Exclusive: YA dystopia tier List

Hello audience. I am here today with uh not very good lighting because my lighting equipment is on the fritz. But we're just doing a tier list for all of the young adult dystopias that I've read over the years. Now, just to be clear, when I say young adult dystopia, I'm really talking about stuff that came out uh around the time of the Hunger Games and not long after the Hunger Games where it was very clearly just trying to cash in on that success. you know, it was following a very similar formula, a very similar pattern. It was trying to appeal to more or less the same audience. So, that's what I'm referring to when I say young adult dystopia here. Like, there's other stuff like I guess The Giver, which could technically qualify by the term young adult dystopia, but it's not a Hunger Games ripoff, so it's not really what I'm talking about here. And, uh, I don't know, you've seen these tier lists before. This is just going to be me talking about them a little bit. Some of these books I've talked about at length. Some I've talked about a little bit, but not much. Others I don't know if I've talked about at all. Some of these I've read the entire series. Some I've only read part. But we're just going to go over what I have read from them. So, I'm going to start off positive. I'm going to take Partials as the first one, and I'm going to put that in the pretty good tier. You know, it's it's not a masterpiece, but it's pretty good. This one is about a world where humans created this like artificial type of human to do manual labor for them or to fight in wars for them. Uh kind of like replicants from Bladeunner. Uh they they made that but then the partials kind of took over the world and they released a virus which killed almost all of the humans except for a very very small number who are still living uh on Long Island. And then main character girl comes in and she decides she wants to try and find a cure for the virus. And then she manages to capture a partial boy and sort of kind of I I don't know how to put it exactly without getting deep deep into spoilers, but through that she discovers some secrets about the world and goes on a long adventure. And it's a pretty good book. I would almost want to put it in masterpiece if the ending wasn't just a mess. Like the final book wasn't very good. And you know, one thing I did kind of like about the series, but also kind of cursed it, was that there wasn't a main antagonist, which was neat in the sense that it showed that uh this conflict that was going on was not just caused by a couple of bad people at the top. It was caused by uh clashes between two large groups of people who didn't understand each other and had perfectly valid reasons to fear and hate one another, but eventually they moved past that. So like it's it's good, but also there's not like a satisfying climax. So it needed some work. Under the Never Sky, I'm just going to put that in the fine category. That's uh yeah, that's about all I have to say about Under the Never Sky really is that it it was fine. it uh it exists. It's not a great book series or even that good, but I didn't hate it. I remember the books started off really really strongly, right? Like most of the world has been destroyed and a couple of people have managed to live under these domes where they still have modern technology and stuff. And then there's also like savages living out in the wastelands who again they're alive but they don't have modern technology or modern civilization or anything. And then main character girl through a series of dumb teenage things that she does uh winds up being thrown out of her dome and her mom is also going missing has also gone missing. So she decides to just look for her mom and you know it's a it's a solid beginning to the story. It's just after that it's just sort of yeah things are happening. They are going on a journey which I guess I'm supposed to care about but I just was like eh it's fine. Uh the romance is fine. the climax to the whole series is fine. Like, you know, it's just I I just don't have a whole lot to say. Like, it exists. Uh, it's not really good or bad. It's just it's there. Starters, I do have a video about this one. And if you've seen that, uh, I think you can probably tell that I will put it in the neat ideas category cuz neat ideas, but they just didn't do that much with them or the author didn't have the skill to explore them properly is what I mean when I put stuff in the neat ideas tier. So, starters is a world where, okay, the Spore Wars happened and it killed all of the adults between the ages of 20 and 60. So, uh, with very few exceptions, there's only very young people and very old people. And this is the future, so people live a lot longer. Like, uh, one being around 100 years old is not considered that old. I think that's like the equivalent of being 50 nowadays. But, uh, people live a lot longer. There's only old people and young people. And the old people have all the jobs. They own everything. They have all the money. And the young people are just kind of desperately trying to ek out an existence in the world uh and then enter a company that allows you to get a brain a chip implanted into your brain and then old people can remotely pilot your body for a little while. Like they can rent you out basically and live as a young person for a bit. And main character girl is desperate for money so she does that. And you might think that's a good setup for a story, and it is. Like, there's some actual social commentary going on there, but as you might expect from this sort of thing, it focuses way too much on the weird romance, and it's kind of unfocused about what uh the antagonistic force of the story really is. Like, who are we really fighting against? Because we get a bad guy who's introduced in the second book. And there's only two books in the series, by the way. So, he gets introduced in the second book and then they go through a whole uh thing where they fight him, but it seems like he's just the one bad guy. You know, like the government itself isn't evil. The system itself isn't evil. At least as far as the book is concerned. It's just that one guy. So, that was disappointing and not that well done. And most of the characters aren't that deep anyways. Like, I don't even remember their names or anything. So, yeah, that one's just neat ideas, but didn't really do anything with them. All right, breathe. That one I also have a long video on. That one's just goofy. It's just goofy. Humanity cut down all the trees, so there's not enough oxygen to breathe out in the world. So, the only survivors left live under a big dome, and it's unclear if this dome is in the United Kingdom or the United States. It's It's not. I I I honestly still don't know, even after reading the books. I I don't know. What can I say to that? It's a world where people have to pay for air and that's like terrible because that means poor people aren't allowed to dance or exercise the way rich people can do and then they go outside and they go camping and there's a rebellion and ju I I don't know what can I even say to that man. It's just a goofy setup for a story. the testing. I am just going to straight up put this in I I'll put it in unsalvageable, but it's like right on the verge of being goofy, right? Because the testing makes no sense at all. I have a 2-hour video where I explain exactly all the ways in which it does not make sense. It's just like after the apocalypse there is a government that rules over it kind of rules over what is now the United States but so much of it is just wasteland that really they only have a couple of spots of civilization which have some um what's the word connection between each other but a lot they're they're pretty isolated you know and like the