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I just finished "Divergent" by Veronica Roth, and I must say, she has a way with words.  If any of you guys haven't read it (though you probably had) I suggest you read it!

Really? I positively hated it. It completely and utterly ripped off the hunger games. 

If you doubt me, try watching the Honest Trailer for it's movie with a straight face.

Well if you are going that route then you should hate pretty much every single thing in existence. There is nothing new under the sun. Take a peek at tvtropes for plenty of examples of this. Dystopian type societies? Post apocalyptic type worlds? Kids/adolescents in battle? It has all been done twenty billion times before. Completely original ideas are rare as hell. Nearly everything has been done before. People are influenced by what they like, therefore things they create will often tend to reflect in some aspects what they have seen/read before.

Plus movies adaptations are always more titled towards what is popular. Harry Potter movies for example cut tons of content that provided character development for characters more in the background. Movies tend to be aimed not at readers, but rather the average person that enjoy movies of that genre. 


 

Spoiler:Tris dies in the third book.

She had it coming. 

Can you at least highlight them white or black? 

Oh...  Are you serious?

lol, he's joking.

No, I'm not.

I know, don't spoil it for other people

He already has xD

But he was lying wink wink

The fact that you included "wink wink" (in grey text and on a black background) shows that he was not, in fact, lying. Of course, for all I know, you could have known that and had been messing around.
 

It's very similar to the Hunger Games, but the two books are interesting in their own way. 

Something about Divergent was... off when I read the first one so I didn't bother to get the 2nd. I did finish the Hunger Games even though I hated parts of it.

Pffffffffffffffbfbbbfbbbbbffffft. 

That's subjective, but the author basically made the same story, slightly different, and made a million dollars off of it. 

And THAT'S what kids are reading today. 

And the Hunger Games is pretty much the same as Battle Royale. Doesn't make it any worse.

Yeah.  I can't really seem to pick up the second book yet.  But I hope I'll get around to it.

It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anywhere near what I expected for a system to be supposedly designed to AVOID war, insurrection, power struggle, etc.  It's like the designer had no contingency plan if the system ever fucked up.

I enjoyed it.

I have a thing for dystopian societies. I love literature involving them.

I do wish that the author would have done with less romance. However that is the common hallmark of young adult fiction. Romance is something I don't particularly like in any novel or story. (maybe that is just because they seem to always fall into place so easily, and my own experiences in love have been messy and disastrous)

I don't mind dystopian societies but they seem to be everywhere now in more modern/future fiction.

There's also The Giver which just came out in the theaters recently.

Back in the 70s there were a bunch of dystopia movies/stories that came out, I figure it just came back in style again.

I hate that they decided The Giver had a happy ending. 

Most recent fictional dystopian societies are ridiculous.  There's no realistic way any culture (let alone the ones generally depicted in such novels) could develop such absurd rules, nor any conceivable reason for the society to be functioning.

Not to mention nearly all of them have a protagonist whom, despite being born/raised in bizarro-world, somehow manages to possess the innate morality of a white middle-class modern-day American teenager.

I've only read one "teen dystopia", a book called Unwind. I actually liked it, but I agree with what you said about the protagonists.

I read that book.  Not bad.  Same thing though, explain me how society decided to let that happen.

One of the (over 50 years old) gentlemen at my job read it, (I don't know why, he's not a scf-fi/teen reader usually) and he loved it so much he sold over 100 copies of it.

My favorite review online for it:  "This book made me think, and I didn't like that."

Well, the liberals and conservatives got into a big fight over abortion and said "fuck it, we'll just start killin' all the teenagers and usin' 'em for spare parts, despite the fact that that has practically nothing to do with what we were originally arguing about."

Hey, hey, technically they're not killing them. 

It's actually a big plot point later, that their memories stay alive somehow inside their new bodies.

Their brains are cut into small bits, destroying their consciousness. So, essentially, while each of the separate parts is still alive, they cease to exist as a distinct being.

Edit: Wait, what?

No, like I said, it's a major plot point in the later books.  Their consciousness does not cease to exist. 

I didn't notice that part until after I posted. Also, I've only read the first book. But, seriously, what?

The Maze Runner is another, coming out in cinemas 18 September I'm pretty sure. I absolutely loved the first book, but from what I've seen of the trailer, the movie seems to be completely different. Maze Runner was about a bunch of kids being experimented on by the government, and there's one kid who's 'the special one' who comes and changes everything and helps them rebel etc. I guess it could be considered cliche, but sometimes cliche can still be well-written and enjoyable!

Indeed it can be. I loved the Maze Runner as well, but I fear that Hollywood will bungle it up, as it tends to do with great source material.  *looks sadly at copy of the Hobbit* 

So true. I fell in love with the hobbit, I must have read it twenty times. The movies just seemed... kinda boring, just like every other action movie out there. How did they manage to screw it up?

I think Jackson was trying to recreate the awesomeness of his LOTR movies, and bungled it up. Because the truth is, the Hobbit is less of an epic story. It's a great story, but was written for his kids. 

It also doesn't help that the Hobbit was a prequel which means we already know what happens after the story+that the main character survives into the Lotr's story since we saw them there.

I actually read The Hobbit before I read Lotr, and it sort of led me on into the world of J.R.R Tolkien. 

The hobbit is not a prequel. It came first. 

Yes, but it is still a prequel to LOTR. 

Actually, it's kind of interesting:  "prequel" means it was created after the original, but focuses on events prior to the original storyline. So, the book "the hobbit" is not a prequel to the book LOTR, since it came first.  However, the movie "the hobbit" is a prequel to the movie LOTR.

I stand corrected.

tmr for tha win ;) ADVANCED SCREENING BIATCHES

I am so jelly, you could spread me over toast. 

(I don't speak hip) 

I don't like jelly; it's far too saccharine for my tastes.

You made me Google a word. Damn you, James. 

I've lead people to Google worse.

And the sad thing is, I don't doubt it. 

Here are some fun words:

Anthropophagus

Psychopomp

Phallophobia

Dipthong

Catatonic

hahaha >:D im so excited 

OMG i loved it so much! You have to read the next two books 

Yeah.  I'm reading the second one right now!

good hahah it is AMAZING

Looking forward to it!

I love the series so much! The third one was kinda a let down... but it was still pretty good! :D

I've heard Tris dies...  (@coins)

Yeah sorry to burst your bubble, tris dies instead of her brother. a death serum is created and it kills even divergents. for some fucking reason tris survives the serum but then gets shot. 

I'm not reading the invisible letters...  All I saw was she dies instead of her brother.

Well hurry up and read the books! 

I'll get to it eventually... (or... not)

But seriously.  I'm definitely going to finish the series.

If you like them, you should definitely invest some time in 'The Maze Runner' series by James Dashner or the 'Gone' series by Michael Grant. Both are dystopian, end of the world sort of things.

Yeah.  I've read "Gone," and it seemed pretty nice, but couldn't seem to grasp the whole... "superpower" idea.  And I've been considering "The Maze Runner" series.  Probably after I finish the "Divergent" books, I'll dive into some of your suggested books.

maybe.... :/

Sigh...it's # @coins

# @coins