Book plea!

[eibbil_libbie]

Not for me for...DJ, believe it or not.

Seriously. We came home from seeing The Hunger Games and he decided he wanted to read it. And he did...in a week. Then he asked me to help him get a Fire because he hated carrying books around. I went half with him and boom. He's devouring books like a termite in a wood pile.

Yeah, you read that right. DJ. The gamer.

So! My problem is that I'm running out of things to recommend for him. Right now he's eating up dystopian/post-apocalyptic stuff.

To date, he has read:

Collins' The Hunger Games
Roth's Divergent/Insurgent
Aguirre's Enclave
Lu's Legend

And I think he's starting either Wells' Partials or Dashner's Maze Runner tonight (he's started reading the free samples first - if the first chapter doesn't pull him, he won't continue...and the first victim of the no-pull was Price's Starters.)


Okay, flist. What have you got? Older, newer, hit me up.

Comments

[tryslora]

Gods, I've read so much dystopia lately...

Ashes, by Ilsa Bick. Terribly frustrating ending but OMG the story that starts out sounding like a girl with a brain tumor and ends up being a zombie apocalypse is AMAZING. Can't wait for the next one.

I just took The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness out but haven't read it yet.

Many of the dystopias I've read have had female protagonists, so I should ask about that before recommending more.

Oh, and still a female protagonist, but going back into the classic, try "Rite of Passage" by Alexei Panshin if it's available. It's about teens coming of age on a spaceship where teens become adults by being dumped on a world and having to survive on their own. It's one of my top books.

LMK on the female protagonist thing and I'll go through my list of recent reads and see if there's anything there that's dystopia/post apocalypse that might suit. There is something... on the tip of my tongue... but I can't remember it now. ARGH.

Whee for the reading!! My son prefers reading on the iPad over books, too, so I can totally see the use of the Fire.

[eibbil_libbie]

Female protagonist not a problem at all. Hit me.

[tryslora]

Some of these have stronger romantic elements than others. I'll try to include caveats here...

Matched, by Ally Condie - Dystopian world where The Society controls everything, including who you are Matched to as you become an adult. Main Character is Matched to her childhood best friend... except things aren't that simple and things start happening which make her question The Society and the stranglehold they have on the world. Loved it, can't wait until Crossed comes up on my Hold list at the ebook library.

all these things i've done, by Gabrielle Zevin -- again, dystopian world, and the main character's family is in the illegal chocolate business. Interesting future mob sort of story, loved it, first of a series/trilogy.

Bother, there's something I just read and haven't recorded yet... Oh yes, the book is Shatter Me and I can't recall the author off the top of my head. Starts off with a girl in an insane asylum and a very off-kilter narrative and it's brilliant and sucked me in and wouldn't let me go. The dystopian details are so subtle at the start because she has been locked in a room for THREE YEARS and this has had an effect on how she thinks to herself, and thus, her narrative.

All these mini reviews are er, well, coloured by my potential poor memory, so take that as you will.

The other things I've been reading are either mainstream of paranormal/urban fantasy (all YA). I love them, but don't know if they'd appeal to DJ.

Also, I just started following the blog http://booksyalove.blogspot.com/ and have been pulling recs from my own library's listing http://staffpicks.eastgreenbushlibrary.org/category/books-for-young-adults/. I'm all over the web lately on YA books, and adult books appropriate for YA. OH. Speaking of, try out The Universal Mirror by Gwen Perkins. It's not dystopia, and it's not YA, and maybe you want to read it first (I think you might like it). It was free a few days back, but not now. The author's a friend, and I loved it.

From the crosses from adult to YA, try out The Skewed Throne by Joshua Palmatier. It's fantasy, and it's REALLY good stuff. I'm sure there are other adult books I could recommend that would be perfect, but I'm not coming up with them right now. Has he read Ender's Game?

[tryslora]

And there was a modern dystopia sleeping beauty book I read but it was apparently before I started recording because it is not on my list... bother. It was brilliant, about a world that went haywire while a girl was put into cold sleep by her parents and forgotten... until she's found by a boy exploring where he shouldn't be going, and she wakes up into this world gone nuts. Great characters and world building.

[smilie117]

I think you mean A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan? Or at least that's what it sounds like from your description!

[tryslora]

Yes, that one! I loved that. It wasn't at all what I was expecting and more importantly, it was so much MORE than what I expected from the description.

[smilie117]

Oh! I think that Shatter Me is by Tahereh Mafi. :)

[tryslora]

That's it! I didn't have it handy while commenting from work.

[tryslora]

Oh AND, our library has an ebook lending program which has Kindle books. I highly recommend checking yours for this program because it's WONDERFUL being able to take a book and then just say "NOPE NOT FOR ME" and check it back in early.