kids who are the top of their class and graduate from school every year have to go off and do something called the testing which no No one knows what it really is because all the people who go to do the testing either die during it or they succeed and then they never go back home. Like they're not allowed to go back to their hometowns. Uh and they also have their memories wiped. So no one knows what the testing really is. And then you actually look at the testing and it's supposed to make sure that they're like strong and smart and prepared to help, you know, fix the world to be good engineers or politicians or doctors or whatever. But none of the tests actually make sense for testing them for that or at least most of them don't. Like at first it's showing them do like you know regular exams like you would do at school. Nothing weird about that. But then they have like oh here try and fix a radio also it's booby trapped and if you do it wrong then the trap will shoot a nail through your eye and kill you. Like that that's an actual thing that happens in the books. And then the last chunk of the first book is basically just the heroes having to cross a giant wasteland on foot and for some reason they start killing each other. Like they don't need to kill each other. There's nothing in the rules that tells them to kill each other or anything that benefits them when they try killing each other. They just start doing that for shits and giggles, I guess. But I that's just the first book really. And then the second and third books, uh, it was really just the author trying to come up with something that and then they overthrow the government sort of at the end. I don't know. There's there's just nothing there. There's just nothing there, man. All right. I have to put at least one in the masterpiece category before we move on. So, I'll put the Hunger Games up there. Yeah. I I know it can be trendy to be contrarian and hate on things that are popular, but like The Hunger Games got big because they're really good books, you know, and I I think I actually like them more now. Uh now that I have I'm older, I have more perspective and I've reread the books and rewatched the movies a bit. Uh, I like them more now than I did when I was younger because, you know, Suzanne Collins wrote an entire book series about how Americans are obsessed with violent media and then people complain that the last book didn't have enough violence in it. And fair enough, like fair enough. I will I will admit I was one of those people. But, uh, you know, just looking back over it, I realized it was much smarter than I realized at the time and much smarter than a lot of people give it credit for. like there's there's a lot going on under the surface of, you know, the action adventure teenagers killing each other plot. Uh, and I think that a big part of the problem with all of these other books that were copying it is that most of them understood the surface level of the Hunger Games, they understood, okay, yeah, we find an excuse to have this action stuff going on. we have an excuse to put teenagers in the center of it and make them the center of the world and the center of existence, but people just like they just missed everything beyond that, you know? And I think that's a big part of the reason why so many of these just failed, even the ones that did have some neat ideas. But I don't know. I I think I've spoken about The Hunger Games enough. Other people have spoken about it enough. It's just genuinely they're very very good books. Shatter Me. Okay, we're putting that one. If it's just the original trilogy, I would put it in fine. Uh, if I was talking about the sequel trilogy, I'd put it in unsalvageable. But I think overall all six books just kind of even out and it's just it's just fine. You know, uh, evil government took over the world. Main character girl has been imprisoned because she kills people when she touches them or she causes severe pain at the very least. Uh, and also some people have superpowers, but we don't know that at the beginning. And it turns out that main character Juliet has some powers as well. And that's why she kills people when she touches them. She's like she she's kind of like Rogue from X-Men, but not quite. And this one, you know, it it starts off pretty strong. You know, I liked Juliet's narration in the first book, especially because you can tell that she's just mentally not doing well. Uh, but then as the books went on, it focused way too much on her romance with the guy who imprisoned and tortured her for over a year, and he never has any sort of redemption arc or anything. It's just he's in love with her now, and that means he's a good guy. Uh, and I I did kind of like how the original trilogy ends very abruptly, like uh Juliet and her friends uh kill the governor of North America and they take over that territory and she just puts out a radio broadcast and says, "Hey, I killed this guy. I'm in charge now." And just that's it. Now the rebels are in charge and you're just left to assume that everything is fine. So, I did like how that trilogy ended very abruptly, but then they introduced a sequel trilogy where they're just throwing in tons of random [ __ ] because the story really had nowhere else to go. So, they have to backtrack and be like, "Oh, uh, Juliet, your real name is Ella and you had secret parents who made you a science experiment and you have an older sister who is making the world hallucinate and they're just throwing in tons of just random obnoxiousness." and you know, I just I just wasn't into it. But, uh, even then, I did, again, I liked that Juliet was clearly mentally unwell. Uh, and I did think it was really funny how you can tell the exact point in the books where the author got married because Juliet starts getting a lot hornier from that point forward. But, uh, yeah, other than that, um, Shatter Me, it some of the characters do have actual personalities. In fact, I'd say pretty much all of them do have some personality to them. Uh, they aren't all necessarily deep or likable, but they're all there. I thought the action scenes were sometimes pretty good. I thought at first the world building had promise. Uh, and just, you know, none of that promise was ever really lived up to, so I'll just say it's fine. Article five. This one it like I'm putting it in the neat ideas category. I'm actually going to put it ahead of starters in that category. But man, there's a couple of scenes in this book, just a couple of sequences that if the books had leaned more into stuff like that, I would put it in pretty good. But for I'm just going to have to say neat ideas because this one is unique in that it's not hundreds of years in the future after the apocalypse and there's now a country with a totally different name in the ruins of what used to be the United States. Article 5 specifically takes place in the United States and uh it's only like 30 or 40 years in the future and the government isn't just generic authoritarians for no reason. They are very explicitly religious extremists. They are very explicitly Christian conservatives who are trying to push religious laws across the country. So just by having that in there, the book it or excuse me, the book series is already a lot smarter than most of these because it's already saying something like [clears throat] it already has uh a an actual commentary and criticism to make about society and about the American government in the modern day. Cuz like yeah, obviously Christian conservatives aren't doing all of this kind of stuff that they're doing in the book yet, but they are a real thing. They do have a lot of power in our society. So, like this is actually criticizing that, but that's really only in the first book that they do that. And man, they they go pretty heavy with