Does anyone remember that period in the late 2000's and early 2010's, when it was a young adult dystopian fiction haven? Everyone was running to the cinemas to see the new Maze Runner or Hunger Games films, or brawling in MPH or Popular to get their hands on the book sets. What happened to all that excitement and enthusiasm? I believe it is because the writing has not evolved and the structure has become repetitive.
We say “Don't judge a book by its cover", but I'm not. I'm judging the author; or at least their writing skills. According to Digital 360, creative writing helps those who participate learn about themselves and the world around them, and I have learned a thing or two about these authors; like how they try too hard to create a “perfect tragedy”. The Protagonist has to suffer a tremendous amount of past or future trauma while never making any mistakes; or they make too many decisions based on what the author believes the readers would like, which leads to a main character who exists for the sole purpose of being likeable. That may work for romance novels but in dystopian fiction, we need leads who are flawed and emotional; especially in times of cataclysmic decline.
Not only are these characters forced to have “attractive” personalities while being depressed but they're also forced to enter ridiculous love triangles that serve nothing to the plot. This might be an attempt to replicate the love triangle in Hunger Games, where Katniss chooses Gale or Peeta symbolised choosing between “anger and more fighting” or “recovery and healing” but ends up becoming a feud on who's hotter, which diminishes the role of the lead and distracts away from the plot.
Another problem would be how the segregation in the books is written to be romanticised instead of questioned when they are borderline classist and racist, yet everyone is fighting to be sorted into Gryffindor or Dauntless as if it were a popularity contest.
Sophia Azreen is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
