ranking teen dystopians on how ridiculous their futuristic societies are
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- Опубликовано: 9 дек 2023
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today we are looking back at all the dystopian young adult books from the hunger games era, and rank them based on how ridiculous their dystopian societies were! im also exposing my horrible teenage writing projects
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Hi! My name is Leonie and I am a 25 year old girl from the Netherlands who loves talking about books! From YA to non-fiction to classics, I read it all (although fantasy will always be my fave).
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Want more? A few months ago I made a comprehensive retrospective on the YA dystopian book era! Watch here:
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Can you read the Legend of the Galactic Heroes book novel?
@@nobodyatall6814. Oooook I. I Oo o. Ok Oo. I’m😊I.😊 j j no j😊 I’m😊o😊😊k😊 n😊😊😊 Oo
Toe ek tiener was, het ek 'n wêreld opgemaak waarin ek 'n Pa was, wat 'n skool moes veilig hou. Die wêreld was gesit in 'n Zombie Apokaliptiese Wêreld waarin ek en my fiktiewe gesin moet oorleef. Dit was altyd rof gewees.
You forgot about "The Testing" series
BABE! IM A SCORPIO… NAMED LEO!
I know that the black parade story was ridiculous, but the line “there were four mattresses, three girls, and one corpse,” is metal as hell. English student approved.
no fr. That line hits
It feels almost Dickensian.
No I was literally gagged
Most definitely a compelling opening.
Seriously!! It’s a dang good hook!!
When i was 13 i wrote a story literally titled "utopia" (because it was a dystopia and i thought i was sooo smart) where people weren't allowed to talk to eachother because the people would start to think and learn and reach the conclusion that the government was bad???? Anyways my protagonist was only allowed to talk to her virtual assistant but then one day she says fuck it and doesn't go to work and finds a guy near a lake and (oh my god!) they talk to eachother and the government kills them instantly. The end.
Oh, I died. Lol
But that COULD work as a short story with.
Ngl that could work as a short story about how atomized our society is getting.
I think you should keep writing it
unironically more compelling of a premise than most YA dystopias
kinda reminds me of the giver 😂 (their rule was no emotions)
I think the real magic of The Giver is *how* it reveals the world’s lack of color. The protagonist of the book has a difficult time explaining *why* he’s seeing things differently, why an apple suddenly “changes” in ways he can’t describe, before eventually being told: “this is *red.* this is a *color.”* It’s something we as readers don’t even consider at first; books being an inherently non-visual medium means our imagination fills in the gaps, and the images we create in our minds are close approximations of our perception of the world and how we sense it, which naturally includes color. Lowry specifically preys on this intuition by revealing that a visual element intrinsically linked to the world around us has been missing the whole time. It’s an honestly brilliant twist, something that can only be properly conveyed through a text-only medium.
That's very insightful.
Yeah it’s why the movie didn’t work. The Giver is a story that really only works as a textual medium
My friend spoiled it for me. No hate or nothing he could just be uncharacteristically dumb at times
“THEY’RE COLORBLIND!?”
-me
frrr i was thinking it was some platos allegory of the cave type shit and the protagonist was seeing into the world of forms or something and then the reveal happened and i genuinely felt like my entire world had been rocked to its core.
There was this book i read in high school called Unwind . It was a trip. Dont like your kid? Give them to the government to recycle their body parts. Orphan never got adopted and not yet 18? Recycle them.
So needless to say, the main character runs away when his parents try to put him out to the curb for recycling, and then he meets all these other run aways in hopes of escaping their fate.
There was this one scene where one of the teens got captured and the book explained how the harvesting is completed via the teens POV.
yoooo i remember that!!!! and there was this like urban legend that the parents of a kid who got unwound were trying to get all the pieces of their son back together and the sons name was Humphrey Dunfee. that shit was WILD.
Unwind was so much darker than I expected. It went so hard and that recycling chapter from the teen's perspective was absolutely horrific. It just was nowhere near as light as most of these stories end up being. Something awful would come up and the story would just lean into it. I enjoyed it but it was a genuinely rough read.
yeah it was DISTURBING
i do have some critiques about certain aspects of the plot but i love how there was such a clear message about government propaganda in media and how they manipulated people into being fine with this obviously horrific thing, or at least not caring enough to do anything about it. i've seen some people say it's supposedly about abortion but i always saw it as more like... a commentary on how we as a society justify "necessary evils" for the "greater good" of everyone (who is priviledged enough that they don't need to worry about being a target of those evils), and how thoroughly the media can be used to control what people see and believe
@@ezdispenser i understand and agree with your interpretation, but i do wanna quickly correct that it absolutely IS about abortion- a war between pro-lifers and pro-choicers is how the "unwinding" system was put into place. it was the compromise/agreement from both sides, and it somewhat covers some of the main points you hear about abortions? for example, you often hear "what if the fetus grows up to cure cancer!!!" from pro-lifers. the book incorporates that by making the age range for being unwound to be between 13 and 17, where it could be argued that you know by then what kind of person that kid will grow up to become. delinquent children and foster children who weren't "skilled" enough in something would be unwound, and that plot point/world building leads into a commentary on capitalism and what your place in society is if it doesn't deem you "useful" enough. there is way more i can say but i'll leave it here for now lol. as dark as it is, i really enjoyed reading it and it brought up such interesting critiques/commentary about our society
I really enjoyed the books
being a scientist has ruined so many dystopian stories for me like where is your pretest? did you not have this preregistered and peer-reviewed? HOW DID THIS PASS THE ETHICS COMMISSION???
As another scientist, I completely agree, but it makes more sense to me now that I see the "science" Elon Musk is doing lol
@@TabooTalzthe beginning of this year I actually wrote a 2 page parody story for my brother where the world is a tyrannical AI-run dystopia and the protag looking for the "kill code" finds an old Elon Musk living in a cabin on a mountain somewhere and proceeds to go on the classic monologue about how he knew that AI was becoming evil but he couldn't stop it because it was his greatest creation etc etc complete with staring regretfully into the middle distance
And who's funding all this weird fringe research, where did they get their grants and how can I apply for them?
The real dystopia is the fact that the ethics committee got disbanded
@@thepoetesskhansaaDamn I feel sorry for your poor brother
I love that writing your own dystopian book after reading The Hunger Games was an integral part of girlhood for so many teenage girls
When I was was a teenage girl I legit read Brave New World and 1984 but never the hunger games XD no wonder gifted kids are messed up TwT
In 6th grade I wrote a 176 page Hunger Games fanfic. 176. 😭😭
Dang, I must have arrived at girlhood too late.
@b4tman_and_Rob1n I mean... some can be messed up, but so far from what I've seen extremely gifted ones, that stand out from even the smarter ones, are fine- actually more positive and outgoing than average based on my personal experience. If you think about it most are born from smart parents and intelligence means getting high paying jobs. Money means better quality of life. Therefore their children generally don't have to suffer f'ed up living conditions like living in cold, mouldy slums or having jobless and drunk abusive parents. I think this means gifted kids from a wealthy upbringing gets a general bare minimum of 'messed up'. A lot of children suffer greatly, living through unimaginable pain every day. I'm not preaching at ALL but it sounds like it suddenly lmao. Sorry.
