When I was younger, I was rabid for YA dystopian fiction. The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Matched, etc. I read so many of those books and series back-to-back. I’ve always been a sucker for tyrannical governments and ordinary young citizens fighting against the powers that be. I still like to revisit these old books sometimes as comfort reads when I just need that itch scratched and nothing else can do it quite like cliche YA fiction (I’m using the term cliche affectionately here). I’m currently reading A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (the Hunger Games prequel) and it’s reminded me of how fond I feel for this genre and these familiar tropes.
But I’m reaching 30 and I feel I am aging out of the genre; I find it harder and harder to relate to teenaged main characters. But I’m really craving that YA dystopian esque vibe and familiar tropes. Maybe a story where the day is saved by a boring twenty-something office worker, or the government regime is brought down by a waitress? 😛 if you catch my drift
Bonus points if romance isn’t a huge core feature of the plot, too, because ~love triangles~ were always my least favorite part of this genre’s tropes.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
by panini_bellini
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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Wool omnibus
I’m gonna start off by saying it’s not set out as a dystopia, it’s a post-contact future earth where aliens have established diplomatic relations, but in *Drunk on All Your Strange New Words* by Eddie Robson, a low-level human translator ends up in a politically volatile situation while amateur sleuthing the murder of her alien boss. (Some of the tech is definitely on the dystopian side though — think what we have taken a few steps further.)
Armada by Ernest Cline is a technically adult high school student who saves the world with video game skills. I’m old AF and I like that one