I consider myself an avid reader, but I don’t always have a book I’m reading. I guess I could best describe myself as a yo-yo reader (It’s like a yo-yo dieter, but just with books instead of food). I’ll read twelve books in two months, and then nothing for the next three. But even so, I read a lot and I enjoy it.
My favorite genre is young adult dystopian. That probably doesn’t surprise anyone who has read my books. The book that started it all for me was The Giver by Lois Lowery. If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend it.
I was eleven or twelve the first time I read it. It was my first introduction to the whole concept of dystopian societies, and it fascinated me. The entire idea of how humanity’s attempts to manufacture perfection brings about the exact opposite was both startling, chilling, and profound.
I feel like every dystopia I read makes me seriously think about what it means to be free, to be safe, to be good, and even to be human.
Maybe that’s why I couldn’t help writing my own YA dystopian series to examine what it really means to be human and how those characteristics are fostered, dismantlement, or regained.
What do you think the ideal society would look like? What problems would it have to overcome? What problems could it inadvertently create?
When you really start to dive into the subject, it’s like trying to unravel a knot of a thousand threads. Solving one problem just leads to new ones, and finding the “perfect” solution to all of society’s ills is a lot harrier problem than we initially imagine.
What would your dystopia look like, and how would it have come to be?