it at times, too. Like you you straight up see them massacring prisoners and massacring civilians and stuff. And you totally understand exactly how and why there would be a rebellion that starts against these guys. So even though the characters don't start it, the rebellion's already there and then they just join in later, like you you don't need to wonder how this would start, like this is a disgusting regime to live under. But outside of that, uh I just don't have much to say. You know, like main character girl is named Ember in this one, and she has potential to be a really neat and interesting character, but the books never really develop her in any of the ways that they hint they might be developing her in. Uh, so she's just there and there's just there's nothing really to say about her. Like what personality does she have? Well, she's sad that her mom dies near the beginning. That's that's understandable. She she doesn't like the government very much. That's also understandable, but that that's about it. And also considering that the bad guys in this are literally religious freaks, uh the books don't spend a whole lot of time talking about religion and how it affects people's lives and their outlook on things and how more moderate folks uh can be persuaded to join either side in this sort of conflict. Cuz there's a lot of quote unquote moderates who would sort of frown and say they disagree with what the government is doing here, but they wouldn't lift a finger to stop it cuz they still think they're on the right track. they're just taking it too far. But then there are a lot of other actual moderates who would hate it and fight against it. And I just I don't know. The books could have done a lot with that. Uh but as it stands, yeah, main character girl is boring. None of the other characters are even really characters except for one of the legs in her love triangle. And even then, he's just kind of fine. So yeah, it just it had a lot of neat ideas, but it never did much with them. Save the Pearls. Uh, the very bottom of Unsalvageable, but you know, I will say Save the Pearls is [ __ ] hilarious. There's a reason I have a two and a half hour video all about it. It's um, you know, it's just another dystopia like all of these, but uh, this one's extremely racist. You know, black people took over the Earth and now white people are an oppressed minority. And in order to solve this problem, main character girl decides to help her boyfriend do experiments to turn humans into furries. Like just animal hybrids. That is that is the plot. And I The author only ever released two books. She was planning on making a third, but she just never released it. It's unfortunate because I do want to see just how insane the story would have gotten and how much it would have lost its mind. Because as bad and offensive as Save the Pearls is, it's very, very funny. Like, yeah, it is extremely racist, don't get me wrong. And if that makes you uncomfortable while reading, I get it. But for me, I just thought it was hilarious. Like, I can still condemn the racism while thinking it's funny. Cruel. Now, this one I only read a couple of months ago, and it is I I I only read the first book. I have already forgotten a lot of it. I'll just put it in fine. Like I'll put it below Shatter Me, but it's it's fine. You know, it's about a world where uh society or the entire world I should say is controlled by people who weave threads. You know, they weave magic threads and that uh causes the weather that causes the harvests that uh just it controls the entire world basically. And main character girl becomes one of these people. And then she quickly learns that the system is corrupt and she decides to fight against it. And again, admittedly, I only read the first book. Maybe the sequels are a little better, but first one is just, yeah, it's fine. Uh the only thing I remember thinking was kind of interesting about it is that uh the people in this society are pretty religious and pretty conservative. So they have an idea of like men being the head of the household and their wives are maybe not quite their property but they are meant to be submissive and always listen to their husbands but at the same time and uh that also men are like in charge of everything. You know men are all the politicians and the bosses and managers and all that but at the same time again it's women who are the ones that have these crazy powers and they're the ones that make this entire world work. So, I thought I thought there was some pretty intelligent stuff being said there. I thought that was neat. But overall, Cruel was all right. Angel Fall. Okay. Okay. This one This one I'm not sure where to put it because the first book is 100% masterpiece territory. The last book is below fine. Actually, you know what? I might have to redo something here. Hold on. Okay, so I just added a new row that just straight up says bad because I didn't realize I didn't have one like that. So, Angel Fall has parts that are masterpiece and parts that are bad. Like, the last book in the trilogy, I would just say, is straight up bad. And honestly, the middle book, I would say, is fine. It's It's just very forgettable. But, I mean, the first one is a masterpiece. You know what? I'm going to put it in masterpiece, but I'm going to put it right on the edge. like it's right on the edge of just falling down into pretty good territory. This one, angels come in and destroy the world and then like 6 weeks later is when the story picks up. Main character girl is with her younger sister. She gets kidnapped by angels and then she's like, "Well, I have to go rescue my sister." And then along the way she makes friends with another angel who had his wings cut off. Uh and they they kind of save the worldish. I don't know. Again, the last book, a lot of stuff is not explained super well, and the lore doesn't always add up the way it should, I don't think. Uh, which is really the problem. But, I mean, book one is phenomenal. Like, watching them go through all of these uh dangerous situations is great. The action scenes are written amazingly, and yeah, there is a rebellion going on, but main character girl doesn't really want much to do with it. And I mean, even in the last book, which is not great, the final battle is phenomenal. Like, the climax of it is phenomenal. It's just immediately as the climax ends, there's a dumb resolution to everything, and I I just didn't like it. Uh, I also thought the villains were really solid. I liked main character girl, who I it makes sense why she would be so protective of her sister, and it makes sense why she would not act like a typical teenage girl, because she didn't have a typical upbringing. Her mom has really bad schizophrenia, so she didn't really raise her. She kind of raised herself. And I I don't know. I just I really liked Angel Fall. I don't know. Sue me. Matched. Okay. This one is one many people know. And that one's just that one's just going in bad category. Yeah. Uh it's a world where everyone has to get married to someone who was assigned to them by the government. And then main character girl is like, "Oh, I love my boyfriend who's assigned to me, but there's also this other guy who wasn't assigned to me, who I also am in love with." And that's it. Like the books are phenomenally empty. Like there there's nothing that happens in the first one. The second one there is at least more of a plot. And the third one there's more of a plot, but it's still not particularly interesting. Like there there's a plague going around killing tons of people. There's a war happening. And I just I I couldn't be bothered to give a [ __ ] because a lot of it happens offcreen so that we can focus on main character girl and her love triangle which isn't very good because no one involved has