Also that idk if it's just in my culture but people prefer positivity over sulking so smart ones build their image PURPOSEFULLY as a positive one. I've seen one very quick-witted girl use her sexuality and practice a bubbly personality, almost erring to a dumb blonde, because usually she was so cunning, calculative and logic based that with that image people would go crazy with jealousy and hatred. She excelled in mathematics and literature.
@@b4tman_and_Rob1n whoop oh lol i just ranted i gotta get some sleep lmao
3:13 Re: Divergent - so it's a world ruled by the people who make those "which Disney Princess are you" personality quizzes on the Internet?
💀💀💀💀💀
the parents started it hundreds of years before by genetically engineering their children
Pretty much yeah
That's probably my fav oversimplification of the books 😂
It reads like a parodic take on those ppl who make their MBTI results or Hogwarts House their whole personality
I've only read the first few chapters of The Giver, but it was like the creepiest dystopia I've ever read about. Parents get selected to be together by the government, and they raise 2 randomly selected children that they don't get to name themselves that are given birth to by randomly selected women. The government also spies on you your entire childhood so they can give you a mandated job when you become an adult, which in this world is at like 13, which is also the age that most kids there have to start taking a pill to repress all attraction. Also, if you screw up bad enough and break one of the 'rules', you get exiled forever.
spoilers below
and by ”exiled” they mean killed
the giver is so great but reading the other books in the quartet makes it even better. (somehow lol)
@@ripoffflowey4884Yes! A lot of people don’t even know about the other three books, and I wish they did, especially since the end of the first one is so unresolved.
@@ripoffflowey4884wait there’s more to the giver’s world? Damn I got stuff to dig for
@@edymac2883I read the second book and regreted it. The Giver has one of those better open endings where the point isn’t lost by the open ending.
I think a lot of dystopians fell flat because they stopped being a comment on how bad modern day society can get. Like the hunger games was a commentary of how humans choose not to pay attention to the atrocities going on around them, especially if it doesn't impact you personally. The Uglies series comments on beauty standards and even touches on things like eating disorders and self harm. The Giver comments on how becoming disconnected from emotions and each other leads to a fake utopia where everyone gets along and is numb, therefore "happy." But then you have newer dystopias like Divergent that have really no true meaning behind it. It's about a 16 year old girl who is special in a futuristic world for no reason than she has to be in order to drive the plot forward.
I mean... the selection is like the hunger games meets the bachelor, when I read i was really interested in the class system, mostly because i felt real, the idea that you are born into this class and there is very little chance to move up to a better condition. the selection itself is a reality show to entertain the people and give them hope. i think americans didn't like that much because it doesn' resonate that much with the US society, but i can see my country in that, i can see that reality happening
@@gisela_oliveira I never read that series so I don't really have any comment on it.
@@gisela_oliveirathe premise sounds interesting, but based on the reviews and summaries I've watched, does it really give that premise the attention and development it needs, or is it mostly focused on the romance? Like, and tbh I don't remember the reviews much lol, the MC marries the king at the end and nothing changes about the society?
@@joyc.e.7511 If you want the spoiler...
Yes, things change, they decide to end the cast system and they make peace with the rebels.
The sequel follow their daughter, the next heir, and she also makes changes in the end, ending the monarchy.
i feel like the author wrote divergent because she just wanted to hop on the dystopia bandwagon cuz dystopia was starting to trend. though i did enjoy the series, it didn't have the same kick as the hunger games.
'four mattresses, three girls, and one corpse' as an opening line is actually great.
Now come one, come all to this tragic affair.
My toxic trait is that I still think that my cringe dystopian stories could be published as a book
Because you’re proposing right xD
Do it. I'm writing one to deconstruct common romance tropes and how they don't mesh well if you actually think about them.
In YA dystopias exclusively set in the US, I like to believe that the rest of the world is just completely fine and is observing us like “bro… chill the fuck out”
I feel like this is somewhat common in many countries. It's just easier to only focus on one area of the world.
Basically the same way the west looks at the middle east
to be fair... we people not from the US already look at US and think its a dystopian nightmare about to happen lol
She doesn't like reading books, she likes reading one specific book simply titled "BOOK" while everyone else puts on make up like the slaves they are!
Now I want to make a make-up palette that looks like a book and print the word BOOK on it really big just to come full circle
Tbh BOOK is the best, plot, characters, would read again before wearing any makeup and being like other girls
Or it is something from another century because clearly this is what 16 yos enjoy reading in their free time
i don’t understand, are you guys talking about a real book
@sanchitagolder no, they're talking about a really sexist "meme" from the early 2010's that depicts a "woman factory" that is creating ""perfect women"", with one woman in the middle being labeled "defective" and she's reading a book and wearing more conservative clothing and not wearing makeup. basically just making fun of women that enjoy clothing and makeup.
Someone do a PhD thesis on YA dystopias vs 80s high school movies and the way categorizing people (particularly oneself) is an essential part of growing up.
OH MY GOD YES. As a GenX-er who grew up on the John Hughes movies AND reads 2010s YA Dystopia as a guilty pleasure, I WOULD READ THE HECK OUT OF THIS.
"'80's Coming of Age Movies and 2010 YA Dystopias: Finding belonging through self-categorization throughout the years"
Someone PLEASE let me know if/when this is written!! I NEED IT
omg please let me know when this is written
If I wasn't busy with my work, I would do this. I already have the outline. . You just wait.
Not gonna lie the idea of a whole family being reaped and then people voting on which member gets sent into the hunger games sounds pretty legit.
Agreed id be really interested if i read smth with that
@@lary_uwu6027You should read "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. It's a short story with this exact premise
@@lary_uwu6027I think you would enjoy "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. It's a short story with a similar premise.
is that not kind of like the lottery?
@@belenayerza5578my thoughts exactly 👍
I actually screamed when you put Legend in slay. That book CONSUMED me when I first read it, pulled an all nighter to finish legend and then got up the next morning and drove to B&N since I had just gotten my license and picked up Prodigy and Champion and binged those before finally sleeping 😅
SAMEEE
'Whenever I see someone believe that the Hunger Games is just a stupid Young Adult dystopian novel with a love triangle, I instantly no longer take any of their opinions seriously'. 🙌Yes! Let's put some respect on Suzanne Collins' name, she's a genius author who deserves so much more credit!
Maybe it was because I was an adult when I read Hunger Games, but...that trilogy was butt. Just because other books/series are way worse, doesn't mean HG was spectacular. It's more like HG had good ideas and with a better author could have been actually great. But the publishing houses think teens are as dumb as a box of hair, so they publish whatever unhinged nonsense, usually.
@@smol-one That’s fair, not everyone has the same opinions. Personally I’m a fan of the world itself but not so much the plot. Same with Harry Potter, actually. Both are worlds I love to insert OCs into, but not so much the plots of the stories themselves. I do still absolutely love the first Hunger Games book though
@@smol-one I agree. I used to be obsessed with Hunger Games when I was a teenager but then I read/watched Battle Royale by Koushun Takami and I realised The Hunger Games was just a knock-off of that. Especially in Catching Fire when it had that clock system where something would happen every hour, I just thought it was a copy of the Danger Zone concept in Battle Royale.
