Dystopia is Everywhere!

The Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, The Walking Dead... All successful franchises. And what do they have in common? Dystopia.
DYSTOPIA: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. The opposite of utopia.
Has Dystopia lost its meaning? Is it beginning to mean the exact opposite of what it's meant to? This obsession with the danger and destruction appears to be quite prevalent in recent teen fiction it's got to a point now where we wish for our lives to be like these dystopias; whether you want to put someone you hate in the arena or take your best friend as your zombie killing partner, the influence of dystopian fiction has been massive!

Not this Jonathon Ross but we love him too!

I've been sent a copy of Image Comics' America's Got Powers by Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch which fits in to this topic of Dystopia perfectly... The general plot of this story is that a crystal came down to earth and landed in San Francisco and all the pregnant women in a 5 mile radius gave birth to healthy, supernatural children. These children were segregated from normal kids and now fight on live TV for the chance to join the super team of heroes.
So yeah...I guess it's pretty similar to the Hunger Games but isn't everything now? Plus I think the super powers give this story an edge over the others; it's turned the concept on its head and makes it seem more like a utopia on the surface which most dystopias don't do. It's pretty different and I'm really enjoying it.
Are there any other dystopias you think don't get enough attention? Let me know, maybe I'll add it to my reading list!

That's it for now!
See you on Friday,
Is x
Twitter: @Marvellousshelf
Instagram: @issysmarvellousbookshelf
*this is a repost from my WordPress blog*

The Walking Dead Comics

Fight the dead,
Fear the living.

The Graphic Novels! 21 Is Missing *cry* but I'm Buying it Again
Soon!

The Walking Dead graphic novels are something I had wanted to read since I got into the TV show (the show was in it's second season then); finally, when I got my job in the bookshop, I had enough money to start buying them and I have since then spent an absolute BOMB on them since (no regrets though, they're freaking awesome).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Walking Dead, aka those who live under rocks, it is the story of county sheriff Rick Grimes who is shot on duty and slips in to a coma. He wakes up in hospital, alone and dazed to find that the world he knows is gone for good and the dead have started to walk. Rick sets out on a mission to find his family who he believes are in the city of Atlanta and upon finding them, he must work with others to try and survive in this new world but if there's one thing you can't do - it's trust other people, they may be even more dangerous than the dead.

SOUNDS COOL RIGHT!?

So I am now up to date with the comic book series and completely amazed by them and how much excitement they deliver in such a small amount of pages. Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Deadiverse, has completely turned the whole zombie apocalypse thing on it's head and stretched the boundaries of our imaginations to the point where it almost becomes real; it's a series you don't want to miss.

People have really slated the show; despite it's success, there will always be people who have to find something to hate about it (yet these are the people who loved Breaking Bad which I really did not enjoy). I guess I see the point of view that those who won't watch it have such as "how can you make 5 series out of a zombie apocalypse? They would pretty much spend every episode running for their lives.". Yes, sure they run for their lives, but it also completely tugs on your morals and shows a lot about what humans can do rather than zombies. It's incredible, it really is.

The show barely even gives you a flavour of the comics though. The first few series took a very different route to the graphic novels and were nowhere near as good whereas season 5 has stayed almost canon with it's plot. So if you've loved season 5...you should read these.

This post has been inspired purely by the fact that I've just read volume 22, A New Beginning, and damn son it was good. I'll just leave you with this little teaser...
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TALKING ZOMBIES.
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SO EXCITING!


So until Wednesday my friends,

Is x
Instagram - @issysmarvellousbookshelf
Twitter. - @marvellousshelf