Happy Tuesday! I am jazzed for this week's Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish which is a great way to find out what books are catching people's attention. This week, I offer a list of the best Dystopian books I have come across. (It is really a list of "creepy places I would never want to live but am fascinated by in book form")
1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is a master dystopian-world-inventor.
2. The Hunger Games triology. (obvi, PEETA is there).
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth (I am MEH on this but Goosie Mama thinks it is far superior to the Hunger Games. Things got heated on two separate occasions last Friday about this. Once via text, once at the bar, OPPS. Agree to disagree)
4.The Giver by Louis Lowry. When that color pops, it is crazy good.
5. The Maze Runner by James Daschner. These kids and their lingo are cool. I wish the last book wasn't such a mindblowing dissapointment. I was so jazzed by books one and two, and tried to explain all the layers of conspiracy to whoever would listen.
6. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I have only read the first of this triology, but it was hang-on-the-edge-of-your-seat creepy. I am going to get around to finishing it.
7. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. NOTE: THIS IS PROBABLY one of the only fun Dystopian worlds in existence. They treat Shakespeare's plays like people treat the Rocky Horror Picture Show! You can be a tourist inside a book! The Bad Guy's name is literally Mr. Schitt. It is so beyond inventive and fun.
8. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (for Crazy Camper, who is currently camping and can't weigh in, but is a big fan)
9. Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Why aren't more people loving this vampire tale?
(and a honorary Whiskey Sour to my fav, Kevin Cosner (you dance with those wolves!) for staring in two of the worst dystopian movies of all time--The Postman and Waterworld. Crazy Camper and I used to threaten to show Waterworld when the kids were bad at the camp where we had summer jobs once upon a time. Result=scared straight.)
SUNSHINE! I love Sunshine. It's one of my favorite books ever. And I just got The Giver for 25 cents on Amazon, so I'll be reading it soon! (I know, I'm so behind! But I'll get there, I promise! :P)
ReplyDeleteMy top nine epic fantasy series
Seconding the Sunshine love! A far more realistic take on vampire/human interactions than Twilight (and I realize using the word "realistic" when talking about vampires is a little silly). I also had The Handmaid's Tale on my list. :) Thanks for sharing your choices!
ReplyDeleteI love Sunshine!! It is such a good book and I really don't hear much about it ever. Also...love Kev Costner, I wrote my thesis on a cultural comparison of the Geste of Robyn Hood and his Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. So much fun! Here is my Top Ten
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing! kevin for credit!
DeleteGreat list! Gonna have to agree with Divergent being so good... maybe not better than THG, but definitely just as good, imo!
ReplyDelete~holley www.dreamsandswords.com
I'm interested in reading the argument for Divergent! I don't think it's better but who knows, maybe I'll change my mind once the series is finished!
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Great, great choices! You should definitely also check out Pure by Julianna Baggott if you liked these so much. It was brilliant!
ReplyDeleteCheck out YA Litwit’s Top Ten Fairy Tale Retellings and my GIVEAWAY!
Great choices! I haven't picked up a few of these, but the other ones are some of my all time favourites, particularly Divergent and The Giver. I've just ordered The Maze Runner, so I should be reading that soon!
ReplyDeleteGreat list! There are several on here that I haven't read, so I'll have to check them out. I did read Divergent and loved it!
ReplyDeleteTanya
Girlxoxo.com
Gotta say, I'm going to have to agree with Goosie on this one. Divergent is definitely the superior read!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see another lister with the Handmaid's Tale! It's kinda how many dystopian lists it doesn't show up on.
I liked the Giver and Maze Runner as well, but liked not loved. They would definitely have made my honorable mentions though. I'd never heard of The Eyre Affair - I'll have to check that out!
Happy to hear Sunshine is being enjoyed! Carissa Taylor, we stumbled on the Eyre Affair when 2 of us here found it on NPR's 100 Greatest SF and Fantasy books of all time list. It came out this past summer. (its also how I found Sunshine too!)
ReplyDeleteI never thought of The Handmaid's Tale as being dystopian. I read it so long ago--before I even knew the word/genre! LOL It must have been my first dystopian novel. Good list!
ReplyDeleteI love Sunshine, too! Robin McKinley is one of my all-time favorite authors.
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