If You Like….

When I finished reading the Hunger Games triology, I wanted to find books that were just like it. Over time, I have found books that did have elements that reminded me of H.G., but they were just elements, rather than complete replicas. So I thought I’d compile a list of dystopian novels that remind me of certain elements. Have fun!

1. If you liked H.G.’s love triangle, you’ll love….

… The Matched triology by Ally Condie, or The Selection by Kiera Cass. Both have a love triangle as main themes. Your tagline… “I like him, but I really like him, but he was my childhood friend, but he knows me better than anyone.”

2. If you liked Katniss because she’s plucky, you’ll love….

Divergent by Veronica Roth, or Blood Red Road by Moira Young.

3. If you wanted it to be all katniss and Peeta in the cave, all the time, you’ll love….

Divergent, Shatter Me, or The Selection.

4. If you liked the woodsy feel of District 12, you’ll love….

Blood Red Road.

Freebies!!! Where to Find Them

If you look around the web, you’ll find dystopian freebies galore! Here are some ideas of what’s out there:

First chapter of Julia Karr’s XVI. It can be found on her website JuliaKarr.com. (I have not read this book, but I got this tip off of Veronica Roth’s blog. Thanks to Veronica for the tip.)

The Kobo “Hungry For Dystopia” teen sampler pack. This can be downloaded for free off of the Kobo website. It’s easy to find, just type in” teen dystopia” or some other related title in the search engine, then limit the search to “free only.” The samples are all quite large in size, so it’s easy to decide whether or not you like something before you commit to reading a whole novel.

Foundlings short story by Diana Peterfreund.

was originally part of the anthology, Brave New Love It’s an intersting, fast-moving story, although the end is a little abrupt for my taste. Read it for yourself by searching for it on the Kobo website.

Read the first 100 pages of Divergent for free at browseinside.harpercollins.ca.. It’s in PDF format, so it’s quick to read, and provides roughly a third of the book.

ebook sites like Kobo, Smashwords, and epub often have free samples, or even whole books. These may be written by established, new, or self-published authors. You might have to sift through a lot of sand to get to the gems, but they are out there, and you get the chance to enjoy a great read for free, or at a very low cost (plus if one of the authors become big some day, you can smugly say that you’ve been reading their books for years).
Happy Reading!

The Giver Movie

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned The Giver as one of the dystopian books that I first read. Apparently, there had been plans to adapt it as a movie for years, but it never happened. Now there is a film adaptation that is definitely in the works (go to IMDB.com for more details), but there is no real information, since the status is “in development.” That said, there are rumours that Jeff Bridges is going to be the Giver. What does everyone think? Do you think that a Giver

adaptation is going to happen? If so, who would you cast as main characters?

Divergent Adaptation: Where’s Four?

After reading Veronica Roth’s blockbuster novel, Divergent, this summer, I was super-exited to find out that it was going to be a movie. Like really going to be a movie, not just optioned for film rights. Despite production coming up quickly, casting has been very s-l-o-w. So far, only Tris has been cast (Shailene Woodley from The Descendants) with rumours swirling that Kate Winslet has been cast in an unspecified role (Tris’s mother,or the evil villan? I can’t think of anyone else she’d be). Interestingly, Four has not been cast. Despite the amount of interest in the role amongst the thespian crowd, the role has not been cast yet (at press time, maybe something’s happened as I’m writing this). So lets have ourselves a little casting call of our own. Who do you think should be Four? Sound off!! (and please be kind with your comments. Inapropriate comments will be removed.)

Welcome!

Hello and Welcome! This is my first post, so it’s very exciting.

I created this blog so that I can share my love of dystopian novels (and movies). My enjoyment of them goes really far back (well, not really far back, but far enough) to my junior high days. In 9th grade, my mom made me read The Giver for English Lit . At first I protested. At the time, post-apocalyptic books for children and teens were in style, and I found them completely exhausting to read. Usually they involved someone wandering around aimlessly with the world crashing in around them. Depressing and not fun at all. I didn’t understand why I would read that, when I could read Jane Austen, or Little Women. Something pretty, not hopeless. However, having been threatened with a Shakespeare play or Flowers For Algernon, as alternatives, I decided that maybe I could try The Giver.

I started the book reluctantly, expecting to hate it. The day I started it was cloudy, gloomy. Not the best type of day to read a “post-apocalyptic” novel that you didn’t want to read in the first place. Before I began my required chapter count for the day, I looked at the much-resented book – a battered, sticky, gross-looking copy from the public library- took a deep breath, and started reading. And kept reading past my required chapter count for the day.

Instead of being bored and frustrated with the trademark aimless wandering of popular post-apocalyptic books, I found myself in the middle of a dynamic and calculated society. A society that could just as easily be our own someday. I finished the book and completed my book report to mom’s satisfaction.

Even after I had long finished The Giver, I found that I still thought about it. Sure, the whole setup was sort of unsettling, but then, it was still hopeful. And besides that, it was a good story. I read it a second time, enjoying it just as much as the first. This time though, I was more fascinated by the structure. I had never read anything like it. It wasn’t post-apocalyptic, but it was definitely futuristic, or at least taking place in a parallel universe. At the time, I didn’t bother to find out what genre it was, thinking that it was an experimental genre, if anything.

Then I read The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games was yet another book that my mom tried to convince me to read in my junior high years. I didn’t buy it. Then the movie came out. The commercials looked good, so I thought that I’d give the book a try. And….

One of my new favorites. I read the first book over a couple of days, then read the other two installments quickly after. It was so easy to get wrapped up in Katniss and her dilemma of the Games. And of course there’s a love triangle (yeah!).

Having finished H.G. I was left feeling a bit sad. What do you do when you finish an epic series? It was just like when Harry Potter ended, only that series had seven books.

Still, I didn’t mope for long. After cleansing my literary palette with the much acclaimed, extremely moving,and incredibly profane, The Deep End of the Ocean I decided to look for another book that was just like H.G. Searching Goodreads, I found not only The Selection by Kiera Cass, but the name of the genre that both H.G. and The Giver belonged to; Dystopia. A pretty cool name if you ask me.

After that, I decided to make it my mission to read as many dystopian novels as possible. I had planned on blogging on it from the start, but never actually got around to setting the blog up. So a communications course in university became my perfect excuse, and my blog has since been born.

Welcome to my blog!!!