Not to rain on the hunger games parade, but comparing the capital’s relationship to the districts with the relationship between China and to a lesser extent the rest of Asia and the West, is spurious at best. The districts would have been able to survive just fine without the capital. China and Asia cannot survive financially without both trade and aid from the West. Not because the West is inherently superior, but because Asia stifles capitalism, which rather than the evil juggernaut people like to claim, allows for trade and development as Socialism and Communism do not. Europe before the Black Death was basically early communism, most of society were serfs who communally did all labor and pooled their resources. Innovation stagnated, the Black Death allowed serfs to leave their lands and to instead place a value on their labor. Freed from collective labor they could diversify and specialize. It’s largely why Russia was so backwards before Tsar Peter dragged them into the present day, it was a society almost entirely comprised of serfs. Anyone who asked in Asia will tell you the inherent difficulties arising from a society that places no import on the individual. I have lived and worked now in every continent save Antarctica and I promise you, capitalism with protections in place is flawed but still the best we’ve got.
I grew up reading the Underland Chronicles, which was Suzanne Collins' other series, which is about a boy who falls into an underground society that immediately declares him their prophesied war hero. If anyone thinks Collins can't write just because Hunger Games took inspiration from Battle Royale and featured a significant romance subplot, they should read Underland Chronicles. The vocabulary is simpler and the protagonist is younger, but she was NOT shy about focusing on the horrors of war and what being a child soldier does to you.
i find it kind of funny how in divergent actually the reason why people have a singular personality trait is because they were the results of a failed genetic experiment and the divergents are normal people but in execution the twist manages to make the story make less sense
It’s the Voodoo Shark in action
this drove me crazy in the last book! like in theory it’s a really interesting and unique idea, but the whole thing was written so poorly that by the time you get to the reveal, it just feels so stupid
I remember I got maybe a quarter through the third book before just dropping the book. The first 2 books had me hooked and I just blew through them, but the third book I just put down so much that I quit trying. Never tried to go back to it either.
I was actually fascinated by it as an autistic person and I’d like to see the story analyzed from the perspective of understanding how neurodivergent people are treated by society.
I always thought it was based on which personality trait ("flaw") they wanted to avoid. I.e. dishonesty, selfishness, cowardice and the factions were supposed to be defined by the absence. That's why the test may show where you best fit based on actions, it's a simulated personality test but it was still up to them at the end to chose where to go. While the divergent didn't nicely fit into the boxes I thought the bigger issue was that the simulations didn't seem to work on them as effectively, which links back to the gene thing though I couldn't read the third book. Always thought it was more like healing and rebuilding missing sequences over generations. But the problem was the lack of control because we found out there were other divergents amongst the factions because the simulations were how they controlled people
A major aspect of why Cinder is categorized as dystopian is because a big part of the plot is that a world-wide deadly pandemic is causing societal unrest (pre-2020 if you read a book with a world-wide pandemic plot point it would get labeled as "dystopian." Now it's just... normal).
I remembered enjoying it a lot when I was younger and when I wanted a "comfort/fluff" read at the beginning of the pandemic I made the mistake of choosing this particular book to re-read because I had conveniently forgot the whole pandemic part of the plot. Re-reading it while living mid-world-wide pandemic gave me a totally different lens and every time Cinder disregarded quarantine regulations in the story it made me so angry.
But also I definitely agree with the other comments saying that the magic and basis of the series as classic fairytale retellings makes the vibe lean more fantasy than sci-fi. The lunar gene causing magic abilities doesn't make much practical sense and feels more like fantasy than science fiction.
Looking back, it’s pretty dystopian how they don’t do that much about the plague besides test cures on cyborgs and quarantine the sick and abandon their houses. The disease was contagious, so it would have made more sense to reduce crowds. They had all those androids, so it should have been the norm to shop online instead of going to big markets. The androids were basically as smart as humans, they could do the majority of customer-service jobs, so that most people could work from home.
Your profile pic is top tier hahaha🤣🤣🤣
When I saw the My Chemical Romance album art and then you started talking about ranking your personal fanfic, I thought that we might finally get to learn the identity of the author of My Immortal.
We all know that the biggest threat to any dystopian world ruled with an iron-fist, is the tumultuous love affair of a chosen one and their first love.
It's on the Evil Overlord Rules list as one of the dangers to watch out for.
@@25thHourDayBlast from the past! Great list.
ok but the family being reaped and either them or the district having to choose which member has to compete would totally work as a quarter quell
Kinda reminds me of that short story “The Lottery” sooo good
putting that in my fanfic ideas box and letting it rotate in my brain like a rotisserie chicken
I think I remember in one of the hunger games books they said the 25th Quarter Quell had the two children from each district reaped based on voting rather than a random draw, so kind of similar to this idea!
@@elizaleorowe8384omg yeah
@@analeticia645imagine being that hated/useless that ur voted to go to the games 💀
Uglies reminded me of a sci-fi short story I read years ago. In it, there is an operation that stopped you from being able to tell how beautiful a human face is. The main character is a teenage girl who has had this modification since birth, as is common practice in her community. She had a romantic relationship with another boy her age, but they split amicably after high school. The college she goes to accepts students with the operation and without, and, as a legal adult, she's allowed to get the operation reversed if she chooses to. She initially doesn't want to, but then she shows a picture of her high school sweetheart to her new friend who doesn't have the operation, who is scandalized that the boy made the decision to break off the relationship. The friend says she needs to be able to see beauty to understand why it doesn't make sense. So she has the operation undone. And realizes that she is beautiful. And her high school boyfriend is, if not ugly, at most average and unimpressive. She initially revels in the knowledge that she is beautiful, but then she feels grief that she would never have known her high school boyfriend, who was kind and caring and giving and all the rest of it, if she had only judged him initially based on how handsome he was.
I liked the musings on how beauty standards affect the people we get close to in our lives, and the damage it can cause to our ability to relate to other people when we make snap judgments about how worthwhile it is to get close to them based on skin deep measurements of the other person.
Also, hey! Why wasn't City of Ember on this list?
For those interested, the story is "Liking What You See: A Documentary" by Ted Chiang, who was the author behind Arrival. He has some incredible short stories.
@@RobinClower Thank you! No wonder I couldn't remember the title, though. I haven't read my Stories of Your Life anthology since college.
Then I look it up, and Uglies lists Liking What You See as a primary influence. Such a comedy of errors.
Dystopian Novel: "And nobody is allowed to step out of line!"
Me, an American: "Aw! How cute! Now if you'd excuse me, I need to pack my stuff because I got fired for unionizing."
Yeah I think most people by this point have realized that we’re basically going into the cyberpunk dystopia.
With a very healthy dose of brave New World thrown in for hedonistic flavoring.
The fact that Extras (A book set within the universe of Uglies) was able to surprisingly accurately represent modern influencer culture despite being released in 2007 makes up for some of the weirder/bad aspects of the Uglies series. It's a society where everyone constantly has to post about and livestream their entire life in order to increase their popularity in order to make enough money to survive, which is surprisingly relevant in 2023. I also enjoyed the fact that, while Uglies is set in the states, Extras gives us a look at what another area of the world is up to.
Tbh I feel like the books in that series get better as they go on
It's a book series that should truly be more known!
I also appreciate that the author acknowledged that taking down the big bad government wasn't going to end with sunshine and rainbows. It trusts the world into a lot of chaos where people were scrambling to build a new power system from the ground up.
I read Uglies because my friend loved it. I never really liked the main story or characters, but this comment reminded how much I loved Extras. Reading that in 2013, with the rise of social media beginning consume everything, was really profound to me.
