Dystopia

Shoe shopping is one of my least favourite things. I can't think of many worse examples of style over convenience. The shoes are almost always laced up so that you can't tighten them and inevitably there'll only be one available so that you're at the mercy of an over-worked sixteen-year-old running her legs into nubs. Angers me. Still, I faced it today. Hopefully that will see me through another five years or so.

Lately I seem to have been reading a whole heap of dystopian teen fiction, apparently it's the hip new thing. Here's some words about some of them:

Hunger Games
Yes it's almost a straight rip off of Battle Royal. Yes it's about a teenage love triangle. Yes it's obvious. Yes the third one stretches the suspension of disbelief so far past snapping point as to be laughable. Yes the film is about to come out and smear my expectations against a massive hunk of disappointment (Prince Harry as Cato? Really?). But if you can think of a more enjoyable book I will fight you and I will prevail because I will have right on my side.

Wither
Yes it's almost a straight rip off of the Handmaids Tale. Yes it's about a teenage love triangle (well pentagon). Yes it's obvious. Yes it's only the first part of a trilogy and the next two could very easily be rubbish, but I for one am going to find out how good they are as fast as I possibly can - which will probably be about eighteen months - come on Lauren de Stefano get back to your writing.

Pure (no not that one what's been in the news, the Julianna Baggott one - incidentally, if you google Pure Julianna you get someone trying to sell you pigs)
Well hello, Pure. I was told that you were going to be teen fiction, but you appear to be rather more literary than that. You're like a book for grown ups that just happens to have sixteen-year-olds as the main characters. You're also mighty twisted, with your deformed lead characters and your brutal, brutal world. You know, Pure, I think that we could be friends.