Kindle samples: Across the Universe, Delirium

[rachelmanija]

Across the Universe, by Beth Revis: Kindle Sample (first four chapters)Old-school science fiction, the sort a lot of old-school sf fans think teenagers ought to be reading: Amy and her parents are cryogenically frozen to board a generation ship; generations later, the ship has formed its own, undoubtedly dystopian, society. The old-fashioned

Comments

[sovay]

Vibrate: Sex has been banned and the government controls masturbation.

. . . Are you sure that one hasn't been written?

[rachelmanija]

Maybe in a porno.

[kateelliott]

[rachelmanija]

Oh, I will check that out!

[sarahtales]

I was on a panel when someone described how much they loathed Voldemort Has Changed Your Facebook Status to Single. Villains who are super-concerned with teens' love lives lose a certain menace.

I hesitate on whether to spoil you for Across the Universe...

I would like to see more ravaged landscapes as well as more threesomes. ;)

[sarahtales]

When there was a gay guy (minor character) in Megan McCafferty's Bumped, I was stunned: I really did not think I was ever going to get a gay character in YA dystopia.

[sartorias]

So far, agents seem to be afraaaaaid of threesomes.

[sarahtales]

I find this inconceivable as Melissa Marr did main-characters poly twice in the Wicked Lovely series, among others. But I admit my agent seems scared of them too. She said I could do them if that was my dream and she'd sell it, but she went from 'enthused about the dystopia, not much on the weirdo Gothic' to 'tell me more about the weirdo Gothic...?'

Agents as the ones who do the sellin' are I guess always going to be more risk-averse than the ones who do the writin'. But still, inconceivable.

[innocentsmith]

Before then, physical contact is forbidden between people of the opposite sex. (Also, yet another book in which gay people apparently don’t exist.)

That in itself would be a better premise for a book - what if you were queer in such a society? Would same-sex desire be unheard of/extra forbidden, or would it be normalized/not considered the same thing at all?

[rachelmanija]

Hmmm, yeah. Imagine being the gay kid who is sliding under the government radar because it can't even conceive that he might be doing something with another guy...

[jinian]

But the other kids can't be completely unaware of what's going on, and some of them would be mad as hell...

[innocentsmith]

Or, if you wanted to be all Victorian England about it, imagine being the gay girl whose "close friendship" with another girl is all well and good until it comes into conflict with a state-approved het marriage. And then it's disposable.

[thecityofdis]

This post? This is why I adore you.

[rachelmanija]

YA Dystopia story generator.

Zoom: BDSM has been banned and the government controls ibuprofen.

[thecityofdis]

HAHAHAA. THIS IS AWESOME.

I got:

Dig: Recess has been banned and the government controls flirting.

[rachelmanija]

Draft: Cats have been banned and the government controls acne.