The next 4 books in the series after Extras are all about the impacts of complete transhumanism on the way governments function and about how tally youngblood really was just kind of fucking around
I'm really loving the fact that everyone is going back to their early 2010s interests these days
I've read the Shatter me series for the first time last year at 29yo 😅 ngl those dystopian arcs and the end of the world stakes still hit pretty hard.
i'm coming back to my 5th grade hunger games phase and with even more intensity than the last time. hell im writing a fanfic for it rn
"A selection of girls allowed to die" is both hilariously campy and weirdly compelling:
Three girls and a corpse...
This just keeps getting better.
Not gonna lie, she had me at three girls and a corpse
"I do not for a second believe there would be a future where we outlaw love." Tell me you're straight without telling me you're straight lol
My two cents as a demisexual/demiromantic.
Okay, I'm not quite sure how having the view that love can't be outlawed is strictly a straight thing. Because, correct me if I'm wrong, that's literally what lesbians, gays, bis, and pans are trying to stand for (at least in cultures and countries where LGBT isn't accepted). They want to be able to love anyone they want whether they're lesbian and want to be with a girl, pan and don't want to be restricted to loving only a certain gender, etc. Sure, it's a certain case of love but still trying to say "you can't outlaw/silence my love for x".
And even as someone who's on the ace spectrum and doesn't believe love is everything, I'm still not sure for what reasons it would be outlawed. Sure, some ace people are repulsed but I would like to think that ace people aren't going to put a ban on love for everyone just because they don't feel it. For what reasons would love be such a bad thing that it would need to get outlawed? Humans are inherently social creatures, of course they're going to fall in love, why would would we be fighting against that instinct?
@@kitsunemoon3005 the joke is that queer love HAS been outlawed in the past, and is still outlawed in many places around the world, and only a straight person who hasn't ever had to think about that kind of thing wouldn't be able to imagine a future where love is outlawed.
Beyond even just queer issues, it wasn't very long ago in the USA that interracial couples were criminalized for their love.
Of course people are still going to love, but it takes a remarkable amount of privilege to not realize that love can, has, and is subject to marginalization and criminalization by society and governing bodies. It's that privilege I was poking fun at when I said "tell me you're straight without telling me you're straight."
@@gayfish493 Ah, okay. I get it now.
yeah I was coming here to comment something similar.
I will now only refer to the tween dystopia novel sensations of the early 2010s as “wacky dystopian societies” its just too good 💀
Not gonna lie, I actually like the idea of a full family being chosen to go on a deadly game and then only one is allowed to move forward
Agree!! I feel like you could have interesting points and discussion about who is whorth to life or who has more skills to survive
have you read the Lottery by Shirley Jackson? not really like this but similar
Isn't there a recent Shyamalan movie that explores this theme of self sacrifice for your loved ones in the face of crazy stakes? 🤔
They were laughing about a tiktok w this idea idea on twitter last week
And the fact the person competing has to be voted (I assume from the public). It's a brilliant idea, I can realistically imagine how sometimes there would be sickening choices
I think along side "why are your scientists so incompetent?" there needs to be a "why are your *politicians* so incompetent?" tier exclusively for the Hunger Games. Because even by the atrocious standards of real politicians and authoritarian leaders, Panem's leaders are spectacularly, astoundingly stupid. The Hunger Games is an awful idea and it's shocking that it took 75 years for another rebellion to break out. The only thing that could possibly have happened was exactly what happened.
i think the threat about that wasn't the outright "oh we're taking your kids" it's the knowledge that this government can and will do so much worse below-board. a revelation of the later books is the victors talking about how president snow has killed many of their family members for things much less than outright rebellion so imagine what he could do if there was open interest. if your government is open about killing children for sport, imagine what they're hiding, right?
As a concept, Matched sounds like it could have been a really good allegory for closeted kids like me as a teenager. Society tells you that you should love one person, but you just don't feel what they say you have to.
If only it hadn't been written by a Mormon
I don’t know if zombie stories count as dystopians but I definitely “wrote” (as in plotted the whole thing in my head, wrote a single chapter, and then never touched it again) a zombie story starring me and all of my friends, where the infection happened because one of my friends left a science experiment in her locker for like, years, and it mutated and on graduation day the locker was opened for the first time and the virus broke out, and it ended with all of us jumping in a volcano 😂😂😂
I would read that XD Do you still have that first chapter?
There is a Zombie-dystopian romance book called “Warm Bodies,” so yes, I think many zombie stories could be counted as dystopian.
action comedy of the century 😂
Funny way to name the lunch you left in the locker for years a science experiment.
Oh yes, Zombie movies are simply a leading trope to invoke dystopia.
Like how it's other surviving humans that are the worst monsters to deal with in the Zombie genre.
Unfortunately, the Matched concept you described was way better than the actual one in the book. If I remember correctly, the guy she's in love with who isn't her "perfect match" actually would have been her match if he wasn't living outside the system. The only reason she even notices him is because there's a glitch and he comes up as her match first for a second before switching to the other guy. So it doesn't actually address anything about following your heart vs logic
That's not how I remember it. Because she always felt drawn to Kyle after the matching and actively seeks out his company as a result. She would never have done this without the glitch. I think this is very much "following the heart instead of the logic" because in her kind of society, Kyle would be unavailable for her. Ironically though, throughout the book, it really does seem like Kyle is a better match for her than Xander, as Xander is really deep in the friend zone 😂. But also, in later book, the romance doesn't take center stage anymore, they are kinda busy overthrowing the system 😄
there's an anime series with that exact same thing happening
@@salsa4641 wait I know which one you're talking about but I don't remember the name only the opening
@@dan.dandan because its a bop, i dont remember the name either lol
well i mean, there wasn't a glitch. it was done on purpose by the society as a form of human experimentation, they also cut down her food sizes, and analyzed her dreams. In the second and third books, she goes off to find the boy who wasn't her match after escaping from a prison-type labour camp, and joining a rebellion and in the third she joins and an underground marketplace for artwork and artifacts, and leves the capital to try and escape the society. the series ends with her and her 'match' realizing they love other people (when they began dating they did develop feelings for one another, its not like she never liked him), him and his partner leave the society to try and goto the outside world, and Cassia and Ky stay in the boarder village and vote on if they should continue working with the rebellion or to work with the new heads of the society. if all you read was the first book... yeah its bad, but the story as a whole with all three books is one of my favorite YA stories of all time. It might not have the negligence and violence of the hungers game's government, but the total control of the society is striking (you don't need to kill people if you can make them take a pill and forget), and a very fun concept that gets explored in a way i wasn't expecting from the book.
The Mazerunner is my fav dystopian series but literally NO ONE talks about it. It’s so good tho thy for including it :D
Nobody talks about it because most people associate it with the shit movies. (Except the first one. I love the first one.)
@@moistsocks2188 THANK YOU! Everyone only likes the movies because Thomas is hot. The books were actually good
ikr???? the movies were shit but the books were just 👌
still cry about Newts death.
@@toadstalldrawsssLmao Thomas _is_ hot tho
@@redpepper74 can't argue with facts.
The ending of the Maze Runner series is also just completely ridiculous. There was literally no world building to even suggest the sci-fi shenanigans that happens at the end. It still makes me mad thinking about it!
I've only read book 1 so far what happens at the end of the series???
