Archive for Dystopia

Crossed (Matched #2) by Allie Condie

April 10, 2012 · Filed under Condie Allie, Dystopia, YA Fiction

This was totally not as good as the first-falling prey to middle book in dystopian trilogy syndrome–it’s the dark times of sort of escaping, figuring out where you’re going, who to ally with, and I pretty much didn’t even care about these characters crossing through a big canyon and wondering whether they’d make it to the resistance.

I’m sure I’ll read book #3, but I definitely didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first. To remind my future self-this is the series with Cassia and Ky and Xander.  Cassia and Xander have been “matched”, but first Cassia saw Ky-an error the government said was just a fluke.  She’s since learned that there is a resistance to the government.  This volume seemed to do a lot with the love triangle aspect of the story, which I honestly didn’t care about!

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Matched by Ally Condie, Delirium by Lauren Oliver

January 4, 2012 · Filed under Condie Allie, Dystopia, Oliver Lauren, YA Fiction

[Caveat: I'm trying to make good on my New Year's Resolution and get caught up to speed on this blog. That means I'm writing about books I read months ago, my memory might be spotty, and I'm just going to jot down a few sentences.  In this particular case I'm really wishing I hadn't procrastinated because at the time I read this I wanted to also write about Delirium and compare and contrast. Let's see what I can do...]

I read Matched and Delirium within 2 weeks of each other and there is was no way to read the second without comparing it to the first as they both have such ridiculously similar plots.  In Matched society matches up a boy and a girl who are perfectly chosen for each other.  The couple then have a prescribed courtship, marriage, and children.  It’s very determined, no choice, but people are happy with it-much like in The Giver.  But then Cassia has a blip during her ceremony where she is shown another face other than her chosen partner.  Strange things happen after that, including falling for that boy.  In Delirium the world considers love a disease and when you reach a certain age you can be cured.  Everyone hopes they don’t fall in love before the cure is able to be administered, but alas for Lena she falls in love shortly before her time.

Both stories have societies that try to control human emotions and the population, both have underground movements resisting that control, both have main characters who inadvertently fall in love, and both are clearly just the first in a series.  I preferred Matched, though I did really like Delirium. I was really interested in how the premise was so similar but the worlds were so very different (I found that sentence from an email I’d written at the time of reading-now, months later, I cannot be more specific about how they were different!)

Definitely both series I’ll be continuing to read.

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Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

August 24, 2010 · Filed under Collins Suzanne, Dystopia, YA Fiction

I probably should have savored this and made it last a few days, instead of reading the entire thing the day it came out. But I am not good at moderation.  I would not want to give anything away so I’ll just say that I really liked it, found it exciting and very satisfying. What a fantastic trilogy (Hunger Games, Catching Fire.)

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The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

February 27, 2010 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Homqvist Ninni

dispensible

I do love a good dystopian novel, so when I read about this one I had to get my hands on it.  The trouble with them, though, is that they get me so wound up, and this one is particularly emotionally hard hitting.  In this future the world seems pretty much as now, except socially (so, no crazy technology or robot overlords or anything like that.)  In this world there is a strange blend of mandated gender equality (women must not be dependent on men, both men and women must work, children must be in daycare, men must not do heavy work for women) and a value on having a partner and children that is so high it outvalues anything else.

When women turn 50 (men, 60) if they do not have a “needed” career and do not have children they are deemed “dispensible” and sent to the Unit.  This is the name for the Reserve Bank of Biological Material, or, as one of the characters calls it, a “luxury slaughterhouse.”  Here the dispensibles live in luxury, with every need met.  They are very well taken care of because they are very valuable.  They are used for research experiments (psychological and physical) and as organ donors.  Most people start out by giving a kidney and then more and more of them is given away.  The final donation is the heart and lungs.  The dispensibles live in these strange circumstances for a few years at most.  Everyone knows it is only a matter of time until they are dead, but until then they all find ways to live fully.

When Dorrit arrives she is told at her orientation that most people there feel that they finally fit in.  This turns out to be quite true.  At 50 Dorrit has a close circle of friends and is surrounded by love.  It is absolutely heart wrenching to read about Dorrit falling in love, knowing that her life is considered dispensible simply because she didn’t reproduce. The notion that your life is only valuable if you have a child is absurd, clearly, but it is really interesting how Dorrit explains how it gradually came about.  That most of the people there are intellectuals or artistic also says something about the kinds of people this future society values.

