5 Reasons Readers Love Dark Dystopian Fiction
- Theo
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
Most of us avid readers do enjoy dystopian fiction, especially when there's a darker side to it. Lately, Booktok, you see that people are enjoying the 'dark side' of genres (although primarily romance). Reading is supposed to be an escape, so surely we would like to escape somewhere much nicer? Well, apparently not.
When I started to rediscover my love of reading as a teenager, I gravitated towards the popular series at the time, such as Twilight and The Hunger Games. Although they are different genres, they had a similar pull for me, which was the romance side. There was a lot of brooding and mystery involved in the worlds and characters. As a teenager, that drama was what I craved.
Fast forward many years later, I recently enjoyed reading Sunrise On The Reaping, which is still a YA dystopian fiction. I also occasionally enjoy reading about vampires (I rediscovered a love with Serpent and The Wings of Night), but that's not as relevant.
I also wrote my own dystopian fictional novel called Who Are We To Be. Writing dystopian fiction turned out to be just as fun as reading it, but what surprised me was how much truth there was even in a fictional world.
The first true dystopian novel I read was The Road, and that was a true dark, dystopian novel. The Hunger Games has much more appeal in that world, but nonetheless, both are dark and both are dystopian. Dystopian fiction is popular for so many reasons, but some are less obvious than others.
A reflection on society - Dystopian novels are so interesting to read because they are a reflection of the truth that we see in our current lives. They give a glimpse into what life could be like, but they also exaggerate current problems we see. In The Hunger Games, the contrast between the Capitol and the Districts reflects the differences we see now between homelessness and celebrity luxury. In Who Are We To Be, a main theme is your future being decided by the society around you - something a lot of us have felt growing up.
Relationships - In most dystopian fiction, there is a lot of importance in the relationships that characters have with one another. Material things no longer matter, as it's mostly about survival. What really is important is the people you are with. In The Road, it's a father-son relationship that you bond with. In Who Are We To Be, their freedom is found because of their friendships. It helps refocus what's truly important in our actual lives.
Rebellion - In a lot of dystopian fiction, we see some kind of rebellion. There is a freedom to be found, and that comes in breaking the rules imposed by others. In The Hunger Games, we see the rebellion start with Katniss refusing to kill Peeta and then eventually becoming a symbol for change. In Who Are We To Be, we see a group of teenagers fight back against a military system. It can help us explore this feeling and need for rebellion in real life.
Escapism - As with most fictional books, we read to have an escape from our real lives. Dark, dystopian fiction offers us excitement that we might not get in our actual lives, coupled with a place to explore our feelings about society. Again, this comes from dystopian fiction being a reflection of our current society.
Hope - In the majority of dark, dystopian fiction, there is one major reason it's enjoyable, and that's because there is hope for the characters. Despite such a dark setting where things are turbulent and scary, we follow a character's journey to finding hope. It's a major theme in The Hunger Games, but also in other dystopian novels such as 1984 by George Orwell.
Dystopian fiction will always be interesting as it gives us an opportunity to explore things that are currently affecting our society, as well as visit future possibilities of what life could be like. We get to learn about ourselves through this fiction and learn what is important to us. We learn to have hope no matter how bad things can look.
Dystopian fiction novels to consider reading:
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