any personality. Uh matched is not unsalvageable. You know I see how that could have been a better story but as it stands it's just and I I just it's bad. All right struck. This one I did do a video on a while ago. Uh, and it's a standalone book by Jennifer Bosworth, who later, I think, changed her name to Jennifer Wolf, uh, and wrote a couple other books under that name, but now I think she's retired as an author. But the point is, uh, it's about a girl who's addicted to being struck by lightning, and then there is a giant earthquake which destroys Los Angeles. And, um, yeah, I'm putting it in pretty good category if you couldn't tell. It's above partials and uh it's it's like a really weird and goofy story because some people have superpowers and her superpower is related to her being struck by lightning and there's a weird cult uh and there's a guy that can see the future and look it it's a very strange and silly book, but it is good. It it did keep me entertained the whole way through and there's some sequel baiting in there. I'm really upset the author never wrote more, but you know, the the book is good and they even made a trailer for it. Divergent. Um, you know, I spoke about this one not that long ago. I'm just putting it in the bad category. I'll put it above matched because as bad as Divergent is, there's at least an actual story there and there's things happening. And the author is trying to say a few things. She doesn't do a good job with it, but she's trying to say a few things. And you know, when I talked about it before, I mostly just sort of forgot or excuse me, I mostly talked about the ending and how people complained about that, but overall, I would say the books are ju just bad. Like, sure, there there's some parts in there I liked, but uh that's all I can say really. There some parts I liked. I I didn't think that the book was nearly as intelligent as it thought itself as. Uh, I didn't think it was nearly as exciting or heartbreaking or anything like that as it clearly thought it was. It's just it's just bad, but I don't think it's worth being upset about. All right, the Bane or Eden. I've actually seen it with both names. I barely even [ __ ] remember this one, so it's going in bad. I'm going to put it below matched. Uh, I think that uh this was a world and it was revealed that main character girl was like part machine or something like she was a cyborg and she didn't know that. Uh, but then using her special cyborgness or partial cyborgness, she was able to help them fight the evil machines that had destroyed the world. I think that that is seriously the only thing I can remember, right? And I never read the sequels. So, uh, that that's all I'm going to say about that. Escape to Eden. Um, this one I also remember very little from, but I'm going to put it in fine. I'm going to put it at the bottom of fine, but it it's like on the verge of being bad. This one, uh, I did kind of like this one because the world isn't actually destroyed in this one. It's just a dystopia. you know, it's the future and technology has advanced a lot and it kind of sucks to live there, but there hasn't been an apocalypse, you know, and um there's [snorts] a lot of genetic modification going on here. So, they run into weird creatures that shouldn't exist, and they also run into people that have like animal fangs and claws and stuff. And again, I I don't remember that much about it. I think at the end of book one, because I only read the first one, I I think main character girl uh finds sanctuary and then leaves her younger brother there and then she runs off to do some other mission, but I don't remember exactly what that mission was. And uh I will say that this one also starts off pretty strong cuz the main character girl just wakes up in a hospital with no memory of who she is. And I think she wrote a message on her arm that said, "Get out now." So, she just starts off by escaping from that laboratory and then the story starts. I thought that was a strong opening, but other than that, I just straight up don't remember anything. Enclave. Um, you know, I I'll be generous and put this one in pretty good. Yeah, like I I want to put it in fine, but I'll I'm feeling a little generous. Enclave. Uh, it's about a girl named Deuce, which it's supposed to mean deuce as in two, but I I just think of [ __ ] every time I I think back to that. Uh, like her name is [ __ ] and she lives in these underground tunnels cuz after the world ended, uh, some people just retreated into this underground labyrinth, which already existed. We later find out that they're in the ruins of New York City, so it's like the subway and sewer system there. And they just have a society that lives down there and there are these creatures called freaks which attack them sometimes. And Deuce is a hun, excuse [clears throat] me, a hunter. So she actually gets to leave their settlement and go off and find food and fight the freaks and everything. And uh really only like half to twothirds of the first book takes place in this underground and then they leave and they go above ground and the rest of the story takes place up there. And I will say that this one isn't about overthrowing an evil government, which I I I did like that was a little bit different. Uh it's about just fighting off the freaks, you know, like it's this uh force of nature which is going around killing people and it's becoming more and more powerful over time. So they have to work together and work smart and work hard in order to fight these guys. And you know, it's a very simple story. So I don't have a lot to say about it. I don't think there's a lot of deep complex themes or anything going on here. Uh the main thing I will say about it is that it does a thing a lot of these books try to do where it tries to redeem a leg of a love triangle. Uh or or rather it tries to redeem a bad boy who is a leg of a love triangle, but he is just way too much of a bad boy. Like in this particular instance, he's a literal rapist. like he's he's a serial rapist who uh just Yeah, we're just gonna leave it at that. I don't feel like going into detail here, but uh I remember years and years ago, I was like 17 or 18 and I was reading the first book in that series and I enjoyed it, but I stopped like 90% of the way through because they started doing that and I just couldn't stand it. But then years later, I went back and read the whole thing and I still feel that way. But uh overall, Enclave, yeah, it's pretty good. The Maze Runner. Okay. I'm I'm putting that in Masterpiece, but I'm putting it very very low on Masterpiece. I I I'll put it ahead of Angel Fall, but it's still I'm being generous by putting it in Masterpiece. Uh dude wakes up in a maze which is constantly shifting and moving. Uh he has no memory of who he is or how he got there. All of the other people in the maze are the same. They try and find their way out and then later they learn that they were put there as an experiment to try and save the world. And books two and three, well, book two follows their experiments some more. Book three is when he starts changing things up and following his own path and he decides how he wants to save people. And you know, uh, in some ways it's pretty generic, but one thing I like about it is that it came out a little bit before The Hunger Games, actually. So, while it is aiming for more or less the same audience, uh, it wasn't just copying Suzanne Collins homework. It it uh it has its own flavor to it. It has its own feel to it. And while yeah, there is kind of a evil government organization type thing there. The story isn't really about overthrowing them, the story is really just about escaping and trying to save the world itself. And the ending really caught me off guard. Like the ending is a lot [ __ ] darker than I would