Reddit reviews How I Live Now

I am going to take issue with that Brave New World and Hunger Games are dystopian, but not science fiction" line. The article linked to explain that distinction is based around the idea that dystopia must involve an ideological critique and uses The Matrix as an illustrative example, but doesn't seem to talk about what makes something science fiction rather than just blanket speculative fiction. (e.g. According to the author, The Matrix is not dystopian because the central narrative line is a messiah's human triumph over machines in thriller format, not the prediction/parable about humanity's end that would mark it as dystopian according to the thesis. I disagree.)

As far as I'm concerned, science fiction incorporates technology and/or science that is conceivable, but not currently available. So I'd say Brave New World's Bokanovsky's Process and The Hunger Games' genetic engineering in the form of mockingjays and tracker jackers as well as the flight craft and force fields and massive leaps in other technologies easily qualify them both as sci-fi. And dystopian.

So ha. ^Though ^you ^might ^get ^me ^to ^argue ^that ^Brave ^New ^World ^is ^actually ^utopian.

More Recommended Dystopian Sci-Fi Reads:

• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (adult literary sci-fi). Hyper-relevant commentary on social stratification, corporate power, class warfare, and rampant genetic engineering. One of my favorite books ever. Companion volumes (not sequels) are The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam
  
• Feed by M.T. Anderson (YA sci-fi), where everyone has the internet in their heads from birth. The consequences of instantaneous gratification and hypercapitalism. Super depressing and yet another one of my favorite books.
  
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (YA and a free ebook, btw). Maybe not the best ever, but hyper-relevant and you can treat it as a primer on internet security, higher level math, and coding. In near-future California, a teenage hacker is swept up by the Department of Homeland Security following a terrorist attack. Serious social commentary on mass surveillance and privacy.
  
• World War Z by Max Brooks, bearing no resemblance to the movie beyond the name (adult post-apocalyptic, an easy - and favorite - read. The abridged audiobook is good too). Despite the zombie apocalypse, this might not even count as dystopian because the interconnected interview narratives about the triumphs of human ingenuity are pretty uplifting. Themes of social change, the levels we'll sink to for survival, resilience...
  
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (YA sci-fi). At 16, the perfect society will make you pretty... And dumb. Society's obsession with beauty, etc, etc. I thought the series went downhill, but this is worth reading.
  
• Habibi by Craig Thompson (adult graphic novel). Half exegesis, half narrative about a post-apocalyptic Middle East mixed with stories from the Qu'ran and Arabian Nights. Deconstruction of the human spirit in a dying world, mainly.
  
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (adult literary). If you've even seen the movie trailer, half of the slow build to "something is not quite right" in the book is lost.
  
• Incarceron and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (YA steampunk-ish). This almost broke my favorite books list. Almost. Two worlds: one steampunk, labyrinthine prison, one fake medieval "real" world.
  
  Dystopian and Not Quite Sci-Fi Recommendations:
  
  
• The Giver by Lois Lowry (MG). Forget the movie trailer. The book we read back in elementary school was more about a utopian society going back to a simpler time and a 12-year old discovering the cracks and making his own decisions.
  
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire (adult literary fantasy). Different once again from the Broadway show, this is The Wizard of Oz told from the POV of the Wicked Witch of the West. All about the nature and definition of evil, but even then it might not count as dystopian. The Wizard is a Nazi, btw.
  
• The Selection by Kiera Cass (YA popcorn). This is seriously only making the list because of the popcorn aspect and where it seemed like it was going to go before The One ruined all the political drama and revolution that could have happened. Basically a fun Mary Sue-fest about princess lessons in a future-North American caste society.
  
• How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (YA spec fic). Anorexic teen during WWIII. Plenty of survival and resilience questions, but no new tech, so not really sci-fi, I'd say.
  
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (adult literary spec fic). Could arguably belong on the list above, but there's not much in the way of technology. At all. With declining birth rates due to pollution, the US becomes a theocracy. Written in response to the rise of evangelical politics in the 80s much like Oryx and Crake was in response to the politics of the early 21st century, but the main takeaway I got from it was that anthropologists are unconscionable.
  
• Into the Forest by Jean Hegland (adult literary spec fic). I didn't like this one at the time because the symbolism was so heavy-handed it bordered on magical realism and I couldn't understand the MC's decisions, but it grew on me in retrospect. After a flu pandemic, two teenage sisters live mostly on their own.
  
  But really, this whole article setup is eerily reminiscent of the "____ Literary Trope is Not Worthy!" followed by "Rebuttal!" linkbait we've been seeing a lot.

Recent books by female authors I've enjoyed:

Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

and... The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

• Alchemy and Meggy Swann, MG historical fiction about an alchemist's unwanted daughter with hip dysplasia
  
• Song of the Magdalene, YA historical fiction about epilepsy and cerebral palsy in ~30 AD Judaea.
  
• Incarceron & Sapphique, YA steampunk fantasy where the MC has amnesia and epilepsy.
  
• Shadow Spinner, MG historical fiction about Scheherazade. MC has a crippled leg.
  
• How I Live Now, YA contemporary/spec-fic about an anorexic teen in WWIII.
  
• Miserere, adult fantasy/horror. One character has a crippled leg, another has epilepsy and is half blind.
  
  Would also second The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
  
  Some other titles I haven't personally read but have heard recommended include Tangerine (blindness), How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets (epilepsy), Prizefighter en Mi Casa (epilepsy & paralysis), Breath (cystic fibrosis), The Door in the Wall (polio & paralysis).