Matched v. Divergent. V hunger games

[Tianarenee3]

As the new fad has so loudly been proclaimed, novels and series of young adult fiction have revolved around the impending resolution of a dystopian society. In matched, the main character questions the authorital choices the government makes when revolving around her personal life; in divergent the protagonists fight for their lives to stop being someone they're not; in the hunger games, tributes are rounded up into a fight until the death for the entertainment of the government's people. So, I'm senseing a pattern here?!?!

I was just wondering what everyone else thought about the situation, which is your favorite dystopian novel, and if you think the use of a dystopia is being over done. When books like this have the power to alter the way we view things, presumably our own government, it is good to collect insight on the matter. Thanks!

[Little House]

I have read quite a few dystopian books in my life, but there does seem to be an abundance of them lately. So much so, that my teenage daughter has refused to read any of the ones that you mentioned. (I have read them all.) Another book that fits this pattern is Birthmarked, by Caragh, M. O'Brien. In this book, the main character is thrust into the roll of Hero/Mystery solver in a rather messed up society.

I do think that these kinds of books help us to think about our own society in a new way. There is no such thing as a perfect society, but it is interesting to think about how to design one. These books can point out the flaws in our society by taking things to extremes. Divergent takes cliques to a whole new level, Hunger Games shows us about overindulgence in the way the people in the capital act, Matched shows the flaws of treating the human experience as one big science experiment, and Birthmarked shows what can happen when "helping" becomes control. As similar as these books are, they each make a different point, they have a different theme. I think that they remind us that even good things taken to extremes can be bad.

[phonicphoenix]

Personally, I really liked how strong Triss was compared to Katniss. I feel like the reason Divergent and Hunger Games are so good is because they both had a lot of action scenes that were unique. Divergent felt consistently like it was more action packed than the Hunger Games but by the end of the novels I felt like there was a lot more character development in The Hunger Games. Not having read "Matched", my vote personally (judging just on the debut of Divergent and Hunger Games) would go for The Hunger Games. I had a hard time narrowing it down but it felt like there was more of a fleshed out concept with Hunger Games and that Divergent was more about action and a strong female lead.

[Sim P]

I prefer Divergent to Matched. I didn't like so much Matched because it was more about love and the action was just kind of lame for me. I am just not keen on these types of stories. But choosing between Divergent and Hunger Games is difficult. They both have action I find interesting and a bit of romance which after all doesn't lead the whole plot. Both Katniss and Tris were brave and their charachters were well developed but I choose Divergent because of the action I talked about comparing it to Matched and because I find the idea of the society divided into factions more likely to happen but I don't say that I exclude the districts and the games in the near future. However, my choose just felt to be Divergent.

[Alexisliz]

I've read the Hunger Games series and I bought and read Divergent- but didn't have any desire to read the sequel. I just picked up Matched at a yard sale and read it within 2 days. Crossed just came in the mail today(and Reached came a couple days ago{funny I got the third before the second-lol!}). Maybe I'll come back and tell you about the overall Matched series once I'm finished, but one thing that the first book did to me was make me furious at the idea of being so controlled by the government as that society is. It made me realize that I never want to see America in that state.

[carrielee0718]

On the topic of female leads in dystopian novels as a recurring theme, I definitely see what you're saying Tianarenee3. I think you could also consider the Grisha trilogy and Graceling in this same vein as well.

Personally, I think the Grisha trilogy is the best out of these dystopian novels (you haven't read it yet? This is your formal invitation!), though I'm not sure any of the recent ones really make me reflect as much as the classics did, such as Fahrenheit 451. I feel like the problem with the recent YA-dystopian-female-lead novels we've seen lately is that the female leads <i>have to</i> have a love interest. I don't particularly mind that there is a love story, since that makes me feel the feels, but I think that the focus on the relationships does draw away from the emphasis on political commentary.

But hey- most of the classic dystopian novels weren't aimed at the YA group, so you could also argue that getting these readers to take a closer look at government in whatever form is laudable.

[RussetDivinity]

I've read all three of the trilogies, and I have to say that I liked Divergent and The Hunger Games the best. It wasn't because of the action -- personally, I'd love to read a dystopian novel where the protagonist lives through her wits more than her muscle -- but because Matched left too many things unanswered for me. I felt like there were holes at the end of the third book, and while I wasn't entirely satisfied with the end of Allegiant, I felt like it cleared just about everything up by the end. Of the three, I'd probably have to go with The Hunger Games as my favorite, though that may be because I read it before I read the others.