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NOW TRENDING: TEEN DYSTOPIAN NOW TRENDING: TEEN DYSTOPIAN

hat Makes a Novel Dystopian?

It seems like there’s no stopping the success of this trend. The smash hit multimedia series The Hunger Games jumped into mainstream popularity at a time when the teen trend of vampires had almost peaked. The books alone have sold more than 50 million total copies in 2012, outselling all of the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. At the time of its release in 2012, the fi rst fi lm’s opening weekend gross brought in $152.5 million, making it the third-largest opening of any fi lm in North America at the time. The second movie, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire brought in a total of $158.1 million in 2013 and remains the sixth-largest opening of any fi lm in North America at this time. The franchise still has two movies to go, silver screen versions of the fi nal book Mockingjay.

The fi lm Divergent, released in 2014, has grossed over $274 million worldwide, with the sequel The Divergent Series: Insurgent to be released in 2015. As of 2013, books sales are now well over 2.6 million copies of the fi rst two books. The Giver, just released this past August, has currently grossed more than $33.9 million in its fi rst month in theaters. The book, written in 1993, has won many prestigious awards including Book of the Year from School Library Journal, the 1994 Newberry Medal and a Booklist Editor’s Choice award. The Giver is also included on the American Library Association’s list for the Best Books for Young Adults.

According to The International Reading Association’s site ReadThinkWrite.org, dystopian novels focus on an imaginary universe with strict societal controls. In order to create a better society, citizens are controlled through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral or totalitarian rules and regulations, or sometimes even a combination of several different methods. Many times, these stories are making an attempt to criticize a current trend, social norm or political occurrence that’s actually happening in our current world.

Other themes popular with dystopian novels include propaganda used to persuade or infl uence citizens, restriction of freedoms and independent thoughts, idealized fi gureheads or concepts, and constant surveillance. Storylines also frequently involve fear of the world outside the protagonist’s community and disapproval of individuality. As a result, the main character often feels trapped and is struggling to escape like Jonas in The Giver, senses that something is terribly wrong with his or her current society like Tally in Scott Westerfeld’s The Uglies or questions the existing political system like Katniss in Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games.

ust How Successful Have These Books and Movies Been?

From the novel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells to Lois Lowry’s 1993 middle school curriculum fi xture The  Giver, dystopian themes are in no way new to literature. However, alternate realities fi lled with oppressive governments, death, struggle-inducing conditions and futuristic elements are now popping up on bookshelves and premiering theaters across the country, causing many to wonder what’s behind this genre’s sudden emergence among teen audiences?

teen dystopian reads turned blockbuster movies

Now Trending: uthors’ Views on the Dystopian TrendIn our current society, technology, media and the instant access to information have made it easier for complex issues to leak into the lives of teens before they may be able to fully understand them. Dystopian literature is one way to encourage teens to think critically about the ideas being presented to them and actively analyze the world they live in. In a Scholastic interview with The Hunger Games trilogy author Suzanne Collins, she stated that not only can teens keep up with the books' intricate themes, but that her stories are conversation starters to talk with students about violence, war, and the complicated search for "reality" in our media-saturated world.

“Telling a story in a futuristic world gives you freedom to explore things that bother you in contemporary times,” stated Collins. “So, in the case of The Hunger Games, (I approached) issues like the vast discrepancy of wealth, the power of television and how it's used to infl uence our lives, the possibility that the government could use hunger as a weapon, and then fi rst and foremost to me, the issue of war.”

This genre also excels at tapping into the often unsure and awkward feelings of youth. Best-selling author Lauren Oliver of the dystopian books Delirium, Pandemonium and Requiem told NPR in an on-air interview that she never intended to author a work that fi ts into this trend, but that she wanted to write

something that both young people can identify with and that explores a society that views love as something as undesirable as a disease.

"The young protagonists are inheriting this kind of dark and broken world, and with a little bit of pluck and courage, try to navigate it and try to salvage some kind of a happy ending. And I do think there's a lot of parallels to how young people kind of feel nowadays as they're confronting this future that's very uncertain in this country economically and they're inheriting what they see as kind of a broken world,” said Oliver to NPR.

Two more reasons for the explosion of this genre might be because of the way this age group sticks with a story, no matter what direction it takes, and how they can turn specifi c phrases, ideas and languages into a craze among their friends. Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series, said in an interview with Suvudu, a genre site created by trade publisher Random House, that children and teens read with more focus than adults, “making it fun to challenge them linguistically.” He stated, “Kids are much less fragile. I can go crazy with invented slang and neologisms, and be fairly confi dent that my readers will have their friends speaking pretty-talk (a languages in The Uglies) soon after they’ve read the book.”

1984 by George Orwell: The government monitors everything its citizens say and do, while punishing individualism as a crime.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Every year, the government selects twenty-four teenagers and throws them into an arena to fi ght to the death.

The Stand by Stephen King: The world ends with the blip of a computer error in a Defense Department laboratory, spiraling into the death of ninety-nine percent of its popuation.

The Giver by Lois Lowry: All choices are made by the government to prevent mistakes, greed and hate, while individuality, love and dishonesty are abolished to keep all things equal and fair.

The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: Everyone is born “ugly” but upon turning a certain age, citizens undergo extreme plastic surgery to fi t into societal standards of beauty and eliminate jealousy, low self-esteem and racism.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver: Love has been diagnosed as a disease, and all teenagers are required to take the cure for it as soon as they turn eighteen.

Divergent by Veronica Roth: Virtues are divided into fi ve factions, and each sixteen-year-old must decide which faction they will devote the rest of their lives to.

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Society tries to keep the peace by burning all books, the houses that store them and even those who read them.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: The World Controllers have created the ideal society through genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs so all of its members are happy consumers.

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popular dystopian novels at a glance:

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