Lyra, the harp, holds the final star to the summer triangle, though it sure itn's Sheliak ;)
So I have to admit, last night when I realized there was NO way I could pour through the entire book before passing out and STILL make it to school sometime, I flipped through to the end, scanning for character names of particular people in Mockingjay to see their fate because I could not SLEEP until I knew...
It's at THAT point that I know I'm hooked. A total nerd. And I'm okay with it ;)
I'm about 2/3 through the book - the folks are scheming on how to "crack the nut" for those of you who know
I plan to whip through it later today, with rave reviews! I have been recommending this book to everyone I see - while trying not to give anything away. I can't get enough of this dystopian type stuff...
Mrs. R - YOU have a list of books posted much earlier in your blog... is the maze runner along these same lines? Are there others you have found? You've been my guide ot the Uglies, and now Hunger Games, so I trust your judgement...
Aw, a shout out! :) I'm honored. And YOU shared Gathering Blue and Messenger with me years ago, so we're even.
ReplyDeleteMaze Runner is a hit with my kiddoes, but I haven't gotten deeply into it yet. (I did read the first few chapters and it seems intriguing.)
For a slightly different take on the root of the dystopia, try Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I devoured it and its sequels, The Dead and the Gone and This World We Live In. (That's two book titles, but the punctuation is awkward.) The basic premise is that the moon is struck by an asteroid and pushed closer to Earth, causing power outages, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes (enough ash to cause climate change), floods, and general chaos. Of course the society begins to break down in the face of the seemingly endless wave of disasters. The first book is about Miranda, who lives with her mom and brothers in Pennsylvania. The second book is about Alex, who lives with his parents and sisters in NYC. The third book....would give away the endings of 1 and 2. :) I liked them a lot, and a few of my students have torn through them.
I read How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff in my INLS 123 class in college, and it totally captured my imagination. It was one of my first dystopian novels, actually. It's much more grown up than the others, and a little disturbing, but I really liked it. It's set in the English countryside during a war...I don't think it actually says it's WWII, but it's kind of like that. When everything goes down, the adults are all in the city, working at important jobs, and the teen and preteen kids are kind of left to fend for themselves. It's a bit more character-driven, and less about the society.
I've also read several grown up books with dystopian themes: The Road; Alas, Babylon; and One Second After (set in Black Mountain, NC and terrifyingly realistic).
Also, I added your blog to my Google Reader. I couldn't decide whether to put you under "Friends" or "Books and Authors". I went with "Friends". :)
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