have anticipated from those books. Uh, main character Thomas is kind of boring for the first one and a half books, but then near the end of book two, uh, he stops being generically nice and he's just completely done with everybody's [ __ ] He's like, "Fuck you guys. [ __ ] you guys. I'm saving my friends. I don't care what I have to do to do it." And I just I I really like that. So, you know, uh, I I'll put that in masterpiece cuz the third book, the ending at least, is a masterpiece. The Chemical Garden trilogy. All right, I'm going to put this in neat ideas. I'm going to put it ahead of starters cuz it has more neat ideas. It's a world where everyone dies uh at the age of either 20 or 25. Like uh girls all die at the age of 20 and boys all die at the age of 25. There's just some sort of genetic disease that is going around and is killing everybody. And so society is collapsing or has already largely collapsed. The government barely functions. A lot of people just grow up in orphanages because they don't know their parents. Their parents would have had them when they were very young and then they would have died very young. So like uh no one's family is intact anymore. Uh everyone's poor. Everything's falling apart. Like it's really interesting. And then main character girl gets kidnapped by a rich dude to become his wife and she hates being there. So, she just I I was about to say she tries to escape, but really the entire first book is just her thinking, I kind of want to escape one day and then doing nothing to actually try and escape. And then at the end of book one, spoiler alert, the [clears throat] way she escapes, like her her epic plan is to just run out the back door. Like, that's literally all she does is run out the back door. And then book two is about her trying to get home and it's not particularly interesting. It's just kind of her running into trouble as she makes her way across the US. And then book three, there's not really a plot at all. And I I don't know. I feel like some of the world building ideas were interesting. And some of the characters could have been really neat, morally gray characters if this was a book that was written for adults. For example, main character girl's brother is like really loyal and protective, but he also becomes a terrorist partway through the books. Uh, or the main villain of the story, like he does a lot of unethical medical experiments on human subjects without their consent and in some cases without their knowledge. But he does ultimately succeed in curing the virus, as they call it. It's not actually a virus. It's a genetic defect, but he succeeds in curing the virus and saving millions of lives. So, like there's there's some interesting stuff going on here. And I feel like these characters would be interesting to read about if it wasn't, you know, crammed into a young adult novel with all of that entails. Configured. Uh, I'm going to put this one in fine. I'm actually, you know what? I'm going to put it at the top of fine category. Like I will put it above ahead of Under the Never Sky because I remember a lot more that happens in configured. This one is about a society where emotions are not completely outlawed, but they're like strongly uh prohibited and people take medicines and stuff to keep uh their anger and sadness and everything under control. And if you don't fit into that, then I think you just get taken away and killed. It's it's been a while and I don't remember it super well. Now, you know, pretty much all the plot beats that this book is going to hit. You know, the first book is about main character girl trying to fit in in her society, but she doesn't quite fit in. And then at the end of book one, she realizes just how evil everything is. So, she leaves and goes outside of her society to some other society that is fighting against her society. And then she joins up with them. And then she helps them save the day over the course of books two and three. So, you already can guess pretty much all that happens there, but there are just a couple of small details in there that I thought were really interesting. Like, for example, in the first book, main character girl, it like it's all told in her first person POV. And main character girl just describes everything very dryly and very succinctly to like to the point. But then as books two and three go on and she starts like embracing her actual feelings more, uh, her description becomes a little bit more colorful and she describes how stuff makes her feel and what she thinks about it more. And I thought that was a really interesting and unique way to show how her character is changing and show how uh, her old life and her old society was really holding her down and forcing her to bottle up all of her feelings and then now she can just be herself. And I thought that was actually really really good. So that's why even though these books are just kind of fine overall, I'm putting them at the top of fine because that's something I don't think I've ever seen any other book series do. Legend. Uh, this is a weird one for me because whenever it comes up or whenever the topic of these crappy young adult dystopias comes up, people always bring up legend as one of the good ones. And I read these years ago. I'm like, why? Like I I'll put this one it below configured. It's still in the fine category, but it's right below configured because I mean I've seen everything that those books do in all of these others and I don't think it does anything particularly well. You know, it has the switching back and forth between two POV characters, and both POV characters have exactly the same narration, so you can't really tell them apart, which is a trope that I am just growing to hate more and more over the years, but I've never liked it. You've got the evil government that is evil for no reason other than it's evil. Uh, and then you have a rebellion against that government. Uh, one one thing I will say that I kind of liked is that at the end of book two, the evil government is largely reformed. So, it's no longer evil. And book three is largely them fighting against forces that are going to try and make the government evil again. And I I thought that was kind of interesting. Like it's essentially a counterrevolution that they're fighting against. I thought I thought that was kind of interesting, kind of cool. Uh but what really killed it for me is that none of the stakes really matter. Like there's a guy who has an unccurable illness and he only has weeks to live, but then he's able to run around and do parkour like nothing is wrong and then he lives at the end anyways and it's fine. Uh or how the good guys just straight up commit a war crime to win the day and they even acknowledge that it's a war crime. Like they they falsely surrender. That that's called perfitti and that is a war crime and they acknowledge it's a war crime but then they do it anyways and that's just like fine. That that that that was weird. That was a weird detail to add there. But, you know, there's just details like that where it feels like they're trying to tell us the stakes are really high, but they never feel all that high. And I I don't know. Look, Legend is fine. The program. So, I just finished reading this uh not that long ago. I'm going to put a video out out on it in February. Uh, part of me wants to say bad, part of me wants to say fine, part of me wants to say neat ideas. I I'm going to put it in neat ideas. I'll I'll put it below The Chemical Garden cuz basically the program, and just so we're aware, I read the first two books in the program, which is like the main story. There are other books in it, but those are all like spin-offs and prequels, just just so we're aware. I haven't read those yet. But the program is about a world where a whole bunch