So, it seems as if the next biggest thing is young adult dystopian novels. I would normally be opposed to such a fad, like that of the vampire love series that has been circulating for quite some time. I admit, however, that I love dystopian books. I have always loved books like 1984, Brave New World, Feed... I even did a entire text set that used 1984, V for Vendetta, Feed, and Rhinoceros as the 4 texts that all revolved around one theme. I love the idea of a broken society and how people learn how to deal with government control. We must all come to terms that we must play the game in order to live as freely and peacefully as possible, and it relates to the direction society and culture is heading towards. It started with The Hunger Games, and now there are new series of books popping up everywhere. The Uglies, Divergent, Delirium, Matched.... the list goes on.
I read The Hunger Games a couple of years ago, and thought that the first book in the trilogy was brilliant for being a young adult piece of fiction. It lacked some description, details, and character development that I look for in literature, but I thought that the theme and the ideas put forth in the book really spoke to people. I can see something like this happening in the future, and it speaks to our generation of teenagers. However, as the trilogy progresses, I feel like Suzanne Collins gave up on her characters and the story all together. Katniss is a strong female character, who gives up her freedom for her younger sister, by deciding to join the Hunger Games in her sister's place. However, by the end of book 3, Katniss deteriorates as a character. She becomes weakened by the system, and ends up crying in closets and cannot even function. One of the side story's, with the love triangle, becomes the sole purpose of the novel. She ends up not even choosing her own ending, but rather lets everyone control her. It ends up choosing her. I can't imagine a Katniss that Collins' illustrates in the beginning of the trilogy to turn out the way she does. I understand the argument that she went through a lot, and that she can't stay strong like the reader would expect, but she just becomes pathetic. Her actions are not within the realm of her character. She gives up, stops fighting, and allows the games to ruin her. I just don't understand why Collins would go through the trouble of writing an entire series if she was going to end up making Katniss into a weak female character. If she had made some kind of choice on her own accord, I would respect that. I hate weak female characters. If she was weak, at least let it be because she WANTS to be weak. I just was truly disappointed with the trilogy.
On the other hand, there was a book Divergent by Veronica Roth that gained some popularity. More on this later.
