Dystopian Challenge- Spring Blog Hop

Miss. Remmers' Reviews hosted the It's a Bad World Challenge during the Spring Carnival Blog Hop and asked the following questions:

1. why you think Dystopian fiction is so addicting. Why is everyone reading it? What does it say about our society that we want to read about WORSE societies? Are there any implications dystopian fiction's popularity has on our own society? What say you!!
2. What is your favorite dystopian novel to date? Why did you like it? How does it stand apart from all the other countlessly recent dystopian novels? Why would you recommend it above all others in this genre?

Why is Dystopian Society so addicting?  Easy, because when you are reading a dystopian it is a little easier to go "wow, that is so wrong."  When you are looking at your own society.... it's not so easy to point fingers sometimes.  It also makes us feel like our society isn't so bad.  Sure we have issues but at least we aren't paying girls to sell their babies or forcing anyone into an arena to fight to the death.  Right?!  I think everyone is reading dystopian because there are so many great books out there.  I was afraid to read the Hunger Games at first due to the subject matter but once you start, there is no stopping.  If a book is amazing- people will read it.  The same is true if the book is super controversial, like Bumped.  People will read it just to see what the fuss is all about.  I think the fact that we want to read about other societies who have it worse than us shows that we are all escapists at heart.  Let's avoid the issue by proving to ourselves how good we really have it.  Let's tackle the problems of an imaginary place in our mind instead of trying to change our own society by doing something.  

As far as implications?  I hope all the discussion of dystopian society and it's issues will help push people to make positive changes in the real world.  Not all dystopian societies are based in fiction, some are based in fact and we should try to change the things in the world that are wrong. 

My favorite dystopian?  Geesh.  Ask me to choose my favorite child, why do you!  I'll tell you the ones I love the best: The Hunger Games Trilogy, Matched, Across the Universe, Delirium, and Inside Out/Outside In.  Why I liked them: they are really well written books with characters who just grab you.  Why do they stand apart?  They are well done and they aren't just out there to shock the crap out of you.  I've read Bumped and it honestly left me more confused than thoughtful.  Not my favorite.  Incarceron... it was good but it didn't grab me the way the others did.  (Maybe the movie with Taylor Lautner will do a better job? LOL)  I recommend these books because they are great for all readers.  They are fundamentally great books not just great dystopian books.  I especially love it when my husband reads the dystopians that I recommend because his insight is different than mine as he is a social studies educator whose concentration was political science and history.  So he is better at seeing the political side where I tend to be an emotional reader.  I also have a list of dystopians that I want to read this year: Wither, Crossed, Sapphique.  I'm sure there are more but I can't remember them all right now.  Love dystopians and glad I gave them a try.  I am doing the dystopian challenge and am trying for 15 in one year.  Right now I have read 10.