of teenagers just start committing suicide in massive numbers and no one is quite sure what's causing it. But in order to treat it, they create something called the program where if you seem suicidal at all, they'll just straight up kidnap you, take you off to uh an institution, and no one knows what goes on while you're there, but when you come out, you're a completely different person. And people are terrified of being sent to the program, so they have to hide their suicidal tendencies. And it's just I don't know. It's it's not a great book series. And again, I'll get into that more next month, so I don't want to say everything here, but it does have some neat ideas. Like it the program is horrible. And the way that they surveil and treat kids is horrible. And the story admits this and the characters in the story admit this. But at the same time, they just come right out and say, "Well, hey, if people's kids are dying and they will do pretty much anything to protect their kids, like even if it's hurting them in the short term, they are convinced that they're doing the right thing in the wrong in the long term. Uh, and so they are not going to stop just because you ask them to." And I I thought that was neat, you know, like it it shows how moral panics are always predicated on the idea of like, "Oh, think of the children." like it's it's telling people your kids are in danger and then the thinking part of their brain shuts down and they are willing to go along with a lot of horrible [ __ ] you know? I thought that was interesting. Uh I did actually like the main romance between the two leads. So yeah, like you know, here I'll I'll put it ahead of Wither or excuse me, I'll put it ahead of The Chemical Garden. Uh, and because I like the romance between the two leads and um, yeah, it had a couple of moments that actually hit pretty hard for me. But overall, it's just it it's not really anything all that special. Blood Red Road. Um, I'm going to put that in pretty good, but I'm going to put it at the bottom of pretty good. Uh, this one is similar to Enclave in that it's not really about overthrowing a dystopian evil government. It's about the apocalypse. Like this is a long long time, hundreds of years after the world was destroyed. And I don't think we actually learn how the world was destroyed. I I I think it's hinted that maybe it was a nuclear war, but we never actually find out for certain. But it is after the apocalypse. Main character girl lives on an isolated farmstead way out in the middle of nowhere uh with her family. One day, some strange men show up. They kill her dad and they kidnap her older brother. So, she goes off to save her older brother. [clears throat] It's a very simple story, or at least the setup for the story is very simple, but also very good. Like, you immediately want to know what's going on and why these people took her brother and who they are, but you also want her to go and save her brother. So, yeah, it's it's a great setup for a story. And then as it goes on, uh the characters are all likable enough. The story is moving at a good clip. It's not too slow. It's not too fast. The action scenes are for the most part pretty good. There's just one sequence in the first book where they tell us that the main character girl is like the greatest hand-to-hand combatant of all time, but that was never really hinted at even before this point. So, that was a little weird, but I I was able to squint past that uh for a little while. And then the climax happens and it's really good. The problem is that the sequels come and the sequels uh range from like fine to bad and the sequels are about overthrowing an evil government which has mysteriously just popped up in between books one and two basically. Uh and that's not really good. I I especially didn't like the way they ultimately defeat the bad guy. I thought that was very very stupid. I will say that the actual ending was pretty good though. Like it it was very bittersweet but the ending was pretty good. So overall, just Blood Red Road is pretty good. Stung, uh, we're just putting this one in goofy, and I'm putting it below breathe because Stung, um, basically there were some killer bees going around and then they made a vaccine to protect you from the venom of the killer bees, but then the vaccine turned people into rage zombies, which are just called beasts, and all of the beasts have a matching tattoo on the back of their hand. I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards. >> Uh yeah, this book is uh not good. It is very stupid in terms of the science. It's very stupid in terms of the actual world building cuz none of that makes sense. Main character girl and her romantic love interest guy are both uh really boring and terrible. The only thing I remember kind of liking about it is that it does take place in the Denver area, which is not far from where I live. And [snorts] I was like, "Okay, yeah, that's that's kind of funny to to imagine the world being destroyed and then like an hour's drive from where I'm sitting, I can just look and see all this going on." That that was kind of amusing. That's why I'm putting it in goofy because yeah, like it is bad, but it's bad in a funny way. The Immortal Rules, I'm going to say this one is fine. I'll put it uh Yeah, I'll put it right ahead of Shatter Me. So, The Immortal Rules is the first book in the Blood of Eden series. And I'm including the whole trilogy here. Uh, the world ended and now vampires rule over what's left of humanity and then main character girl gets turned into a vampire and then she uh really doesn't want to be a vampire, but she just kind of has to learn to work with it and then she goes off to save what's left of the world. This one has a couple of really major problems. Like I I feel like it could have been pretty good because again there there's some good stuff in there. The villains are appropriately despicable. I especially like the main villain who is just kind of crazy and evil. Like he has no sympathetic qualities or anything. It's not like he has uh good intentions, but he's going about them the wrong way or anything. He's just evil. I kind of appreciated that. Uh, and there's other stuff in there that is kind of fun, but I mean overall, uh, a big problem is that number one, it's way too centered on the protagonist in terms of morality. Like there there's a whole, uh, character arc later on where one of her friends, who she knew before she got turned into a vampire, uh, starts working for the vampires and she's like, "How dare you work for the vampires? Don't you know vampires are evil? Except me, of course, and the the vampires that I personally know and like and I'm willing to work with. They're fine, but you're evil for even thinking of working with the other vampires. And it's just it's really hypocritical and no one ever points that out to her. And on top of that, it has the same problem that Legend had where it brings up really high stakes for a couple of things, but then it never treats the story in such a way where it feels like those stakes are real and like yeah, [ __ ] could really get that bad. So, it just eh I don't know. It It was all right. like it was kind of difficult to get through the last book especially because the last book you can tell the author had kind of run out of story and so in order to pad the page count and hit her uh limit she just made the action scenes last a really really long time and they just they just drag. All right, so Sanctum is the first book in the Guards of the Shadowland series. I'm going to put that right at the top of pretty good. Like again, if it was just the first book, I would put it in masterpiece, but the sequels are several steps below. So, it's about a teenage girl who attempted suicide at one point, but she lived. And uh