There are many things that make a good YA dystopia. There are many aspects of such books that attract teens whether the story is good or not. But has the YA dystopia reached its conclusion?
My YA collection at work houses various dystopias, including of course The Hunger Games trilogy and Divergent trilogy. These books move frequently, particularly as of late with Allegiant hitting theaters and Mockingjay coming to DVD/BluRay. We have the Matched series. That has circulated recently but since being returned a couple of months ago the entire series has remained in its place on the shelf. Uglies is one I have yet to see circulate in my time there. The 5th Wave has not been in the library since talk of the movie began, everyone needing to reread or begin reading before they see the movie.
The teens frequenting the department enjoy The Hunger Games and Divergent, but they don't seem to want more books like them. They are moving on. They want to see the movies, but they don't seem to want new dystopian books. We have plenty that have yet to read, we have some older ones they don't even want to look at. They are not asking for titles similar to these. Even when given the option as a recommendation they are not taking it.
This could be a local thing. Teens in this town may just be over the dystopia trend. But they could also be representative of the larger teen population as a whole. With new trends emerging their interests are being peaked elsewhere. As of late teens in this town are checking out all of the fairy tale retellings - Peter Pan is a popular one lately.
Only time will tell if YA dystopias are coming to a close or if teens simply need a break from this type of story.
References:
http://www.hbook.com/2012/04/choosing-books/recommended-books/what-makes-a-good-ya-dystopian-novel/
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