The virus has happened. Our world has come under fire from an unseen foe. People have died–few are left behind. What happens after?
I have been fascinated by the thought of building a dystopian world for years. I have an idea for a dystopian story and have taken many notes on survival and off-grid living so that when I do write it, it will be realistic in nature. After this year’s pandemic I have found that toilet paper will be one of the first supplies to dwindle, yeast will be in short supply, and terms like PPE will become commonplace.
Of course, I’ve read several dystopian and post-apocalyptic books. I’m not much of a literary reader, so light and fluffy or dark and broody are more what I enjoy. What can I say? I’m an enigma.
I loved the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Even with its brutality. Katniss’s struggles to be brave, stay alive, and not be a sucker for stupid-things-that-always-happens-to-girls-in-stories-and-movies. I honestly can’t stand those moments that you want to scream and pull your hair out because the characters do something completely stupid just to ramp the tension in a story up. I have stopped reading many stories just because of that reason. And since I adore love triangles, the whole Peeta-Katniss-Gale thing didn’t bother me a bit. In fact, I was team Peeta the whole way!
Ann Aguirre’s Enclave series was also another one that my mind goes back to from time to time. I found the survival aspect of Aguirre’s series worthy of the read. My latest dystopian series has been the Children of the Mountain books by R. A. Hakok. The refreshing twist on this story is that the virus affects metal which then can infect humans. I did have to suspend my belief, though, that after ten years the characters were still finding canned food that they could eat. I found this series to be a fairly clean read for the targeted teen audience. I’d give it a 9 out of 10 since there’s one scene that almost stepped over the line in the four books currently on the market so far. However, that’s tame for teen reads, so kudos to Hakok for keeping it clean. It looks like the author has another book for the series, but it hasn’t happened yet.
What about you? Are there any post-apocalyptic or dystopian books or movies that you’ve enjoyed lately? I’d love to chat about it!
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