Exploring dystopian worlds

To celebrate the release of the Hunger Games film this week, we welcome Marie Lu, author of debut YA novel Legend to discuss the enduring appeal of dystopia - and to share a few of her favourite dystopian novels.

My debut novel, Legend (the first in a trilogy), has the great fortune of coming out at a time when sci-fi and dystopian stories are huge in young adult literature and pop culture. The first Hunger Games film arrives this week, and 2012 (along with being the supposed end of the world) promises a fresh wave of delicious dystopian tales.

Since I was born in 1984, I feel like I was perhaps destined to write a dystopian story - it might also explain my slight affinity for reading dystopians and post-apocalyptic stories as well. Over time, I've definitely built up some favorites:

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. In Legend, there are elements of eugenics and genetic experimentation scattered throughout the society; these same elements attracted me to The House of the Scorpion. It's best read when you know absolutely nothing about it - don't read any plot summaries or the back of the book, just start on chapter one. There is a fantastically eerie quality throughout the story, told from the point of view of a young boy,  as you start to peel back layer after layer of a strange and terrifyingly plausible new America.

Shipbreakerby Paolo Bacigalupi. The dystopian world of this one completely sucked me in. Salvaging old oil tankers; the smell of crude oil fumes, the heat, the claustrophobia of squeezing through old shafts, the storms, the salvage crews. Legend is about a world that isn't so much destroyed as it is falling apart-and I loved that Shipbreaker's world is also like this, but told in such a different and compelling way. It's beautifully written.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  It's less common to see a story set not after the apocalypse, but during it. Life As We Knew It was the first YA story I read about an apocalypse right as it was happening (an asteroid strikes the moon, bringing it perilously close to Earth and causing extreme climate changes that threaten our way of life). What's more, it is told in journal form from the point of view of a teenage girl, giving it an immediacy that kept me glued to the page.

Lastly, can I really call myself a YA dystopian author without paying homage to The Hunger Games? I remember picking up The Hunger Games in mid-2009, when I'd started writing Legend and was on the hunt for other dystopian stories. Like the rest of the world, I fell completely into Katniss's dark world and deeply in love with the main characters. I'm awaiting the film adaptation with bated breath.

2012 is going to be a fantastic year for dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories, and I can't wait to see what it will bring next.

For more great dystopian novels for teenagers and young adults, take a look at our list of our favourite dystopian books