suck me in, chew me up and spit me out

Saturday, October 31, 2009 |
Mandy at edge of seventeen is hosting a Dystopian Teen Week over at her blog, starting today (well, it started this morning, but I’m a little late to the party…), and going until November 4. She’ll feature several Young Adult titles within the ‘dystopian’ genre, host giveaways, and talk to a couple authors, too! It’ll be fun. End-of-the-world, do-or-die kind of fun, in keeping with the thematic content, of course.

This is also happening in conjunction with the YA Dystopian Reading Challenge over at Bart’s Bookshelf. I am hereby accepting the challenge. After all, I can get all four items finished this week! Bart has a great round-up of reads in the genre in this post (make sure you check the comments, too!).

Now that I’ve declared that I’m participating, I should probably explain. According to ReadWriteThink (via eoseventeen), a dystopia is:

A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.

It’s more than the opposite of utopia, which is what I thought when I saw the word for the first time. And it’s more than a post-apocalyptic scenario. It’s organized craziness.

So why the heck am I interested in it? This is the girl who likes silly and funny and happy. I refer you to the title of this post. I may prefer silly, funny, happy…but when I read serious, seemingly hopeless, heart-rending dystopian novels (and I can’t help but do – they’re some of the best out there, and I’ll read ANYthing once), I truly feel. They get me. It’s liquid tragedy, gorgeous misery, and it seems REAL. I can imagine any of these things happening. I believe that there’s darkness in the hearts of men. Mostly, though, they make me cry. I know it’s a good book when I’m crying.

Okay, so I cry. What are these books? Have I been sneaking them in while you weren’t looking? Well… a couple. But not intentionally, I swear. Dystopian novels I may have mentioned on this blog: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Uglies, and The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Others I’ll read (and review, hopefully) this week: The Knife of Never Letting Go, Unwind, Genesis and Skinned. So get ready. It may be a little grim in parts, but there’ll be reviews and maybe a contest or two to keep you going. Enjoy, but do it seriously. *smile*

6 comments:

vvb32 reads said...

oh so tempting. looking forward to the reviews.

She said...

Yay for The Knife of Never Letting Go and Unwind! I read Unwind for RaT and really liked it. Definitely a creepy read!

Lauren said...

I'm *so* looking forward to your reviews of these! The only one I haven't read is The Knife of Never Letting Go which is in my TBR pile. Skinned I really liked, and Genesis I thought was a work of genius. Dystopia *rocks*.

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse said...

This sounds like a really cool week...but I do think most teen novels can qualify--even if the dystopia is only a matter of perspective rather than literal creation.

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I think my reviews of the Collins book will be up this week too! And I have Uglies in my pile, waiting to be read. So I too will be looking forward to your reviews.

Unknown said...

Welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy my reading challenge!

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