The hot genre these days amongst young adults books is discussed in the New York Times.
From the post...
What if teenage girls ran the world? But they still didn’t have any real power?
This is an idea explored in a new crop of novels in the ever-popular dystopian young-adult genre. Under the restrictive regimes in Megan McCafferty’s “Bumped,” Ally Condie’s “Matched” and Lauren Oliver’s “Delirium,” teenage girls are the most valued members of society. But there’s a twist: In these dark worlds, the heroines are more likely to be valued for their fertility or marriageability than for their intellect or athletic skill.
Ms. McCafferty said she was inspired by news reports of a “pregnancy pact” in Gloucester, Mass., and the subsequent pregnancies of the TV star Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin. “All this attention prompted me to think, ‘What if teenage girls were encouraged to have sex and get pregnant? What circumstances would make that universally acceptable?’ ”
The result is “Bumped,” which portrays a world where young girls are tasked with furthering the human race after a virus wipes out the fertility of everyone over 18. Of course, the identical twin heroines don’t want to play along.
“These books are really about defying the social order,” Ms. McCafferty said. “And at what time in your life do you feel more oppressed than in high school?”
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