Living in Dystopia

If you're a reader and you read a lot of YA (young adult), you know dystopias are where it's at. It all sort of began with Harry Potter and has now expanded to the Hunger Games, the Maze Runner, Divergent and many other worlds that have yet to be moved onto the silver screen.

I read a lot of dystopian YA. I'm not going to lie--lately, I've been reading almost exclusively anything dystopian. I don't know why it's so intriguing to read about worlds similar to ours but completely different, but I'm obsessed and I know many other people are as well.

While the mainstream series are, for the most part, enjoyable, I thought I'd take a minute to recommend some lesser known dystopian series that are equally as fantastic. These are in no particular order, aside from the order of which I thought of them.

1. The Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman

I haven't actually completed this series yet, but I felt it needed to be listed because, first off, the main characters in the first book are from Ohio, and, second, the concept is super unique. The whole idea is that children can be sold off by their parents to be "unwound" or, essentially, taken apart piece by piece and given to someone like a transplant donor. The children don't get to make the decision for themselves, and this is all about kids (teens, really) trying desperately to escape their future of being unwound.

2. The Giver (The Quartet Series) by Lois Lowry

I know, this is considered to be more for "kids," but, as someone who loves YA with a passion, I would recommend this 10/10 for anyone who loves YA. This has a sort of unique concept, in that the world is trying to life on the safe side not even allowing people to see color any more. Life is entirely regulated, like many other dystopian books. You are not raised by your birth parents. You are raised by parents assigned to be the best set of folks for your success. If you're extremely lucky, you are eventually given a good job suited to who you are as a person and you do not get to say no. The government makes all of those decisions for you so you don't have to. The first three books are relatively short but the final book should really fall under the YA category. These are some of my favorites.

3. The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

I recommend this to anyone ever. I don't care who you are, this deserves a lot more glory than it's received. The best part? Sequels are still coming out! I feel like a lot of series have finished now, but this is still relatively new.

The idea is that the prince (or later, princess) that will eventually become king/queen needs help finding a partner so, much like other series, people are able to apply for this position. This does take a sort of Hunger Games feel in that the girls narrowed down to compete are essentially contestants in a competition. There is a competition feel but, in my opinion, this has more of a romance feel to it. The two main characters are easily in my top ten YA characters--they're likable, quirky and have an air of normalcy to them, so anyone can relate. That, for me, is the best part. There is a good amount of suspense throughout with the competition, which keeps the plot moving, and none of this stops in the other novels. Granted, I am a fast reader, but I read the first part of the series (the Selection, the Elite and the One) in just a couple days. I love this series a lot.

4. The Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano

Holy crap this book! How did I never hear of it before randomly finding it on the shelves of this library?! The premise is interesting and one of my favorites: boys die at 20, girls die at 18. You can live a little bit (maybe a month or so) past that time, but never all that long, even with the best medical help in the world. Women are being bought by rich men that were born before the age curses for their sons who do have the illness to become wives. It's not in a creepy way--just in a "be my best friend before we both die" sort of way, and the world has become desolate. Picture a world that looks entirely like a run down amusement park or like the wastelands shown in the Walking Dead, but with random amazingly brilliant mansions filled with delicious foods, holograms and where Hawaii is merely a fairy tale.

This series all centers on a girl who is kidnapped from her brother and sold to the son of a rich man to be one of his three wives. It's she and her other two wives' job to try and give him a child before they both die, as well as live out the rest of their years happily ever after. You can imagine she doesn't enjoy being kidnapped and tries to get back to her twin brother. There's excellent characters, a beautiful love story, plot twists that left me completely shocked all surrounded by the mystic and magical world she's living in. There isn't actual magic, but there are certainly futuristic items and concepts that would probably be considered magical in the world we live in.

5. The Dissonance Series by Erika O'Rourke

I'm going to be totally honest--I only read the first book and I have absolutely no idea how to properly explain this and why it's so amazing. Del is the main character and she's a Walker. No, not a zombie from Walking Dead. She walks between worlds--it's a trait certain families have where one can simply find a crack where a decision was made, go through and see a world where a different decision would have been made (an echo). She falls in love with a boy in one of these worlds that she knows in her world, but a different version of that boy. This is the story of how she continues to find that boy in every world, how she falls in love with him and how she fights desperately to keep both him (the him in her world--and the other worlds, too) and her world alive and in harmony with all the other echoes of the world.

If that isn't enough information for you, I recommend looking the series up yourself. I find it's so unique I'm not quite sure how to put it into words, but I've really enjoyed it thus far. I love O'Rourke's writing style and her characters are pretty interesting as well.

Have you read any of these? Or any others that are often forgotten? If so, comment below and let me know! I'm always looking for a new dystopia to fall in love with!