Variations on a theme.

I recently finished Divergent. A new young adult series about a dystopian society with a strong female protagonist. Sound familiar?
I've also read Crossed and Hunger Games. I can't help myself. I think dystopian societies are my favorite. It's so interesting to me the variety of societies created. I'm always intrigued to see why these societies made the choices they did and how, ultimately, they fail to make things perfect.

Here are some thoughts I've taken away as an adult reading these young adult books.
1. The societal structure usually fades into the background of the inevitable love triangle. I don't know about you, but I never ran into this problem in high school. Is this common now? Or is it something young girls dream of, having to pick between two good guys? Or is it showing a girl's desire to be desired?

2. Where are the parents? I understand that absent parents are a necessary plot device, I mean how could these love triangles and boy sleep overs take place otherwise? But having just become a parent it makes me nervous. When my child becomes seventeen will he feel like his parents are no help to him? Maybe the literally absent parents in these books point to the lone wolf feeling of adolescents.

3. Young adult romance makes me uncomfortable. I don't know why, but when romance starts happening in these books I get uncomfortable, like I'm watching a rated r movie with my parents and I'm thirteen. I find myself thinking, 'keep your clothes on'. Even though none of what I'm reading is terribly inappropriate, and a lot of it is a lot tamer than what is in movies and on tv. I've seen gossip girl and 90210 and it is alarming.

4. We want to feel special, or be different. These books all have strong females as the lead and I think one thing they are trying to tell young girls is: you are special, unique and can make a difference. Also, you don't need to be a victim. Those are good reminders for all of us.

Despite the above points Divergent was really good and I highly recommend it if you're looking for something to fill your hours until the Hunger Games movie comes out. The society took me some time to fully understand, but I was impressed that the plot moved faster than other first books in a trilogy have in the past. They accomplished a lot and I'm excited to see what they do with the other books.