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Book Recommendations--Hunger? Life as We Knew It (series)?


Chris in VA
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No libraries that aren't academic here, so I'm kindling it for now, and Overdrive is my best friend. 

I've come across two I'd like to read--Hunger, and Life as We Knew It. Hunger is horror, a re-envisioning of the Donner Party story as a horror event, and LaWKI is a post-apocalyptic young adult story with several sequels that looks interesting. 

Meanwhile, dd has discovered a fabulous nook in the library at college where the classics are, and has carved out a 30-60 minute period daily to read. I'm so proud of her! She's friends with Thomas Hardy and Daphne Du Maurier at the moment...

Apples do fall far...hahahha 

I digress--anyone read the two books I'm interested in?

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I've read  Life As We Knew It. Meh. It's one of your more realistic dystopians, just in terms of outcome (the science is absurd) of chaos and everyday lives. I didn't find the arc of the novel to work very well though. It builds to nothing. I started one of the sequels, but I lost interest fast. The writing and plotting weren't to my liking.

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If you want a decent YA dystopian, I thought Under the Never Sky was a good, distracting read. It wasn't high literature, even by YA standards, but the plot didn't lose me and basically made sense through the end. Gosh, it sounds like my standards are low. But I like to read light page turners sometimes and a lot of the YA stuff just meanders through plots that either really tick me off (like The Selection.. I do not understand the success of that series) or just make almost no sense (Matched is a good example of that... interesting until it was swallowed up in plot holes).

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My favorite YA dystopian series at the moment is Cinder. I feel like most YA dystopian is either heavy on the romance (Selection) or heavy on the societal issues (Matched) - but Cinder does a really good job of balancing it. It's a futuristic Cinderella story and each sequel introduces a new fairy tale character, so that by the last book you have 4 different stories weaving in and out of each other. That part's really fun. 🙂 

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The Lunar Chronicles (Cinder) is fun, but I did think it was a little heavily hetero-normative, and I rolled my eyes a bit at how neatly and quickly everybody got matched up.

You might try Orleans, the Uglies series, or Blight. (The last I didn't think was anything special, unlike the author's previous two books, but it's pretty solid YA dystopia.) Or, if you want to go classic, try Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes, republished as The Game.

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23 hours ago, Farrar said:

If you want a decent YA dystopian, I thought Under the Never Sky was a good, distracting read. It wasn't high literature, even by YA standards, but the plot didn't lose me and basically made sense through the end. Gosh, it sounds like my standards are low. But I like to read light page turners sometimes and a lot of the YA stuff just meanders through plots that either really tick me off (like The Selection.. I do not understand the success of that series) or just make almost no sense (Matched is a good example of that... interesting until it was swallowed up in plot holes).

 

I tried Matched and could not finish it. Good to know its not just me

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22 hours ago, cabercro said:

My favorite YA dystopian series at the moment is Cinder. I feel like most YA dystopian is either heavy on the romance (Selection) or heavy on the societal issues (Matched) - but Cinder does a really good job of balancing it. It's a futuristic Cinderella story and each sequel introduces a new fairy tale character, so that by the last book you have 4 different stories weaving in and out of each other. That part's really fun. 🙂 

 

I enjoyed Cinder. Didn't know there were sequels out!

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You could apply for a non resident library card for Fairfax County VA for $27 a year https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/non-resident-library-card-application  and use their overdrive! (They had everything, but often a wait. I would look up, favorite books from 2014 or whatever to get older popular books)

I’m sure there are others out there, but that’s one I considered paying for (used to live there and was sad when my card expired)

Have you read the Murderbot series?  Not distopoian, but really very good!!

I also enjoyed Cinder, and the rest of the series.

I wouldn’t buy Life As We Knew It, but I did like it.

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I thought the Lawless series by Tarah Benner was pretty interesting. Part of my interest may have been that it was mostly set near where I live, but I did find it fairly thought provoking. For a YA dystopian series, anyway. 

Not a a YA series, but Hugh Howey's Wool series was excellent. I've recommended it to others that aren't even fond of the dystopian genre and they still enjoyed it. 

Both series should be available with Kindle Unlimited. 

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1 hour ago, WendyLady said:

 

Have you read the Murderbot series?  Not distopoian, but really very good!!

I just finished Murderbot and really loved it.  It starts with All Systems Red.

My all time favorite dystopian is Cronin’s Passages series https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6690798-the-passage?ac=1&from_search=true which I am mentioning because most Overdrive libraries probably have it although it is not YA.  Very long so many hours of entertainment! 😉

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