Just read it, do you want spoilers like what
omg i reread the hunger games earlier this year and was BLOWN AWAY by how fantastic the books still are. i wholeheartedly agree that the hunger games is S tier
Premise is kinda out there. But the story is easily one of the most well written in the entire genre, if not THE most well written
Frr
Have you read Scythe by Neal Shusterman? It's about a society where we have overcome death. To prevent overpopulation, there are people called scythes who have the power to kill and who basically play god. The two main characters are chosen to be apprentices to a scythe and to become a scythe they would have to kill one another. It's a really great trilogy.
That sounds sounds super interesting!
I ADORED the first two books but the third one was honestly pretty terrible so I dnf-ed it around 60% through and I just skipped to the end💀 THE ONLY TIME IVE EVER DONE THAT TO A BOOK
@@dij357Yes!! The first two books were 5 Star reads, absolutely amazing works of Fiction, i loved them so much and then the third book.... like wtf was that. That was the most disappointed I ever was in a series tbh. But I would recommend book one and two every day
loved scythe and thunderhead.
I am in love with this series! One of my faves!
I really like the fact that so much of your focus is on this books being actual YA books, and how that explains the absurdity of many of these novels works so well for teenagers.
When she talked abt maze runner and then said “some of them are immune some of them are not” as the video playing showed Newtie I wanted to cry 17:16
When it comes to "Selection" if you read the book it's actually the opposite of what you said. The main character (America Singer) didn't even want to participate in the selection, her mother made her do it. When she came to the palace the prince fell for her pretty fast but she wanted to get away as soon as possible as she had a boy at home who she loved. America and the Prince come to the agreement that she will stay until some part of the competition as her family was getting money for the time when she was in the competition. She just wanted them to be able to live, the prince wanted to help her as much as possible. America didn't really like living in the palace, it's kinda like with Katniss in the Capitol. Later in the series she does actually fall for the prince and stays at the competition for him, but only after getting to know him and his story. She does become royality but not for the sake of being rich and a queen. She does want to help people by the position she is in and she was the one to suggest that they should remove the casts, the prince was the one who did it as (obviously) he becomes the ruler and he makes the important decisions not her.
The cast system was very interesting to me and is explored further in the books, why are certain people in certain casts etc. How people fall to lowest casts as punishment or are unable to work anymore. How marriage can get you in to the higher or a lower class depending where your husband is. How it's forbidden to have children outside of marriage and pregnant woman went to jail for that. How the rebels who fight the system are not nececarlly the good guys.
You made it sound like it was a gold digger kind of story but really it was an interesting series where we see kind of what hapens in reality vs what people are shown in TV, darker side of the royality and being in the competition like this (a girl fell in love with a guard while being on the competition and they sentenced them to death as a betrayal of the prince).
Agree, and your comment should definetely be getting more likes! I don't blame her for not reading it (you can't possibly read all books, there is only so much time). But whatever she read about the book, it definetely didn't brought the real vibes of it across. The books are just nothing like she described it here.
This^^^ Honestly, it's pretty clear she didn't read the books herself bc a main plot point is exactly the political intrigue she talks about, & makes rating it a bit unfair
That's exactly what I was thinking
Thanks for this comment haha the selection def deserves higher
@@carebear6036 To be fair I think she did say when she hadn't read any of the books, but yeah. Is there a Sparknotes for this? XD
It is truly a tragedy you put Cinder so low. That series was one of my favorites growing up. I was obsessed with it for so many years. I will say that I never considered dystopian, it was more in the genre of Sci-Fi Fantasy for me.
i wouldve put it in the perks of being a cyborg tier for sure. it isnt a dystopia but ig it could pass as one since its a technologically advanced post-war society with a teenage girl leading a rebellion lol
i ADORE the lunar chronicles! but youre right, it is seriously just sci fi fantasy rather than a true dystopia novel- i never thought of it as a dystopia despite that being my fav genre at the time i read it
I literally thought "perks of being a cyborg" was a tier made essentially for the lunar chronicles,,, it's so good, I love it. Another one I'd say, she didnt include it in this video,, but The Darkest Minds is great,,, it takes a step away from the dystopia aspect to add powers, which I'm a sucker for, so I was fine with that,, but it's also one of my favourites,, so if yall like the lunar chronicles,, I'd totally recommend it
in terms of dystopia I’d put it about the same level tbh lol BUT if i was just picking favorite worldbuilding it would be wayyyyy up high on the list for me
thats literally what she said in the video? also these aren't tiers from best to worst, they're more like categories
What I found interesting about Delirium is that love was not just outlawed, it was believed to be a disease and all of the things that we in our society associate with normal signs of love, "rapid heart beats, irrational thought etc." are now believed to be symptoms of a disease. That and the fact that this idea extended to all kinds of love and not just romantic love made the world feel more developed than it would've been otherwise.
One thing I really liked about the Uglies series is how its evil government actually makes sense. The world was ravaged by war and ecological disasters, so they found a way to keep people happy while maintaining peace and healing the environment. They do partake in dubious practices, but nothing close to the comical evil of other dystopians. The protagonist actually struggles if freedom is more destructive than the current system, and ends the trilogy as a human weapon standing guard to make sure the new world doesn't fuck everything up.
And Extras actually goes even further with this.
The most ridiculous dystopian sociaty is the one we're living on💀 I was so happy when I was little and watch movies like The hunger games until I realized😅😅🤣
No but that’s true, all through my history classes I am constantly thinking “yeah but isn’t that exactly what happened in Panem…?” And that helps out into perspective how screwed up people can be, I don’t think the hunger games is really that unrealistic, and if it happened I’m sure some people would be happy to play the role of the ignorant capitol aristocracy.
@@ElinorColburn Well... as the Latins used to say, "Panem et circensem" (Bread and circus).The way you distract people form the decadence of the empire.. richness and entertainment
I no longer consider Blade Runner a dystopia, sure replicants are hunted for sport, but they've got flying cars, off world colonies and umbrellas that glow!!!! A big improvement from 2024.
wishing for a new dystopian book era edit: omfg lay off, EMPHASIS ON THE WORD "BOOK" trust me I too see and know whats going on in the real world geez
Read Red Rising. It’s basically the hunger games x100
i think we’re just living it 😭
Just read the news
you know whats more dystopian than the red rising series? Its author supporting the actions of the real life capital lol
I don't need new dystopias to distract me, now I have romantasy 😂 because our world is one big freaking dystopia 🥲
"I don't think there would be a futuristic world where we outlaw love."
Gay people: It might be crazy what I'm about to say
😂😂😂
I would have put the Divergent series in "incompetent scientists" category myself because, even before the twist in book 3 most of the problems are caused by incompetent scientists still. Although the narrative does spend the majority of its time in the main characters head as a coming of age story with the main character being both the oddball and chosen one.
ive never felt more seen when you started sharing your old stories like its nice to know i'm not the only one mortified about the stuff i used to write in middle school😭😭
ur much braver than me bc you literally could not waterboard the plots of the stories i made at 13 out of me
Same TwT I didn't even write original stories I just wrote awful fanfic. The plot was ok it was just the writing that was awful
Same girlie. I wrote a Hunger Games fanfic where Katniss died at the beginning of the book so it was just Peeta and their daughter (named Prim, obviously). Naturally the book centered around the Games since the Capital took over again with no pushback immediately after Katniss died.
The scene I was most proud of was where Prim was in the Games and encountered a cute baby deer ("the first genuinely sweet thing she'd seen in the arena") that ended up being able to travel at hyperspeed and had razor-sharp teeth. 14-year-old me thought it was a truly genius jumpscare.
