The Rise and Rise of YA Dystopia | with Hunger Games translator Maria Postema

The Hunger Games and Divergent translator Maria Postema joins me to revisit the era of the YA dystopian novel. We talk about what it’s like being at the very beginning of a YA revolution, the best and most challenging parts of translating YA dystopia, the Dutch aversion to fantasy worlds, how to escape manuscript thieves (!) and more. 

Spoiler levels: low

Books mentioned:

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth
• Gone Series by Michael Grant
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld 
• Kinderen van Moder Aarde by Thea Beckman (Dutch only, sorry! For now...)
• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• The Knife of Never Letting Go/Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness
• Matched by Ally Connie
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner
• Across the Universe by Beth Revis
• Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill
• The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
• The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
• Dry by Neal Shusterman
• Two Degrees by Alan Gratz

Other

• Marathon Man (film)
• Battle Royale (film)
• Writers for the Future
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers
• Skandar series by A.F. Steadman

Find Maria Postema online

• https://www.tiktok.com/@booksofmaria
• https://www.instagram.com/maria_postema/

The End of the World Book Club is a podcast about apocalyptic and dystopian literature, hosted by Sanne Vliegenthart. Join me in discovering sci-fi classics, reading climate books and diving head first into the huge realm of speculative fiction, all with the theme of the end of the world and what might come after it.

Sanne Vliegenthart is the creator of Books & Quills, author of a Book Club Journal, and a freelance Social Media Strategist and Literary Event Host in publishing. You can find her literary explorations of the UK and reading recommendations on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok at @booksandquills.

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