Mini review: the future is here

I guess it is inevitable that with the success of The Hunger Games that many writers will try to emulate the story. So now the dystopian books are all the craze well aside from the vampire books that is. What is dystopian you say? Well if Utopian is a perfect imaginary world then dystopian is the opposite. The world is bleak, depressing, there's violence and apparently not so much personal freedom. And of course being a book nerd, I try to follow this current trend as often as I can. Besides after being blown away by Katniss adventures, I'm so eager to read about other kick-ass heroines out there.

Let's start with Divergent. There's Beatrice or Tris who was born in an Abnegation family but choose to be Dauntless when she turns 16. Tris is pretty bad-ass (please pardon the use of harsh words but really she is) as she has to prove that she's worth it to be in the fearless faction. Of course the countless daredevil stunts and challenges can be somewhat tiring to read and unlike Katniss who's actually thrown into the games unwillingly because she's trying to protect her sister, Tris seems pretty..ehem.. selfish? So okay she left her family voluntarily to be in this cool faction and it reads like a long initiation where she got beat up severely in the beginning and later on prove her mettle. There's a big twist in the end and of course the prerequisite love interest is there.

Verdict: 4 stars.

Let's explore Blood Red Road next..shall we? Now meet Saba. Whoa she's very bad-ass! She's the most bad-ass of all the characters I've ever read. Similar to Katniss, Saba has to rescue her kidnapped twin brother who was taken as a human sacrifice by the Sun King. Unfortunately her journey takes a very dangerous detour when she was held captive and then forced to be this gladiator woman fighting in some sort of arena. The bad guys even shave her head! So bad ass! But I got tired of reading about all the sands and blood in her world that at one point I just abandoned it to read some other stuff. I'm sorry I'm a very picky reader! Dear me..

Verdict: 3 and half stars :) can I give a half star..it is my blog right?

Oh dear.. after reading about all those strong, feminist characters, I was severely disappointed by this one. Across the Universe is NOT a futuristic adventure more of a futuristic romance as oppose to paranormal romance. Amy is just your average red-headed girl who gets frozen and then shipped off into space and then meets a boy who happens to be the future leader of the ship that she's in. So this boy named Elder fell in love with Amy and well the story goes. It's basically your average run of the mill teen love story but the story really made me think about what's going to happen in the future. It basically give me the shivers hoping that humanity will not end up in a ship going nowhere.

Verdict: 3 stars.

Well finally we have Incarceron. Okay so eventhough the main character is a boy, there's a strong female character in here. Claudia is the daughter of the prison warden and she's strong willed and just a little bit kick-ass. But the story is actually about Finn and he's the long lost prince wrongly imprisoned in the vast endless prison that is Incarceron. Oooh..the setting of the book is scary and I feel so morosely unsettled reading about his attempts to escape. Apparently no one can! Quite depressing. I'm surprised they're making this into a movie. They even cast Taylor Lautner as Finn.

Verdict: 1 star - I don't particularly like the main character, he only managed to save himself and not his friends.

So there you have it folks..my review of dystopian books that I've read. Most of them are quite depressing so don't read it if you already feel down yourself (hehe).