I found this a really emotional novel- reading Dorrit’s beautiful love story, her rage at the injustice of her society, her grief for dog (of course this stood out to me!), it was just all really well put together.  And by the way, this is a Swedish novel and translated really well.  I thought it was written originally in English, actually.

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Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

October 29, 2009 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Fforde Jasper

fforde(First of all, I hate it that I efficiently wrote this on the airplane on Sunday and today is Wednesday and it’s the first chance I’ve had to efficiently copy and paste my write up here. Gah!)

 

(coming out in January 2010)

Jasper Fforde’s style is quirky and odd, funny, and richly literary.  Or, if not literary exactly, it assumes its readers are, well, readers.  I loved the Thursday Next books and the enjoyed the Nursery Crime ones as well, and so was delighted to get an advance reading copy of his newest venture, Shades of Grey.  This is apparently the first of three projected novels.  The style was very much like Thursday Next-kind of confusing and nonsensical and you just have to give yourself up to it and go along for the ride. And not try to figure anything out.  Like Thursday Next this is set in an alternate world with crazy societal rules and regulations.  Unlike Thursday Next it is a bit more sinister, a futuristic (but backward) dystopia.

Edward Russett is a Red.  In this world everything is ruled by color.  It forms the basis for a caste system which places greys at the worker bees who are good for nothings, and the reds, blues, and yellows as the highest ups.  A system of merits and demerits rules what people are allowed to do and also controls who might marry whom.  Edward doesn’t expect too much from his life except to hopefully marry Constance Oxblood, which would be a very beneficial match to both of their families.  But then he and his father get sent to East Carmine, which is a settlement near the Outer Fringes.  There Edward meets a Grey, Jane, who opens his eyes to the fact that their chroma-society might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

There are all kinds of weird and wonderful thnigs populating this world: swans that attack people and are feared as vicious beasts, giraffes roaming as freely as feral cats, giant trees that gobble up people like some sort of combination Whomper-Venus Flytrap.

I really enjoyed the wordplay in this, such as the fact that everyone’s surnames are a shade of the color family they are in (Oh and what color you are is determined by what color you can see. That’s right, a Red can see red but not really the other colors.)  The Greys don’t get different surnames other than Grey and some of the characters we meet are Jane, Zane, and Dorian, so that’s pretty funny.  This whole concept of colors being the foundation of the society and some being considered more valuable than others reminded me a bit of Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry.  Another thing about this world is that when night falls everyone stays inside.  To venture into the inky darkness means you will likely succumb to Nightloss and be gone forever.  This terrifying darkness outside the town reminded me very much of City of Ember, by Jean DuPre.  Thinking about these comparisons, as well as other novels I’ve read, it seems that a tool of those in power in any dystopia is Fear.  Fear of the unknown, fear of real or imaginary (but told they are real) threats or creatures, these are the things that keep the masses in line and ignorant.

Overall, a great new venture for Fforde.

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Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

September 19, 2009 · Filed under Collins Suzanne, Dystopia, Science Fiction, YA Fiction

fireOne of the most hotly anticipated YA novels of the fall, this is the sequel to last summer’s Hunger Games (actually it is the second in a projected trilogy.) It lived up to the high standard of dystopian shock and thrilling supsense that the author set in the first novel. There is definitely some unpleasant violence, as in the first one, too.

I really don’t want to say too much about the content of it because I was lucky enough to read it without knowing anything except that it was the next book and thus I was delightfully surprised and shocked by everything.  So I’ll just say that it is well paced for a trilogy (and don’t you dare do one more after that because then it will just drag on and not wrap up well), lots of the same characters return, and it was very exciting. I read this very quickly because it was hard to put down. I sort of liken it to The Empire Strikes Back in that the first one the rebels have success, the second one is dark but meaty and really intensifies the story. So let’s hope the third book, out next year I believe, wraps things up with the good guys winning. But no Ewoks, please.

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Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

August 5, 2008 · Filed under Collins Suzanne, Dystopia, YA Fiction

I picked this up at ALA and there was already a buzz about this book.  Let tell you the briefest bit about it and see how intrigued you are….