when she attempted suicide, she actually saw a glimpse into the afterlife, and she knows that when you kill yourself, you go to hell. Uh and so that is her motivation to not kill herself after that. She's like, "Okay, if that's where I'm going to wind up, I may as well just keep living this life thing." Uh, but then her best friend actually does kill herself and she winds up going into the afterlife to try and rescue her from her fate. And the first book is really good cuz there's some interesting stuff about this world where they go to. They call it the dark city. It's actually just one of many afterles. And it's not hell per se, but it's just where people wind up when they kill themselves. And they actually have some interesting explanations as to why that is. And then book two comes along and they leave the dark city, which was like the most interesting part of the book. And they're just back on Earth for a while. And then they go to book three and they uh leave Earth again and they go to a different afterlife, which is like this demon realm, which is really really cool. Uh but then they kind of defeat the bad guys like halfway through the final book. So they have the book just has to scramble and come up with new villains to fill the rest of the time. And by the end of it, I was really just begging for it to be over. So that's why more than anything why this book isn't in the masterpiece tier, but it is pretty close at times. I also just need to point out that the the story at least in broadstrokes of Guards of the Shadowlands might sound really really familiar to some of you because you see it's about a teenage protagonist who can see and is aware of the afterlife even though most people can't. One day uh one of the protagonist loved ones gets taken away to that afterlife to meet some sort of horrible fate. So the main character has to go in and rescue them. And they manage to rescue them, but then they have to go back to Earth because some demon creatures are attacking. So the main character along with some of the allies they made in the afterlife have to fight these demon creatures while also going to high school and pretending to be regular teenagers. Then these demon creatures take a different one of the main character's loved ones to a different part of the afterlife, which just so happens to be a giant desert wasteland where everybody lives under a big dome and then main character has to go in and rescue them. This is bleach. Like I I think I just barely started the third book when I thought to myself, "This is basically just bleach." And then I thought about it some more and I was like, "Oh yeah, that that is just straight up bleach. which is, you know, very funny. It It's I'm not saying it's a ripoff. I think it's different enough that it still feels like its own thing, but the broad strokes of the story are exactly the same. And that was very strange. The Darkest Minds. All right. So, I read the first two books in The Darkest Minds, and I just never got around to reading the rest. Like, I remember I liked the first book pretty well, and I think the movie is not half bad either. I actually think the movie is a step up from the book. Uh, and I thought the second book was fine, but I honestly don't remember that much about it. Uh, yeah. I I guess I didn't even finish it, so I I guess I would have to put that below Shatter Me, but I'll put it ahead of Cruel and Escape to Eden because if nothing else, I thought the main character of The Darkest Minds was pretty smart. Like, she was a sharp cook or yeah, sharp cookie. Uh, she was a very sharp, quick-witted girl. Uh, she didn't do anything that was especially stupid to get herself or her friends in trouble. And I I liked that enough, but other than that, I I can't say a whole lot about The Darkest Minds. Like I I remember I wanted to cover it at some point, but it just it just never happened, you know? And and I read the second book and didn't have a whole lot of interest in continuing. So, it's just maybe one day, but not today. Dread Nation. I straight up forgot this book existed until I uh was going over stuff I've read for this list. I'm going to put it in bad. I'll put it ahead of matched because I do at least remember a couple of things that happened in there, but it's below divergent. Uh so the setup for the story is really cool because it was uh right after I believe the GA battle of Gettysburg. uh zombies just appear all over America like the dead start rising and so the Civil War basically gets put on hold and everyone is stuck fighting the zombies and main character girl is well she's half black but in America at that time being half black just meant you're just black like you get you go to school with other black kids you don't go to school with white kids and stuff like that and uh she especially uh winds up going to I believe a special school where they train them to fight zombies, but they're really just viewed as expendable. Like all the black and Indian kids are just put in schools and then they sort of throw them at the zombies. Uh, which I thought was interesting. Like there there's some commentary on racism there and I thought the zombie action was okay, but there's a really weird twist about the identity of the protagonist's mom and I or excuse me, both of her parents rather and that was um I don't know. I just I I thought that was a little too dumb. And I never read the sequels. So, I I don't know. I remember a couple of things in that book being kind of good. That's why I'm putting it ahead of Matched, but there's just not that much to say about it really. The Selection, we're going to put that in unsalvageable. That's below the testing, but ahead of uh Save the Pearls. Now, I only read the first book, but I it's a there. a reality show where main character girl tries to marry the prince of her country. It's like the Bachelorette or excuse me, the Bachelor, I should say. I I don't know. I've never watched either of those shows, but it's like The Bachelor except she gets to be a princess afterwards. And I don't know, my main thing was just that uh main character girl was clearly not in love with the prince. She had uh her other boyfriend on the side, but she just really didn't have a problem with the entire uh government being evil and oppressive towards its people. Like she was just kind of okay with that. That that's the main thing I remember about that book. But yeah, unsalvageable. Let's move on. The Young World. Uh I'll put that in pretty good. I'll put that I'll put that behind partials but ahead of Enclave in the pretty good category. So, one thing about The Young World is that it was written by Chris Whites, who has been a writer and director in Hollywood for a long time. Like, he wrote and directed the first couple of American Pie movies. Uh, he directed one of the Twilight movies. He directed the Golden Compass movie. And I I I know The Golden Compass movie isn't super highly regarded, but the point is, uh, he's done a lot of stuff other than being an author. And I think that, at least as of the time of this recording, I think that The Young World is still the only actual book series he's written. So that that just needs to be kept in mind. Anyways, the young world uh there's a virus that killed everyone over the age of about 18. Like basically puberty protects them because they have all the hormones raging through their body. But then once they reach uh the end of it, like once they reach 18ish, then the hormones start calming down and then the virus hits them and they die. And all the younger kids died as well. And they also can't get pregnant. So they realize that, okay, yeah, the entire world is going to end. Humanity is going to die out. And life just sucks for them. And in the first book, they go to find a cure. And so they go on