Matched is nothing like Hunger Games except dystopia. It actually, weirdly, has more in common with ... oh shit, the book that Lois Lowry wrote where everyone gets placed in a job? And he was the.....not seeker, but the repository for all feelings?

Yes, definitely more like The Giver, but, you know, with an ending. To the first book at least. Like The Hunger Games, the third book was a big disappointment as the plot and world-building became needlessly complicated and convoluted. Not as big a drop-off perhaps as THG, but that had a lot farther to fall.

Sorry if I missed it but, speaking of YA dystopian fiction, has anyone read Julianna Baggot's Pure?

My other issue is that I tend not to finish the trilogy of a dystopian. I read the first book and I'm usually okay with being done. This is perhaps another thing keeping me from Oryx and Crake. I finished the second book first and I am not especially interested in going back to book one.

What is the trilogy Oryx and Crake is part of?

It's Margaret Atwood, so it's not sci-fi, it's ~*literature*~.

I know who Margaret Atwood is.

it's ~*literature*~

huh ... so THAT's how you do sarcasm font

Oryx & Crake is the first book, the second is The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam is the third, coming out this fall.

So I am early in Book 2 Insurgent, and I have a bit of a complaint/mini-rant I really dug Divergent. I liked the paced and I was really involved with the story. I think I dug the world building and the thought about how this society was organized and how Beatrice was going to thrive/survive in it.

Now that Book 2 focuses a bit more on romance, I am less interested. I think is is because I don't like how her relationship with Four is being written. I think is is possible for a (YA or not) romance to reflect more "reality" than what some authors seem to do. Four suffered at the hands of his father and has a particular philosophy about human nature and the world. Why couldn't this be reflected in his relationship with Tris? The author seems pretty good about relaying behavioral responses to the 5 groups, but less about how situations may also affect behavior and attitudes. And further what this might mean in a romantic relationship. Four was beaten by his father ROUTINELY and saw his mother beaten. He is only 18 and he probably should have a lot of barriers in communicating in a relationship. This isn't really addressed (so far). I don't mean to hammer on YA or this author specifically. I have seen the same problems in adult lit. I just feel like having a mini-rant about how poorly some authors seem to write relationships and it takes me out of the book.

Snap Judgment had a program over the weekend where a man had to share a jail cell with his father, who he previously had not known. In about 6 months, he felt very close to his father because of the amount of time spent with him and how much communicating they did being in close quarters. It is hard for me to see how much time went by, but I would guess 6 months of training and perhaps 1 month of relationship? I think some of these barriers to communication should be negligible while others (currently) unaddressed would have cropped up.

Maybe I will change my mind when the book is done.

Amy, Kate answered more succinctly than I would have. I don't know that is has fancy trilogy name. I read it out of order and only partially at this point. I keep trying to finish Oryx and Crake and never get around to it.

The Giver was also part of a series, right? Lois Lowery has been really slow about releasing the related books though?