Turning YA book selection into purely romance and romantasy needs to be studied, as well as tiktokification of reading. Skipping paragraphs without dialogue, finding simple plots too difficult to understand, not even remotely analyzing the text, ignoring inconsistencies and blindly following trends and what author spoon-feeds the readers, etc. It essentially boils down to wanting to read just porn without saying you want to read porn. Nothing wrong with that, except instead of admitting it, people have turned to doubling down that these objectively bad books are the pinnacle of self-care, progress and being a girlboss.
I’ve seen booktokers on tiktok (before I deleted tiktok) say they “didn’t get” older booktok books like Cruel Prince, Six of Crows, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and other good books or had to DNF them because it was too “boring” and "too much politics, no smut”. People have been tiktokified or have never read a book that wasn't romance or YA to begin with, so please go read one. It's good for you to broaden your horizons. Besides, YA never has a lot of politics, it's YA. Not even when YA dystopian books were thriving did it have too much politics.
I'm not shaming anyone for wanting to read smut or smutty books but there is no need to turn YA into just a combination of tropes. YA is an age category, it doesn't need dumbing down or becoming more sexual. There are plenty of smut books in YA, new adult, adult, etc. There is no need to shit on and make good YA books unpopular. Writers are getting hurt because the publishing houses would rather publish same mediocre books over and over with slightly different plot and names than good ones. And teenagers in that age category need to have a variety of books to choose from. Instead, they have the same thing over and over, mediocre smut with problematic undertones. Y'all realize Wattpad exists for that and it's free, right?
I love how people frame Uglies as the OG YA dystopia love triangle plot when it's really not that at all
more of a "girl meets boy, girl accidentally betrays boy, girl volunteers to get brain damage so boy's mother can cure her, girl meets other boy while brain damaged, girl and other boy are 100% together and girl is not interested in getting back with First Boy at this time, Second Boy gets WORSE brain damage, girl is trying to fix Second Boy's brain damage for a full book (while actively working against First Boy and his faction), Second Boy dies in surgery to fix his brain damage, girl and First Boy team up to be ecoterrorists, several years later girl and First Boy are MAYBE back together"
like at no point did the girl have to choose between them
and all the B-list imitators were like "yeah but what if she did though? what if that were the main plot actually? :)"
The minor (major) theme of dehumanization in The Hunger Games
Before Lucy Gray's games, the Tributes were treated like lame horses destined for the glue factory, but after her games, the Tributes are treated like show ponies-- who are still destined for the glue factory. She showed the Capitol that the Hunger Games didn't need to be just empty slaughter but a pageant show BEFORE the empty slaughter. Like a county fair, the animals (Tributes) are gussied up and trotted out then given meaningless points based on presentation. The zoo with no food is replaced with luxury apartments and full meals, a taste of the life their labor paid for. "If you can murder your peers, you'll be treated like a human being every day," the Capitol conveys but what is the meaning of humanity in a society that amuses itself with the deaths of children? Better to be a songbird.
It's important that the Tributes are glamoured up before entering the arena. When it was just malnourished, dirty kids fresh from the districts tossed into a death ring, the Capitol citizens had no illusions that the Games were noble; it was just petty revenge on innocent kids for the sins of their parents that quickly lost its novelty. So Snow had to whitewash them, cover reality in a layer of fine new snow to make annual child murder look pretty. "These aren't kids but CONTESTANTS. Pretty lil showdogs-- that will be tearing out the throats of their fellow dogs later-- but look how pretty that one is." The literal zoo of Lucy Gray's day is replaced with the media circus that has the Capitol fawning over the new menagerie every year, placing bets on favorites. In the words of the protagonist from Squid Game: "We are not horses."
You're apart of The 100- well, the 101 now. The odd one out, like always. Trust you to be the wild card, the anarchist, the feral one. What can you say? You grew up on rations and recycled air, anyone's bound to go crazy.
Anarchist!Reader, idk if I'm gonna do a relationship, I'm open to suggestions 😋
CW: mentions of violence, drug use, sex
𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
You were to be locked up until your eighteenth birthday, after which the council would re-evaluate your case and, if improvement could be seen on your part, you'd be spared from floating. Capital punishment and for what? Some minor graffiti and broken pipes (they had charged you with vandalism and criminal damage).
They were overreacting, as you'd fearlessly and facetiously told the council back then- sure, those pipes happened to regulate the flow of the latrine system and your damage had flooded the entire corridor with actual piss and shit, but that was an accident! And the graffiti wasn't even that bad! It was only a couple of Hitler moustaches drawn onto the posters of Chancellor Jaha's face. How were you supposed to know that he'd get so offended about a comparison to a centuries-old fascist dictator? Perhaps Jaha was so offended because he saw a resemblance...
Suffice it to say, you were immediately tossed into the skybox. You were only fourteen, yet harboured within you was a vengeance against every authority figure: fathers or gods; their words meant little to you. Years of false statements and undelivered promises soured what little childhood innocence you had left.
Now, nearing your eighteenth birthday, you were still as distrustful and critical of the government as you'd been all those years ago. It had been four long years of steel walls, or protein slop three times a day and listening to the chancellor's prerecorded speech about 'order' and 'protecting the ark' and blah blah blah. You could probably recite the thing, you'd heard it so much.
