Dystopia is Back, Baby!

Authors Chloe Gong (The StrangeLoom Trilogy), Ava Reid (Winterveil, Fable at the End of the World), and J. Elle (The Heart Trials) discuss the influence of the 2000s Golden Age of YA dystopia, social media’s impact on literature, and writing for teen readers.

• Being on Tumblr during the mid-2000s YA boom fucking ruled (Ava and Chloe might have been oomfs)
• Dystopia is a recession indicator, publishing trends, and the genre as an outlet for hard times
• Nostalgia, writing for teens, and how today’s dystopias pull less punches
• The elephant in the room is social media
• Dystopian themes, censorship, accessibility, and coming-of-age
• Winterveil and how impossible it is to parody certain real life figures, and writing closer to real life
• The influence of the Cold War on American political ideology
• Factions, leadership, and the divisions of morality in dystopian fiction
• Complicity, child soldiers, and fighting the system from inside it
• Belief, thinking critically, and the power of choice
• Propaganda and national folklore
• The manosphere, incels, and escaping the algorithm
• Hope, the awareness of internal biases, and survival vs rebellion
• Romance, queerness, community, and the power of emotional connection
• Everybody is reading The Sixth Faction but me (Christina)

View full show notes and transcript on Reactormag.com