In a future world in the area we know now as Appalachia, two children from each of twelve districts are chosen to participate in the “Hunger Games”.  These 24 are sent to an outdoor arena.  Only one can be the winner.  Everyone else must die. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Goodness Gene by Sonia Levitin

March 26, 2008 · Filed under Dystopia, Levitin Sonia, YA Fiction

goodness.jpgOne of my favorite YA books, and favorite books to booktalk, is The Cure by Sonia Levitin. It’s a powerful combination of dystopia story and historical fiction. This newest (well, new to me, I didn’t realize it had come out) novel is similar to a pretty astonishing degree, however there are some good twists that make this a completely different story with a similar message (future utopias don’t work! homogenous society doesn’t work! individuality is good and precious!).

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Extras by Scott Westerfeld

November 1, 2007 · Filed under Dystopia, YA Fiction

Not content to leave his Uglies trilogy a true trilogy, Westerfeld has come out with a fourth book.  And what a good decision that was!  I was so pleased that he found a way to continue his dystopian story without having it be a repeat of the first three books.

In this volume a few years have passed since the dramatic conclusion of Specials.  The setting is different (it becomes evident that this story is in a city in Japan), as are the characters. (Tally Youngblood and her friends do appear, but not until at least halfway through the story.)  What is so interesting about this story is the very obvious parallels to our society today.  In this city people have the skin surges and unusual appearances of Tally’s time, including drastic technological surgeries.  Most people have something on their eyes that is like a built in computer screen, hooked up to a vast internet.  The main character (I forgot her name!) aspires to be a “kicker”, posting stories on feeds for the masses to read.  The more you are read the more popular you are and the higher your face rank.  Popularity is the currency of their city.  It is so clearly blogging that it makes you feel a little uncomfortable seeing a possible future.

This was another riveting exciting futuristic adventure from Westerfeld.  I’d have more to say but the truth is I started reading this a couple weeks ago and finished reading it while in the hospital having my baby.  Since then there hasn’t been much reading/blogging going on and it is not as fresh in my mind.

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The Silenced by James Devita

October 2, 2007 · Filed under Devita James, Dystopia, YA Fiction

silenced.jpgThis is a giant novel, but actually a fast read (in part because the story is quick and compelling, and in part because they printed it with humongous margins.) This new YA novel falls into the category of dystopian novel, a genre I like (at least in YA lit). As a consequence of having read a bunch of these novels I couldn’t help but compare The Silenced to many other books. Or at least, to be reminded of other similar novels.

Marena lives in a world where the ZTs, or Zero Tolerance party, rules everything. There is to be no deviation, no differences, no original thought. In fact, writing implements and paper are even banned. Only her father is alive because her mother was a “traitor” and “neutralized”, along with thousands of others during the Millennium War. Although details are sketchy, it’s clear that the ZTs took over the U.S. and did a mass eradication of those who dared speak out against them. Now, Marena and thousands of others like her live in community with strict security and attend school for the sole purpose of being “readapted” and made to conform to the ZT way. It’s a chilling world and you can’t help but wonder how anyone in it bears to continue being alive. There is no art or music, nothing to set individuals apart from one another and certainly no civil or individual liberties. Marena knows that this isn’t right and that her mother died trying to stand up to this horrible regime and so she decides to begin her own resistance, called the “white rose.”

As a dystopian novel it’s fairly standard. Once you’ve read one you can expect that at some point there will be double crossing, that Marena will build up her resistance, there will be a frightening moment of being caught, and there will be lots of incidents of wondering who can really be trusted. And yet, I still really liked this and found it exciting and thought provoking.

Interestingly, when I read it I thought of all the futuristic dystopian novels I’ve read: The Hermit Thrush Sings, The Cure, The Giver, etc. But when I read the author’s note at the end I learned that he was basing this novel on the Nazi movement (especially the youth recruitment) and the resistance efforts of Sophie Scholl. This, and the fact that he uses words and phrases that have recently entered our own language, such as “redaptation”, make this novel much less futuristic sci-fi world and much more horrifying realistic possibility if we don’t diligently fight for free speech and civil liberties. The mockeries made of trials were especially chilling.

This book will hopefully find its way into classroom discussions. There was so much to think about in it, plus it’s a great tie-in to the Nazi regime. This was a very powerful book, as well as a great story.

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