To inform those who need to be informed...
"An imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives (Dystopia); often typically [in] a totalitarian or environmentally degraded [society] (Definition)."
A dystopian novel is, in short, the opposite of a Utopia. Patricia Kennon does a good job of contrasting of the two, calling a utopia “an ideal world that by its example urges us to improve ourselves” while a dystopia is “an ominous nightmare scenario warning us of repressive futures that seem all too disturbingly possible and plausible (Kennon).” Society is not perfect, but is the opposite and presents the world we, in current day, would probably never want to live in.
Dystopian novels have been around for many years—think of George Orwell’s 1984 or H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, but it was never thought about for the younger reader, at least it was not recognized as much until after the popularity of The Hunger Games. Some say Lowry’s The Giver birthed many of the YA dystopia (Spisak), while other say it goes as far back as 1932 with Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Wyatt). Either can be the case, but there is no argument that since the publication of Collins hit in 2007, dystopias in YA have hit off.
A dystopian novel is, in short, the opposite of a Utopia. Patricia Kennon does a good job of contrasting of the two, calling a utopia “an ideal world that by its example urges us to improve ourselves” while a dystopia is “an ominous nightmare scenario warning us of repressive futures that seem all too disturbingly possible and plausible (Kennon).” Society is not perfect, but is the opposite and presents the world we, in current day, would probably never want to live in.
Dystopian novels have been around for many years—think of George Orwell’s 1984 or H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, but it was never thought about for the younger reader, at least it was not recognized as much until after the popularity of The Hunger Games. Some say Lowry’s The Giver birthed many of the YA dystopia (Spisak), while other say it goes as far back as 1932 with Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Wyatt). Either can be the case, but there is no argument that since the publication of Collins hit in 2007, dystopias in YA have hit off.
Above is a book trailer for the YA dystopian novel Divergent by Veronica Roth by its publisher HarperTeen. I included this trailer to showcase another dystopian series in YA.