Top Ten Books That Would Be On My Syllabus If I Taught YA Dystopia 101
Part Dystopian, a lot Sci-Fi, this series is just great. Cinder remains my favorite of the series, but they are all wonderful and Meyer does a great job of world building. It's just an interesting take about what would happen to a society that is facing a horrible disease and what would the leaders do to fix it.
I loved the concept of this series, a society where the ability to love is surgically removed from the citizens is just a fascinating concept. Unfortunately, I think this is the best book in the series, and it just goes downhill from the first.
Another book that does a great job of world building. It also kept me absolutely riveted and breathless. It's easy to dismiss it as Hunger Games light, but I think it stands up really well on its own. It would be interesting to see a comparison paper evaluating Divergent and the Hunger Games.
One of the champions of dystopia. It's probably the most well known and the gold standard. All other dystopian YA can only wish to have the success as it has had. I once read an interview with a publisher who said they wouldn't even buy dystopia because it just won't be able to compare to this series. I think the entire series was expertly crafted and the story so unique to YA at the time it was published.
Here is the first of the books that has a society that has an instituted caste system. It also has some very interesting paranormal elements. I also kind of love that in this world Women hold the power. It would be interesting to see a comparison of the caste systems between this series and the Selection series.
A very interesting take on a society that's ruled by the military. The paranormal element takes most of the billing and not so much the dystopian society and how the citizens are dealing with the government. Even so, it's a great dystopian book.
I love the idea of this series. Nobody lives past a certain age. I must confess I haven't read the others in the series to see how it ends, but the first book is so strong and it builds such a fantastic world that it would be worth including.
A series I love to hate. I think the most fascinating aspect of this series is the caste system that's in place. The selection process while entertaining is actually less interesting and fascinating than the world that the characters live in. The ramifications of going outside your cast was the best part of this series.
This series gets a lot of grief for being as slow as it is. It's not a fast paced series by any stretch of the imagination. I also was rooting for the other guy at the end. However, why I would pick this book/series is the interesting take on how a society has so severely limited creation of art and beauty. The public only has access to 100 books, songs, etc. This series probably has the most regulated population and it makes it fascinating.
I was actually surprised to see this as being dystopian, but by the definition of dystopia it totally fits. The story is post zombie apocalypse why a small group of survivors that is lead by the church. The entire village has to live by the rules that the church set up. It's a fascinating take on how a group reverts back to the morals and rules of a society that in our current day society have been left in the long distant past.
