The Sassy Librarian: Dystopian fiction

Dystopian fiction

Showing posts with label Dystopian fiction. Show all posts

I really feel for authors when their book is compared to another, incredibly successful book. Either people will buy it because of the other book's success as some kind of craving for something else (like when you try and eat the healthier dessert when you really want the calorie-laden "Death by Chocolate" one) or they will read your book and say they don't like it because it's not exactly like the one whose comparison prompted their purchase in the first place.

Reading ARC reviews of Divergent by Veronica Roth and seeing the endless comparisons The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (similar to how every post-Twilight vampire book had that immediate "Twilight fans will love this!" in every review) left me irritated on her behalf (although I'm happy for Roth since the book sales have been great).

I think the cover art had something to do with the comparison as well. The emblem in a circle does look rather reminiscent of the Mockingjay pin and I'm sure that's intentional on the publisher's part (I'll be interested to see the cover art for future editions in a few years - I pictured the two main characters maybe with a bruise or two set in front a dark, clearly decrepit city with the derelict elevated train riding overhead).

Take a look at the trailer:

This book is good dystopian fiction (I'm thinking readers who like the Uglies series, the City of Ember books, Matched by Ally Condie, etc.) and is well-written, particularly considering that author Veronica Roth signed her book deal prior to graduating from Northwestern University. Way to go, Veronica!! I'm glad we can look forward to more great books from you since you are a young writer. :-)

In a crumbling future Chicago, we see a future in which the turbulent past has resolved itself into a world in which people fit into five factions according to their personality type: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Erudite (the intellectuals), and Dauntless (the brave). At the age of 16, each person is given a test that shows their disposition so they know what society to choose at the ceremony their families attend as they enter adulthood.

Our protagonist, Beatrice, has been born into Abnegation but she struggles with the selflessness and invisibility she is supposed to embody. After disturbing results on her test in which the adult tester from Dauntless warns her she is "divergent" - showing no predilection to one society but instead to a few - she is instructed to never speak of this label again. Shaken, she goes to her ceremony and chooses Dauntless which is the faction she feels the most affinity for. Author Roth does an amazing job at explaining why young Tris (she renames herself upon joining the faction) is attracted to Dauntless. Not only are they visible and noisy, the qualities she has wanted to express all along, but their daring stems from the faction's philosophy ideally espoused by each member:

I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.

Of course, things are not what they seem once she begins her initiation which is grueling and brutal, both mentally and physically. Through it all is her guide and instructor, Four, who she discovers has a mysterious past that somehow binds them together. As her layers are stripped away to reveal Tris' true self in her training, she discovers that Dauntless, and her whole society, are not what they seem and she and the other "Divergents" might be the only thing capable of stopping a war.

What was so compelling about this novel was that Tris wasn't the total badass female protagonist we've been reading elsewhere, but she's not a marshmallow either. She is a sometimes selfless, sometimes brave, always smart girl who is coming of age in a rite designed by her society for that purpose. Roth does an excellent job of building the foundation for the future books of the trilogy as we can see Tris' potential as a leader, the possibility of her romantic future, and her society's inevitable conflict. This is a series I am looking forward to reading. For their own sake.

There has been a lot of hype about Matched by Ally Condie and, while I trust lots of bloggers out there, it's hard not to approach all the exclamation points with a certain jaded quality. Particularly considering how the success of The Hunger Games has caused a veritable avalanche of dystopian fiction, it would be easy to dismiss this book as merely part of that wave.

Don't.

At first I was merely struck with how the book was well-written and our protagonist, Cassia, (pronounced Cash-eah) was a sweet but rather bland individual who reflected her highly controlled society. The novel begins with her traveling with her family to her area's Match Banquet, a formal dinner where the region's seventeeen-year-old population gets to eat delicious food, wear beautiful clothing (that they aren't allowed to keep) and see the face of the person to whom they are matched. Cassia has a enormous surprise - her match is actually her best friend, Xander, with whom she traveled to the banquet. Her happiness (and that her family who does not have to watch her leave them to live in another area of the country) is tempered when she later sees on her match "card" another handsome face, also of a boy she knows, Ky.

The first few chapters seem as if the book is going to head in a direction of "which great guy", but author Condie's facile handling of Cassia's dystopian world has the reader quickly ponder the intricacies of her world. Everything is controlled in this world...EVERYTHING. The officials in society use severe knowledge limitation and statistics to control the populace and it seems as if it works most of the time in Cassia's little province. But with two boys in front of her and an official admitting there was a mistake, Cassia begins to see fissures in her society's seeming perfection, with a whole world opening up in front of her.

Because if society made a mistake with her match, what other mistakes exist? Cassia begins to question almost everything while at the same time getting to know Ky better and realizing that she is in love with him in a way her affection for Xander cannot match. Take a look at the book trailer.

I'm trying to figure out how best to describe this book and the word "quiet" keeps coming to mind. Cassia is not the strong female protagonist we've come to expect in a lot of dystopian fiction (think Katniss) but she's no shrinking wallflower either. She's an intelligent young woman who, faced with some big changes in her life (receiving her "match," the scheduled death of her grandfather, her future employment being determined), applies her ability to seeing all the flaws in the world around her, flaws her deep love for Ky further highlight as wrong. I really did get a The Giver vibe from this book, both in the elegance of some of the passages as well as the "wait....WHAT?!" moments as Cassia's officials went about their work (like her father's work in the library *shudder*). The romantic aspect certainly propels this book into a higher age bracket and the greater length allows for more exploration of certain themes, so this novel lands in a reader age group a little higher than Lois Lowry's classic.

As with so many books these days (seriously, does anyone just write a single book anymore?), Matched is part of a trilogy with the second book, Crossed, due out in November 2011. Considering how Condie left our protagonist, Cassia, it's not surprising that additional books would be necessary to continue the story. I was thrilled to hear in an interview with her (below, check it out for more hints) that this book was going to be from Ky's perspective. He is a character that I want to learn much more about!