I still have the notebook and dang were my melodramatic writing skills atrocious. 😅😳☠️
I wasn't cringing at all at your teen dystopias and I thought I was unshakable until you brough up the vaccine thing 😭 people would've been using the hashtag "blackparade" instead of "diedsuddenly" if you'd published that, that's what you'd be KNOWN FOR
Can’t believe you didn’t put Cinder, the book with an actual cyborg, into the tier titled “the perks of being a cyborg”
When I was significantly younger (not my teens, embarrassingly), I came up with the premise that one day, two unknowable alien entities show up in earths orbit and, start without ever communicating directly, essentially start a proxy war, each entity giving one half of humanity distinct superpowers. This also causes an apocalypse...somehow.
Honestly, the basic premise probable isn't terrible, but i really didn't have much of an idea of where to go with it at the time and shelved it.
I haven’t read them since I was in my late teens, but the Uglies series had me in a chokehold as a pre-teen. I remember those books being pretty brutal and the main character went through so much emotional and physical trauma throughout the series. I don’t know that it was on par with how brutal The Hunger Games was/is (books that as an adult have honestly only gotten more difficult to read realizing how young the characters actually were) but it was pretty good!
Also the fact that Cinder didn’t get into “the perks of being a Cyborg” was cruel 😅
Also sad that Uglies didn't get "the perks of being a Cyborg", since you know, Tallys fate at the end. But yeah, agree about the trauma aspect. Heard lots of criticism on how the self-harm part was handled, fair, probably, but I related so much to Tally and her messed up friendship with Shay as a mentally ill autistic queer woman.
Uglies doesn’t get the recognition it deserves imo- it’s a really, brutal but moving take on friendships
And the world they’re set in actually has WEIGHT to it
One of my dear old story ideas was a dystopia where children were raised fully blindfolded from a certain age. It was this way, because there was an enormous dark cave/abyss that had to be explored, but there was something sinister down there and machines wouldn't work. So they trained these kids to be able to navigate pretty well in darkness.
I honestly had no other plans for the cave, but I had this whole ceremony thing, where late-teens would be paired up by quotes they chose that match up and stuff like that, and they would see each other for the first time after the ceremony. I thought that a lot of drama could come out of people being thorn between their ceremony matches and previous relationships. It was very dumb and pointless, but I remember having a lot of fun with coming up with ideas.
I really like this idea tho !!!! Sounds like sth i would read or watch hihi🖤
I actually like the blindfolded thing
I would totally read that if you ever wrote it. So interesting!!!
Respectfully, I cannot believe you came up with a BRILLIANT dystopian story idea like that (the blindfold idea was so good! so creepy! I want to know what's in the cave!) and then the main plot of your story was going to revolve around teenage relationship drama XD
Was the link to Plato's "allegory of the cave" intentional? Cause if it was then that is GENIUS.
You guys are all so nice! The preteen inside me is screeching!
Answering the respectful comment haha, I had two very good reasons for that. I was like 11-12, so I think that point explains itself. Other than that I was also very intrigued by the cave, that was the main thing, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what to put in there. I'll let you guys know if I ever figure it out!
You think so highly of 12-year-old me for thinking she would have used Plato's allegory intentionally XD
our school actually made us read the giver back in (I think) elementary school and I loved the first book so much that I bought the rest of the series, honestly it's super underrated in Turkey but I think everybody should read it
The second you started pouring tea I knew I was in for a good time. Great stuff.
I ate UP the uglies series when I was younger! It's super underrated in the dystopian category imo
Same! I was really worried she was gonna trash it 🫣 I think because it came out before The Hunger Games, so before the new dystopian genre really caught fire, it didn't get as much momentum as the books that came after.
@@marysnyder9405 that is such a good point! I definitely read these in middle school before the hunger games really caught fire (no pun intended lol)
Its incredibly good. Hope it gets the fame it deserves after the movie in development, that was meant to come out this year but didn't, actually comes out. But yeah, pretty sure it's not as famous because it came out before Hunger Games
@@marysnyder9405Someone theorized that another reason why it didn’t catch on was a lack of adaptation. Which happened because the books’ themes would have made some things like casting even more difficult.
I read it back then and it was so bad imo 😢
Idk if it is dystopia exactly, but the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman. Where parents can make decisions to have their kid "unwound" (basically organ donor to the max) or those that are orphans can be unwound, or there was one character that was born into a cult just to be unwound when they turned a certain age. It is a real creepy concept imo but I remember liking the books. Or, there is The Program, where basically you cannot feel depressed or you will be put in the program to eradicate that feeling. I don't remember much of it, but thought it fit in with the dystopian genre
neal shusterman being one of the only authors whos actually good at writing dystopian societies >>>>>>
The premise of "The Program" is realistic to a point. It actually kinda sorta existed in the USSR and there were forced treatments for people who manifested signs of depression or any other chemical imbalance that prevented them from "being a normal working cog in the well oiled machine" 😅 People were forcibly medicated, sometimes without knowing it and there are still anxiety medications that are sold over the counter in a lot of Eastern European countries that people just feed to their children, not really fully realising what those are.
The unwind series was an absolute slay, I ate that shit up
While Unwind is decent, it takes a very simplistic stance on abortion and ignores so much of the pro-choice side of the argument. Mainly, because if the book actually did, it would make people on that side accepting the compromise feel very unrealistic. This aspect also aged like milk after the repeal of Roe v Wade and the fallout that’s ensued.
Granted, I’ve only read the first book and this was my takeaway. If the other books did address this issue, I would like to know.
I also love the Scythe series by the same author!
I do recommend giving the Matched series a read. The author does a good job exploring different types of relationships and how each of them is meaningful. I also liked how she explored the importance of art in the humanity of people (the dystopian setting is a big part of how she explores it).
The Giver is such a good book!! When I first read it as a tween, it rather scared me. But reading it as a late teen/young adult, I understood the world better and realized the reasons behind the 'sameness'. Definitely worth the read!
The chokehold all these YA dystopian novels had on us in the early 2010s can NOT be overstated
My dystopia setting was kinda like Delirium where love was banned, but with monsters somehow. Like there were beings that fed on love and that was why they have to ban and purge it in the first place, and the monsters have their own form of like a ranch, but it's an idealized castle with balls and courts and romance so they can feed more on love.
That is CLEVER! I like it a lot!
I would be obsessed with a story like this actually
That sounds interesting especially the last part! I love the idea of a court with glamorous masked balls and such, where the only reason it's so glamorous is that it's a farm for people's emotions.
Wait tho this concept actually slaps. Like, Death Eaters, but for joy instead of fear.
SO glad you put Legend by Marie Lu in Slay because AGREE! Besides the Hunger Games, the Legend series is my FAVORITE YA Dystopian series ever. It has so many themes that are VERY relevant in today's society, especially with the pandemic and the whole pandemic happening in that dystopian world as well, it was almost scary to read because of how high the possibility is of our world turning into something like that😭There were so many messages and themes that are rooted in reality and hit SO hard. It's also brilliantly written and just beyond suspenseful. Love love LOVE this series. I also love the dynamic between June and Day and how both of them are written. I usually get annoyed with the MCs in every book I read, I latch onto side characters more, but I can safely say that I love both June and Day more than anything. They're so perfectly human and flawed, making mistakes and trying to fix them, etc., it's great. The most realistically written characters I've seen tbh.