Currently, you are hanging upside down off your bed, why? Well, there's literally nothing else to do and you'd already read and reread the few books they'd given you to 'continue your education'. You appreciated that at least, knowledge is power or whatever Francis Bacon said.
Some of these delinquents could use that knowledge- real A class numptys, some of them, they probably couldn't tell their foot from their ass if you asked. It's why you mostly keep to yourself, and why the others don't bother you, your unimpressed deadpan is bound to embarrass and lose the interest of any bullies or teasers.
Also, being nearly one of the oldest here serves you well, the more time that passed, the more your crime was hyperbolised- you swear, you heard someone be warned to keep away from you because you ended up in here for 'biting' the chancellor... Which would've been a good idea honestly but difficult on the execution aspect.
You're startled from your thoughts when your door is slammed open, two armed guards entering and one gruffly barks an order at you, "Get up."
"Why? What's happening?" You sit up, eyebrow raised and yelp when you're all but picked up like an unruly kitten by under your arms and out of your cell. "Unhand me, good sir! Thou art a devious bastard!"
"Shut up." The man snaps and the other sets you on your feet, pushing you forward to walk by nudging you with the head of his gun.
"What the hell?" You grumble as you start walking forward, your eyes take in the sight of all the other delinquents being forced out of their cells and in the same direction as you. "Oh, goodie, field trip? Or better yet, surprise cavity search?" The rough push from the gun dispels that notion.
What could possibly be going on, were you all being gathered to be executed or something? That seemed likely, maybe the council were enacting their total capital punishment now regardless of age. Well shit, what will your final words be and hey, don't you at least get a last meal?
Where they lead you is neither to an execution nor to somewhere you can get decent food. It's a pod. Forced into black jumpsuits, you and what seems to be a hundred others are strapped and packed inside. There's a loud shudder and you feel the stomach churning sensation of movement.
"So uh, does anyone know where the fuck were going?" A voice calls out and you glance over.
"Obviously to Earth, idiot, if they were going to just kill us they wouldn't bother with the shuttle." Somebody else snaps back, you and a few others hum in agreement. So you were right with the field trip guess, woo! Adventure time! It's not like you had anything else better to do anyway.
You adjust the red straps across your chest when an interface sparks to life, there's a hush from the crowd as you hear Chancellor Jaha's voice echo out into the space, "Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance, and as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself."
"Wanker." You can't help the automatic reaction, the insult filling the silence as Jaha takes a breath. There's a scattering of chuckles from the others.
"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."
"Your dad's a dick, Wells!" Someone shouts towards- holy shit, is that Jaha's son? Why the hell is he here?
And... It doesn't take long for the numpties to start displaying their room temperature IQs, unstrapping from their seats, floating around like this isn't an active moving vessel travelling at unprecedented speed towards the Earth. Whatever, if massive cranial trauma was on their bucket lists, who were you to stop them?
"Oh my god-" You and the others curse and yelp when the parachutes are deployed, the straps of your seat digging into your flesh as gravity hits you all at once. A few of the unfortunate idiots end up smashing into the walls or ceiling. There's smoke, flashing lights, crying but at least Jaha's speech is finally cut off. The landing comes with whiplash. Not fun.
You groan as you stumble out of your seat, rubbing your neck that's aching faintly. Well, that could've gone better. You pass the bodies of the few that didn't make it, down to the lower level where a crowd is forming around the door and a couple are hugging?
"What in the soap opera is going on here?" You ask aloud, you're not alone in your bewilderment.
"Do you mind?" The girl fixes you with a look, "I haven't seen my brother in a year."
Now that's even more confusing and the general hum of shock and questions finally supplies you with the knowledge that this is Octavia Blake, a girl who was found hidden under the floor, and her brother Bellamy Blake, who posed as a guard to sneak onto the drop ship. It's almost cute, in a dark and twisted dystopian way.
Your brows raise when the girl, Octavia, almost lunges at the person who called her 'the girl under the floor'- right, how could you forget? You're trapped on Earth with a bunch of idiots.
"Right, sweet reunion and everything, kisses and hugs, can we open the door now? I'm pretty sure someone farted." You speak up and the replying groan from the crowd is prompt enough for Bellamy to open the door.
The fresh air is electrifying, the light almost blinding. You squint until your eyes adjust and see the forest scene offered to you. Sprawling wilderness, damp soil, flowers and vines and a chirping sound of birds? This didn't look anything like the potential toxic landscape they'd been warned they could find. No, this looked like the Garden of Eden.
"We're back, bitches!" Octavia screams with a grin on her face, her feet the first to touch the ground in one hundred years. Cheers and hollers erupt from the crowd of teenagers and you make your way out with them, unable to stop a smile from breaking out on your face.
It is so easy to hate on YA but I think that genre is IMPORTANT and can make a great impact if done right (which is rare and hard). Making something interesting enough to hook the short attention span of a teenager + putting in takes that makes readers question their own world and the system that they live in + using teenager-friendly language IS a challenge???
That’s why I love Suzanne Collins y’all! She could’ve written a commentary on our political system, but nope! She makes it ACCESSIBLE and ENTERTAINING not just for us to get hooked, but to give commentary on how we act and consume media
(+ why I hate almost every other YA dystopia novel! I want to question while I cry over my favorite characters!)
