopsis:
Kunstler’s latest jeremiad about how America is unprepared for what will happen when we run out of oil.

Review:
It took me forever to finish Too Much Magic because I get so anxious thinking about all of this stuff. I am definitely mindful that I want my girls to learn traditional skills like cooking, sewing, knitting, building, and the like because I just don’t know what kind of future they will inherit. I am definitely a little obsessed with Kunstler and I’m not sure that’s a good thing…

Many thanks to Grove/Atlantic, Inc. for the review copy.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

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Synopsis:
After escaping from the repressive regime seeking to outlaw love, Lena joins the resistance and gets a dangerous assignment.

Review:
Pandemonium definitely suffered from middle book blues. I loved Delirium but I am not confident that the series will end up knocking my socks off. I’ll definitely read the third book whenever it comes out, though!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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Synopsis:
Lena is eagerly anticipating her upcoming surgery to have her ability to love removed–until she falls in love.

Review:
Delirium is part one of a trilogy, so I have to reserve judgement until it’s over. I did really enjoy it and immediately downloaded Pandemonium. I loved Before I Fall and it seems like Lauren Oliver is one of those writers with a million stories inside her. Bring it!

XVI by Julia Karr

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Synopsis:
Nina Oberon doesn’t want to turn 16, when she’ll be tattooed and expected to become sexually active, but a family tragedy puts her in touch with an underground movement to reform society at any cost.

Review:
XVI raises a lot of really fascinating issues with identity, coming of age, the exploitation of women, gender roles, and power. Unfortunately, the plotting really faltered near the end. I gave the sequel, Truth, a try but the plotting in that one was even less inspiring and I gave up.

Ascent by Amy Kinzer (The Party Series, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
Three teens are recruited for an elite leadership training program that will allow them to go back in time and change the moments they regret the most.

Review:
Wow, Ascent is a fantastic deal–only 99 cents for Kindle! You’d think that such a low price would indicate low quality, but that’s hardly the case. Amy Kinzer‘s writing can certainly compete with traditionally published authors of YA dystopian fiction. I hope she’s working on the next book, because I am a big fan!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Synopsis:
When the eccentric creator of the virtual reality world that has become more real than the real world dies without an heir, the nerds of the world race to discover a hidden easter egg that will unlock his fortune.

Review:
So. Fun. Ready Player One was an absolute treat of a book–compulsively readable and fabulously geeky. The hero is Wade, known in the virtual world called OASIS as “Parzival,” a high school student who has dedicated his whole life to hunting for the hidden easter egg within OASIS that will unlock creator James Halliday’s fortune. He wants the fame, the glory, and the money, but he also wants to save OASIS from the “Sixers,” egg hunters controlled by an evil conglomerate that wants to monetize OASIS thereby destroying all that is good about it.

It gets even better. Halliday was an 80s freak, so in order to find the egg everyone has to become experts on all the pop culture from that misbegotten decade. We’re talking WarGames, Adventure, Zork!, D&D, and so much more. I loved all the references, both big (Pac Man) and obscure (The Plimsoulls) and how they were integrated into the world and into the plot. Yum!

Wade is basically living the dream–what if you could actually become a gazillionaire by playing video games all day long? What if you got to step inside and live the game itself? I don’t just mean that your life becomes a game. I mean, instead of typing in the text commands for Zork you’re actually doing them in a virtual reality that is more real than real. That’s what this book gives you, from the POV of a character who isn’t just a gamer.

Wade has all kinds of conflicts to deal with that distract him from the task at hand, and he has to decide which is more important, the real world or OASIS. He’s in love with a girl who insists he can’t love her because they’ve only ever met online. But it seems like the real thing, too, and he spends the book trying to get her to see it his way. All this, and Mechagodzilla, too!

Lest you think this is just a lark, the book also offers some pretty keen commentary on technology today. It’s not for nothing he name checks Cory Doctorow. I was also reminded of Scott Westerfeld’s Extras, another book that seems quite prescient to me.

Dark Parties by Sara Grant

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Synopsis:
In a dystopia under a sealed dome where inbreeding has left everyone looking very similar, one girl looks for the truth about the world outside.

Review:
Dark Parties has a decent enough concept, and is executed well enough, but Neva’s plight didn’t strike a chord with me. Perhaps it was the world-building which felt thin and undercooked.

I love dystopian YA, but am growing fearful that the genre has played out. It’s not enough to have an idea and be able to write. When done well, the results can be spectacular, and I’m pretty much done with giving allowances for an effort that’s good but not great. That said, this book is better than average, and not to be dismissed outright.