The Lunar Chronologicals was literally fantasy stories in a sci-fi setting so I never thought it was dystopian.
I had a Hunger Games au idea, that had Gale and Madge be reaped instead of Katniss and Peeta, and with Madge being the mockingay, even though Gale was the violent one and Madge was the one witht he powerful words. Narrated from Gale's perspective, the books started with, "when I wake up, the other side of the bed is warm." cuz he was sharing the bed, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
I’ve read Delirium (and this is just my take on the story) but I think it is less about “banning love” and more controlling the general population because I doesn’t just ban romantic love but also platonic or familial love. Most people who get cured become sort of a shell of themselves that doesn't experience real connection with others and the reason they banned love is because love ,of any kind, causes people to do irrational things as proven throughout history.
As someone who doesn’t really experience romantic love I found personally that tbh it didn’t have much to do with romance but instead trying to stop all types of relationships with others not just romantically. A big part of the story is about the main characters relationship with her mother and how she committed suicide because she didn’t want to stop loving her daughter. A lot of people think of love as just a romantic thing but the story kind of reminds you that love is everywhere and essential to everyone’s life.
I agree that it doesn’t really belong in the slay category but I feel it should have more credit :)
I always thought it was interesting how strongly that book emphasized the way the cure took away *all* forms of love (not just romantic love). I distinctly remember the protagonist commenting that sometimes parents would accidentally kill their own children via neglect. And they felt *nothing* afterwards. I don't think I got far enough into the series to find out the government's actual motivation for doing this (and their officially stated reason was very obviously BS), but anything that can override human emotions to that level must be very powerful indeed.
You are the first I have heard talk about The Uglies saga!!!! Thank you I loved it so much
Just wanted to see where you put Uglies. this was my first introduction into dystopian as a teen and 15 years later, i still think about how amazing it is. 1000/10. it made Scott Westerfeld one of my favorite authors.
Cinder/The Lunar Chronicles is one of my fav books/series and while I agree with your ranking this was a missed opportunity to put the book with an actual cyborg into the perks of being a cyborg category 😂
The giver is SUCH a wonderful series, there are 3 other books (gathering blue, messenger, and son) that are all interconnected and they all have such beautiful messages about love and the sacrifices we make for each other. I’m gonna be so honest the 4th book messed me UP, it Hurt but in such a good way.
SAMMEEEE only book I've ever cried for lol
Giver is seriously my favorite book ever but I’ve been avoiding reading the sequels despite owning them (I’ve had them since I was a kid) because I’m so scared it’ll mess up the story. It’s actually really nice to hear they’re good, I might just read them.
Question: is the movie good? I’m avoiding it for the same reason, I don’t want it to ruin my perception of the story.
@@fancyoil216the movie is horrid. The sequels are great though!
Honestly I hated The Giver, ending was so abrupt and it felt like a waste of time
@@XanderMatthews-nv9zf The end of the giver book, or the end of the series?
Would love to see this done as a "blind" ranking:
Have a brief description of each setting prepared for each book, then rank those descriptions. Only after ranking the setting description, reveal what book is from.
This would require someone else to prepare the brief descriptions, though I think opening something for community submissions could work.
I'm a bit disappointed that she said shatter me never explains the whole desolate world situation because in the last few books there is a big revelation that (spoilers if you haven't read it ) Juliette's/Ella's sister in fact creates the whole illusion of this world.
No me too! They go into it really well in the last couple books, I don’t think she read those books though, only the first.
@@delaneyhoover7143 (really late ik) she shouldnt be giving an opinion on a series if she only read the first book then, and i mean, such a low ranking for such a beautiful and perfectly thought out book?
@@miyu_emiko411 REAL!
Lol I definitely thought you were going the other way with Angelfall when you said, "It's so refreshing to see the angels...be the bad guys!" That's definitely what I've come to EXPECT in any modern work! See an angel in a movie or book? They're the twist bad guys. The Devil? Always a misunderstood hottie. I guess my expectations have been subverted so many times that they've totally flipped.
I think it would be the most refreshing if both parties were the bad guys, in their own respective ways, or both were in a way the good guys.
@@n.hauser6438 good omens
@@n.hauser6438I feel like this is the dynamic of atleast s1 of good omens,both sides want to end the world and stuff
Angels being the bad guys is almost as subversive as having dads be bumbling idiots.
That was subversive a long time ago. As in "before I was born, and I'm Generation X" long time ago. It's a cliche now.
@@n.hauser6438 I always suck up the concept of angels are actually dangerous and demons more down 'human' like BUT I'd like more of 'angels and demons are equally dangerous and not to mess with in general (as a human) or u'll get cooked' concept instead, like they're supposedly otherworldly creatures I want to see more stories of both sides only caring for their own values idk 🤷🏻♂️
I just finished book 1 of Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe series, and I'd put it in the SLAY category since the whole concept of a world without hunger, sickness, conflict, or sorrow is amazing. Humanity has mastered all of these things, including death. Scythes are now the only ones who can terminate life-and they are told to do it in order to keep the population under control, which was such a fantastic notion. I can't wait to read the next two volumes in the series.
Me too! Just finished it yeterday
I just finished the series a few days ago, and I LOVED it. I hope you enjoy them❤️ they've got me on a sci-fi/dystopian kick now
I love those books...
I dont see a lot of people talking about the Legend series here but I’m so glad you knew about it and liked it! I still reread it every year and the MULTIPLE twists had me in a chokehold as a middle schooler! And I still think about that ending all of the time uhg so good!
Great video. Would love to see another one, perhaps mixing in more classics as well.
Not gonna lie, the line about the four mattresses SLAYS.
Hey, the Black Parade's first sentence is not that bad... When I was 12 to 15 probably, I used to write fantasy stories that began with phrases like "[Insert English girl name because I already loved the English language] woke up on the first day of school with the impression that today was gonna be special." Aaaand then she would find out about her magical powers on her first day at her new school. Original, I know.
I think a great book that fits into this is "Among the Hidden" (it's actually a series but I only read the first couple books). It's set in a dystopian USA where families have a two child limit, and it has some nice "1984" vibes (such as how the government makes everyone think that they're under 24/7 surveillance) and class commentary. The protagonist is a forbidden third child (and a boy, to shake things up a bit in the dystopian genre), and the ending of the first book was honestly really heart-wrenching.
The Host and The 5th Wave would have been good to include here.
I'll have to check out the retrospective. 🙂
The Uglies series was so great- I haven’t read it since middle school but as a young teen I felt really seen and I also felt like the story was a lot bigger than just the interpersonal relationships which I really liked! I also remember that being the first book I read that really pushed the main character to darken up before her arch came full circle and I loved that too
YO! I highly recommend you reread it!!
I reread it as an adult on a whim but it’s so different from what I remember! I thought the books were centered around Tally’s live interests but they actually subtly focus around her friendship with Shae in a really fascinating way
Please rank all the vampire series next
I'll would love that 🧛🖤
There are too many! 😂
@@kseni_vely there really were. Us late 2000s early 2010s tweens/teens ate up vampires and dystopian societies.
@@Mia_M and more older too, like Anne rice's vampires
omg yes!!!
Matched was a pretty good start. But the rest of the series went off into the desert and fighting and a place where samples of everyone's blood was kept. And I can't even remember the details!
