I know, I know.  ‘Good dystopia’ is an oxymoron, but I think you know what I mean.  Dystopias, ever since the release of The Hunger Games, have exploded in popularity both in the teen and adult markets.  There are a lot of good ones out there, but there are a lot of bad ones too.  But what makes a dystopia good (read: interesting) for the reader?

1.  It has to be believable.

Many of you know my gripe about how the faction system in the Divergent trilogy would never, ever work because people are not like that.  If dystopian fiction doesn’t have a dystopia that makes sense or could really happen someday, readers are not going to like it.  Authors have to know enough about human nature and world politics in order to create dystopias that could really happen.  Sadly, a lot of authors just seem to skip this general knowledge requirement and jump in head first.

Why was Orwell’s 1984 so popular?  Because it really could happen.  It drew elements from the society of the day and predicted some things that are going on to this day.  Compare that to Divergent, where there are 5 factions that you pretty much have to join and fit completely into one category unless you’re Divergent.  Most people in Veronica Roth’s world are not Divergent, which tells you how much she really knows about human nature. Continue reading →