Darker times

2011 Books Issue | Fantasy novels about bleak futures are the rage among teenage readers | Janie B. Cheaney

How's this for a scenario: In the future, the USA has been divided into 13 districts, and the strongest dominates all the others. One form of domination is the annual televised exhibition in which two teens from each district compete for the prize of being allowed to live. Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old poacher from District Twelve, volunteers to replace her younger sister who was chosen by lot to be one of the district competitors. Katniss and her fellow competitor Peeta are transported to the capital city, where they will compete to be the last teen standing in a glitzy, media-frantic, widely anticipated, hotly contested, brutal and bloody fight to the death (The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins).

Or this: In the future, the earth has become so inhospitable that humans are colonizing space. Civilization has carved a toe-hold on one planet, except that the male colonists have been infected with Noise, a continual "feed" that allows them to hear the thoughts of every other male in proximity, even the animals. Todd Hewett, age 14 or thereabouts, has grown up in a town without women, controlled by a mad preacher and a mayor who seems to be gathering a select entourage for some nefarious purpose. One day, Todd discovers a pocket of silence in the woods and traces it to . . . a girl. Soon, the two are running for their lives, on a journey that will lead to escalating violence and bloody confrontation (The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness).

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July 02, 2011, Vol. 26, No. 13

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