This video unlocked a lot of meories of the dystopian world I created when in high school. It was weirdly similar to the Handmaid's Tale in many aspects even though I didn't even know that book existed at the time. What little scenes I actually wrote weren't very good but I can tell I put thoughts about social critique and there was some research that went into it. I had a whole timeline with several stories set in this universe (set in Europe by the way) , so here is what I remember:
- first story takes in the early days of the Empire (very creative name, I know). Europe is just out of a war that collapsed all the countries we know and the new society emerging on its ruins is very inspired by the Victorian Era with a heavy dose of counter reformation to season everything and instal a climate of religious fear. (I am a huge history nerd and we were studying the witches hunt in history class at the time). The main character is simply trying to survive this brutal social transition from a world whereshe had rights and autonomy to one where her father and then her husband have complete authority over her. She does marry a good man and they end up creating a small pocket of resistance.
- second story takes place several decades later, still in the Empire, and we follow two sisters trying to find their place as they come of age, one by marrying the man she loves (and theat ehr father approved of) and the other by choosing the path of the "old maidens", a social class of unmarried women basically slaves to the government. She ends up being assigned as a maid in the house of an elderly woman who is part of the underground resistance and finds her calling there. The sister who marries also joins the resistance but has to try flee the Empire to save her child's life after her husband is killed.
I know there was at least two more stories in this world but I cant' remember the plot.
I'm a high school teacher, not even in an English speaking country, and I read the Hunger Games (translated) in class. At the same time I cover Nazims, totalitarism and the second world war in history. The Hunger Games always gets belittled, but honestly, it has so many layers and high school students love to read it (which is one of my main goals)!
If I had more time, I'd also read "Fireborne", which is just amazing and hardly anybody knows it, except for Elliot Brooks, who always hypes it up (thank you, Elliot!). Fireborne asks the questions: what happens after a revolution? What if the new system starts solving problems "the old way"? It has amazing multidimensional characters, asks great political and moral questions, whilst also being a coming of age story and including dragons! I simply never read anything like this before. So if you liked the political aspects from the Hunger Games and the multi-facetted figures, give it a go.
I died at the "Hufflepuff+", where can I subscribe to that??
Hufflepuffs are so overrated
@@AwakenedAvocado Harry Potter period is insanely overrated for a number of reasons
I read Uglies when I was a teenager and it was one of the few dystopian novels I actually liked because it was about something I was struggling with; body image. Which would you choose, looks or intelligence? Acceptance or individuality? It put things in perspective by taking them to the extreme.
Another YA dystopian I loved was a trilogy called Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness. The first book was called the Knife of Never Letting Go. Some of the science may have been a little iffy, but the world building was incredible and it was a beautiful exploration of the flaws and beauty of humanity, what it means to be human past just genetics, and how committing atrocious acts can change people in irreversible ways. It also gets into some pretty hardcore criticisms of the treatment of indigenous populations in the midst of colonialism. Great series 10/10 totally recommend reading.
I scrolled so far to find this... CW clears so many of the most famous dystopian YA books imo (hunger games, maze runner, etc) It is something you can even read later in life and still enjoy
The Giver oh my god, I haven't thought about that book for ages!! It was probably the first dystopian story that I've read, I was maybe like 10-12? In Hungarian (which is my mother tongue) the title is The Guardian of Memories, and I remember telling all about it to my mom because I was so fascinated by the concept of a world without colour and what it would be like to experience seeing colour for the first time... Thank you for this trip to memory lane! :D I should read that book again, see what it's like as an adult.
There are actually 3 other books in the series that are worth a read too!
@@oliviabarron8615 I had no idea, that's amazing! Thanks for the info :)
@@oliviabarron8615discovering the giver isn’t a one off book and there are more in that world in this comment section is wild
How have I never heard of this until now???? I can’t believe I never heard of this
Can we just acknowledge that Fourth Wing has strong vibes of being inspired by Divergent? A weak girl finding herself in a a clique of the coolest badasses that obey almost no rules eventually falling for the biggest coolest strongest badass of the group that happens to be her boss in some capacity
Yep, definitely. I also thought about it while I was reading Fourth Wing! Though I suppose most stories are inspired by others so it's probably hard to find ones that has completely original ideas nowadays😅
Uglies was my favorite series when I was a kid and I think it still holds up honestly. It's just pretty neat.
Your tiers are so spot on, even for the ones you haven’t read! Uglies is wonderfully written and has something to say, delirium is interesting and has something to say and is interesting that it explores more than just romantic love but also family love, but I feel like it said what it wanted to say in the first book and didn’t need to be a series (and also fits in “why are scientists so incompetent” crossed with “can’t tell if this commentary on the human condition is being a bit ableist”) and matched is interesting but if I remember rightly it devolves into a hunger games DUPE of a love triangle (same vibe idk) I think it would have say better with me if it had leaned more into the black mirror side than the “this one teenage girl will change the revolution it makes sense I promise”
Omg, I remember being like 11 reading ONLY distopias.
Confession: I still adore dystopias/distopian subplots in my books❤❤❤
I deeply appreciate how you can laugh at your angst as a young writer. But hearing you describe your last novel made me scream laugh in my room. I fully appreciate the unhingedness!🤣
Can’t believe this is how I’m learning Community has an episode with the plot of Selection
I like how you acknowledge that a story with a dystopia in it can have worth and have that dystopia contribute to the story even if the story isnt as fully focused towards critiquing society. I think that makes a lot of inherent since cause like. All societies have flaws, meaning almost all stories arguably take place in a dystopia, and the society's flaws can have different roles in the story. like your "these dont work well as pure, criticism of society dystopias, but work well as settings for coming of age stories" section was interesting
Honestly I'm overly critical of a lot of YA dystopia, especially ones where I feel like the worldbuilding doesn't make sense, and you changed my mind about some of these and showed me they have value in a different area
and at the same time you made me see more of the interesting societal criticism in some of the teen dystopias that do do that really well, especially the hunger games
I think the maze runner one should’ve been top tier tbh. The world experiences a huge natural disaster (the sun spits some fire at the earth as a solar flare) so the government released a virus to lower the population bc few resources. Then they found out it was too good at degrading everyone’s brains because it mutated so they took to studying kid’s brains in their tests to try to figure out how the virus works. And as the series comes nearer the end, you find out that the scientists have lost it bc they’re not immune and their brains are rotting as well. Also brain rot makes you violent.
So in a sense it’s “Why are your scientists so dumb” except it’s explained really well.
Plus the solar flares were actually because scientists did smth to the atmosphere to kill off people but it created a brain disease which spread and the immunes and why they are immune is also explained really nicely.
This is correct. Plus, the virus wasn't the stereotypical instant zombie virus, but a slow burn that slowly eats away at one's sanity (as shown in Scorch Trials). Conceptually, not a bad series. Plot is a bit absurd at times, but compared to all the crap YA Dystopian books that came out, pretty good.
You have no idea how happy I am that Legend was even mentioned! The series was my personality throughout the whole of my high school exxperience lol
okay actually i do really appreciate your thoughts on the premise of match, because you're right, it IS a really compelling concept that could be used to explore compatibility vs passion, how to balance trusting your own judgement and following someone else's advice, recognizing when that advice is being given for your benefit or to further someone else's agenda. unfortunately the books themselves didn't really do that (though it's been a hot minute since i read them, i *do* remember feeling extremely betrayed by how boring and idiot-plottish they turned out). anyway, you've made me want to read or write something that actually makes good on that premise, because you reminded me why i decided to try out those books in the first place!