Happy (belated!) Dystopian Week!

The Dystopian Week Must Read List

Dystopian Week, much to my late knowledge, occurred last week, but there's no reason why we can't acknowledge it now (or all year long!).  Thinking ahead into the near and distant future, I'm considering adapting our sci-fi lit unit that takes place during the month of May into a more dystopian-themed lit unit!  That being said, you'd have a lot more choice and say in what you want to read rather than everyone just getting the same book to read.  There are so many amazing titles out there that fit into the dystopian themed genre, and it seems that our lovely Hunger Games series (best books - period!) by Suzanne Collins paved the way for these other titles to shine.  Below is a compilation of summaries from various websites that weigh in on the dystopian lit must read list!

Check out these list below, but for a more in depth look at Dystopian week, check out these two websites!
http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/tag/dystopian-week/
http://www.thefablife.com/tag/dystopian-week/

From "The Fab Life" and "MTV Hollywood Crush" websites:

Birthmarked, by Caragh M. O’Brien: In this version of the future, the world is divided between people who live inside the Enclave, and the unfortunate who live outside its walls. Gaia Stone is a 16-year-old novice midwife, and part of her

duty is to hand over a quota of babies to the Enclave. But then her parents are taken away, and she has to figure out what’s really going on behind those walls.

The Eleventh Plague, by Jeff Hirsch: The cover bears a quote from Suzanne Collins herself, calling it “an excellent, taut debut novel,” so you probably can’t go wrong with this one. Stephen Quinn was born after two-thirds of the country was wiped out by influenza and has grown up barely scraping by as a salvager. But after a family tragedy, the 15-year-old finds his way to a community called Settler’s Landing, where he falls in love and learns that things aren’t as great in the town as they initially appeared to be.

All These Things I’ve Done, by Gabrielle Zevin: In this nightmarish version of New York, the illegal contraband the city’s biggest crime family makes their money from is chocolate. Caffeine is also illegal and water is scarce. But Anya, the daughter of the late crime boss, isn’t so sure she wants to take part in the family business. She’s also falling in love with the Assistant DA’s son and really doesn’t want to. This sounds like dystopia, Boardwalk Empire-style.

Divergent By Veronica Roth

Roth's futuristic Chicago is divided into five separate communities: Abnegation (selfless), Candor (honest), Dauntless (brave), Amity (peaceful), and Erudite (intelligent). At 16, each citizen decides which virtue to embrace — singularly and permanently. Like all dystopian stories, this "perfect system" has a few skeletons in the closet, which Dauntless initiate Tris uncovers.
Movie status: Summit is developing this, with "Snow White and the Huntsman" writer Evan Daugherty tackling the adaptation.

Legend By Marie Lu

Day is on the run from a military government in what used to be the United States when he meets June, a military prodigy from an elite family. Though Day is accused of murdering June's brother, the two stumble on the Republic of California's dirtiest secrets together.

Movie status: It's being produced by Twilight's Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, and directed by Warm Bodies helmer Jonathan Levine. 

Matched By Ally Condie

If "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Giver" had a clever little baby, it would be Condie's first book in a series of dystopian YA novels. Cassia is a happy, well-adjusted teen living in some undetermined future where mandatory mates are delivered by pictures on digital information cards. It's only when a glitch flashes the wrong boy's face that Cassia considers the relative merit of dating options — and therefore questions the whole nature of her world.

Movie Status: Disney snapped up the movie rights. 

The Chaos Walking Trilogy By Patrick Ness

A post-plague world populated only by men — and polluted by a constant stream of audible inner monologues called "The Noise" — is suddenly turned upside down for teenager Todd when he meets... a girl... though Todd's own government swore they were all dead.

Movie Status: Lionsgate's announced plans to adapt "The Knife of Never Letting Go" — the first book in the "Chaos Walking" trilogy — for the big screen.

Shatter Me By Tahereh Mafi

HarperCollins has called Mafi's debut novel "'Hunger Games' meets 'X-Men'" and we can't disagree. An invigorating blend of romance, super-powers and post-apocalyptic survival techniques on a police state stage, "Shatter Me" was basically made to be a movie.

Movie Status: 20th Century Fox bought the rights.

Delirium By Lauren Oliver

Love is a disease — everyone who's ever been dumped knows this. But in "Delirium," love is literally classified as a disease, and citizens of Oliver's future society receive a mandatory surgery to cure them, for the good of a healthy, sane community. Unless they, for instance, escape and fall in love with a fellow rebel.

Movie Status: Producers Paula Mazur and Mitch Kaplan are developing "Delirium" for Fox 2000. 

Under the Never Sky By Veronica Rossi

Aria has lived her entire life in a dome, generations after the outside world was deemed uninhabitable by the government. After she's banished from the dome in a vicious political maneuver, she teams up with a love interest hunter who has his own reasons to challenge those in charge of her home.

Movie Status: "Under the Never Sky" been optioned for film by Warner Bros.

Uglies By Scott Westerfeld

In Tally Youngblood's society, ugliness is a thing of the past — upon citizens' 16th birthday, they each get plastic surgery that removes unsightly bumps, blotches and, oh, the ability to think like normal, intelligent people. Unfortunately, the surgery is very mandatory, and the penalty for escaping it is steep. Just maybe not as steep as the penalty for not escaping. 

Movie Status: 20th Century Fox and producer John Davis bought the film rights to the novel.