BY RACHEL GAMBACH
Whenever a book garners a lot of attention it can be expected there will be some copycats. After the Twilight saga hit its peak of popularity a few years ago, we were ambushed with a wave of paranormal books centered on vampires, werewolves and overly complicated love triangles.
The latest series to take the world by storm is Suzanne Collins’, The Hunger Games. The trilogy’s success has ushered in a new wave of dystopian novels that seem to be quickly taking over the teenage book market. These fast paced and exciting novels are full of action, science fiction, and can hit or miss the mark of trying to appeal to young readers.
The Scorpio Races
Maggie Stiefvater’s book follows hunger-games like narrative arc yet falls short in substance. The general plot line is that every year carnivorous horses come out of the sea and men risk their lives to capture them. If they survive the expedition, they use the horses to race. Puck, a young orphan girl decides to enter the race with her regular horse despite the fact that no woman has ever done so before.
In theory, the premise of this book had the potential to be quite interesting, but in actuality the plot is slow and sobering. The book felt like a children’s book rather than a young adult novel. None of the characters have definitive voices and the ending, which the entire book anticipates, passes by in the blink of an eye leaving readers unsatisfied.
Dualed
If The Hunger Games and Matched had a baby it would be Dualed, the hit novel by Elsie Chapman. Basically, there is two of everyone but only one of the clones can live. The characters must prove themselves by defeating the other version before the age of twenty.
The story follows west, a fifteen-year-old girl who has lost her entire family. She has trained her whole life to kill her alternate but she makes a mistake that leaves her unsure that she is the best version of herself. It’s fast paced and is gripping from the first page.