this long difficult journey across uh post-apocalyptic New York City. And I thought that one was actually pretty good. Uh but then the way it ends is less good. And then books two and three go in some weird directions with it, which I wasn't a big fan of. I mean, I'll give it this. It's not about a rebellion against some sort of oppressive regime or government or anything. So, it is a little different. Uh, I also did really like how this one has a bunch of characters telling the story from their different first person POVs, but it doesn't fall into the trap of having them all speak exactly the same. Like, they all talk very, very differently from one another. They all have very, very distinct voices. And I think that that comes from Chris Whites's time working in Hollywood. like he he probably has a lot of experience getting actors and characters to act differently than others. So, I I'm willing to bet that was a part of it. But also, uh all of the chapters with different characters are written in different fonts, too. So, you can tell just from looking at it. It's it's really really neat. Uh I also thought that all of the characters were not necessarily likable, but they were all like characters, you know? you know, they were all people who had their own complexities and their own flaws to them. H like I remember the villain especially, I I liked him because he's just a psychopath. [snorts] Like there's a little bit more to him than that, but overall he is just psychotic. Like he's just evil. And I I I liked seeing how evil he was and how far he was willing to go with things. So he was fun. Uh, like the the heroes as well are like appropriately heroic. Like they're scared and they have their own flaws, but they are appropriately heroic and I liked watching them save the day. It it it was cool. Uh, other than the ending, which was really, really bad. In fact, you know what? Now that I'm thinking about it, the ending is bad enough. I'm going to move it down behind Enclave. It's still ahead of Blood Red Road, but I'm going to move it down behind Enclave because, man, The Young World, the the ending It needed some work. But, you know, I do hope Chris Whites writes some more books because he's he's got a talent for it. Arklight. So, this one, the interesting story with this one. I thought it was only two books. So, I only read the first two books and it wasn't until after I read the last one that I found out uh there was a third one. I I still haven't read it. I'm probably never going to. Uh I'll put that in the bad category. I I'll put it behind Divergent. It's ahead of Dread Nation, but it's behind Divergent. And uh my main problem with Arkite, so it's after the apocalypse, there are these creatures. They're called like shades or something. I forget what they what they're called exactly, but they light hurts them. Uh so they only come out at night. And the heroes live in as what as far as they know is the only settlement in the entire world. and it just has these giant flood lights all around the perimeter at all times to make sure that the shades don't come in and tack them. And we find out pretty early on that the shades aren't any sort of magical creature. It's like nano machines which are vulnerable to sunlight for some reason. And the nanom machines like possess people and take over their bodies and stuff. Whatever the point is, main character girl has no recollection of her life until a couple of months before the story began when people just found her outside the settlement by herself and she doesn't know how she got there or what was going on. And we find out there's more to it than that later, obviously. But that that's an interesting setup if nothing else. And the main problem with these books is that there is no conflict at all until like halfway through the second book. And I don't mean that there's no villain. I mean there's no conflict at all. Like main character girl wants to find out uh the secrets of her past and she wants to cure her amnesia. Sure. But uh other than that there there's no conflict. There's no like obstacles in her way to doing that. There's no characters that are fighting against each other in a physical or emotional way. There's just no conflict at all. Uh, and you know, part of me wants to put this a little bit higher because if nothing else, the climax of book two was really, really good. But then I remember it wasn't good enough to make me want to try reading the last book and finishing off the series. So, eh, we'll put it in bad. Finally, there is The Fifth Wave. Um, I'll put this one in bad as well. I'll I'll put it below matched, but I do remember what happened there, so I'm not going to put it below the bane. The fifth wave, aliens invade, destroy most of the world. Main character girl is one of the few survivors. Her brother gets kidnapped by aliens, and then she goes to try and save him. And I know that sounds very similar to a lot of other plots that we've gone over here, but The Fifth Wave, it's done worse, like in basically every way. And then after book one, the story just completely loses its mind and loses any sort of coherence. Like, why did the aliens invade? We don't know. What are their actual plans? They're not trying to extinguish humanity. They're not trying to make us go extinct. They're just messing with us maybe. I don't know. Like they try to explain their plan, but it doesn't make any sense. And not in like a cosmic horror type of way where the their minds are unknowable to us, but just it doesn't make sense and it's weird. Uh, and I thought the climax of the series was okay. It was really rushed, but I did think it was okay. Other than that, I don't have anything else to say. like I I have a like twohour long video where I go over this if you want to watch that, but I I got nothing here right now. So, that's it. That's all of the like dystopian young adult uh books I read that came out and were almost entirely just trying to cash in on the Hunger Games success. And I don't know what what do you guys think? What What do you think about my placements here? What What sort of agreements and disagreements do you have? I I normally don't ask questions like that, but I'm I'm curious to see what you think about that. And also, I I'll probably continue reading these in the future. I think a lot of them are nostalgic. Uh I think a lot of them are kind of fun, even when they're bad. Uh stay tuned again next month. I'll be reading the program or I've already read the program, but I'll be talking about it in a video next month. And uh I think that's all I have to say right now. Goodbye. Thanks for being a patron or a channel member. Hello to everyone. Especially hello to the people who watched the entire video up until this point. You're awesome. These names you see on screen here, these are my patrons. I want to give a special shout out to my $10 and up patrons. Three Cat Day, Arthur D. Gonzalez, Martin, Brother Santos, Karolina Clay, Chaotic Entity 1, Chris Goldapp, Lexi Delarm, Lord Tybreaker, Michael and Katie Hake, Mr. A5013 prescriptions of DOJ Psychexs to Michael Victis and Wesley. I could not do this without you guys. You being here really does mean the world to me. If you want to get your name on here, consider donating to my Patreon. It starts at just $1 a month. You can also become a YouTube channel member or check out my merchandise store or go over on Cameo and buy a shout out from me. Or if you don't feel like doing any of that, you can always just rate the video and comment on it and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. Did you know I have a second channel which I haven't uploaded to in a in a while because I have one of those, too. Anyways, uh yeah, see you. Goodbye. There there's no way to say goodbye here that doesn't sound awkward, but goodbye.