What Happened to the YA Dystopian Novel Craze?

Besides the pale glow of my nightlight, I laid down under the bedsheets with a heavy stack of pages in my hands. I squinted my eyes to follow each word printed on the paper. The hardcover felt secure under my fingertips. Something about the touch of the book kept my body tethered to this world, but the story set my mind free. With each sentence, I watched it unravel. My imagination spiraled into alternate universes, sending me into the heart of District 12, the Glade, the Dauntless Sector.

Soon enough, I was shooting arrows with Katniss, decoding messages with Thomas, and hopping trains with Tris. Page after page, adrenaline coursed through my veins. I stitched my soul into the spine of each book. As the fabric of reality frayed, I escaped into fiction. My heartbeat quickened. Would Katniss survive the Hunger Games? Would Thomas escape the Maze? Would Tris reveal her Divergence? I kept reading and reading into the late hours of the night to answer these questions.

Well, until my mother opened my bedroom door at 1:00 AM on a school night, so I had to hide my book under the covers pretending I was asleep.

An integral part of my identity and middle school experience revolved around a specific genre of novels: young adult dystopian stories. In the early to mid-2010s, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent series dominated the teen literary scene. These thrilling stories centered around the adolescent experience of growing up in a corrupt futuristic world. By incorporating the notable elements of intense action, passionate romance, and fierce suspense, more young readers became enthralled with navigating through these fallen fictional universes.

However, a majority of these YA dystopian novels gained more widespread fame after their film adaptations. Bringing these book series to the big screen fuelled society’s obsession with the genre.  The Hunger Games movie adaptation in 2012 followed by The Maze Runner and Divergent in 2014, ushered in an era that engulfed teen cinema and literature: the YA dystopian novel craze.  

As YA dystopian novels began to dominate pop culture, the target demographic of devoted teenage book nerds evolved into elaborate fandoms. I spent the majority of my adolescence interacting with other fangirls online via Wattpad, Tumblr, and Pinterest. In these communities, we made fan edits, fan art, fan fiction—virtually anything and everything revolving around these book series. The extensive worldbuilding within these fictional universes allowed readers to delve deep into their imaginations and lose themselves in these stories. 

Within the novels, you could choose your District, your Trial, and your Faction. I believe this ability to choose your own destiny and build a character for yourself appealed to many young readers looking to explore their identities. These fandoms created an immersive experience, enabling teens to insert themselves into the novel and venture alongside their favorite characters. Despite the disturbing nature of dystopia, having an audacious yet relatable teenage protagonist to construct the narrative of the story, inspired young readers to embark on journeys of their own.

In the hours spent taking book-based personality quizzes and inserting my name for Y/N in fanfiction, I found comfort. YA dystopian novels expanded beyond the literary world into my daily life. Not a day went by when I wouldn’t recommend a friend to read The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, or Divergent. As for my non-readers, I persuaded them to watch the movies (stressing that the books remained superior because of the adaptation inaccuracies). Anyone in my life who knew me during my middle school days could define me in two simple words: book nerd. 

However, society’s YA dystopian novel phase was short-lived. By the mid-2010s, much of the mania surrounding these fandoms began to die down as interest in the movies declined. While The Hunger Games franchise remained considerably consistent throughout the trilogy, The Maze Runner and Divergent failed to live up to the same success. Each movie diverged further and further away from the original plot within the books, causing frustration and disappointment among die-hard fans of these books. Other YA dystopian novels—such as The Fifth Wave in 2016—decided to hop on the bandwagon in the tail end of the trend but did not gain as much appeal. 

Oftentimes, I reflect back on this time period in my life: what happened to the YA dystopian novel craze? As the years went by and the quality of movies worsened, many fandoms died out due to a lack of refreshing content. I believe the movie adaptations were the catalyst to the rise and inevitable fall of all these franchises. While at first, the movies grabbed the attention of a much larger audience outside the literary world, they failed to remain true to the books, often creating plotlines unrecognizable to the dedicated fans expecting accuracy and respect to the original novel. In doing so, these movies temporarily attracted the general public but ended up ostracizing long-term readers hoping to see their favorite books transform to the big screen. 

Sometimes I revisit old Pinterest boards or blog posts to feel nostalgic. A majority of the fandoms are inactive now. However, I will occasionally find a few fellow readers who will reminisce with me about the days when a specific book genre captured the minds of all teenagers. We crack a few nerdy inside jokes, recite some notable book quotes, and make a wish to go back in time. I miss the days when my only worries were ensuring I wasn’t caught reading past 1:00 AM. But YA dystopian novels will always have a place in my heart, as I get ready to turn the page, and start a new chapter in my life.