Sort of a dystopian thread,

Okay, I am going to be evil again and recommend a film. Watch George Lucas's film THX-1138. It is very like the idea that you are describing and may help you on your way. Also Orwell's 1984 is still a good dystopian story. Watch the film, it's a good one!! Personally I don't tend to write anything dystopian, but I believe that the two above films are good source material for the story you are trying to get across.

Have you seen the movie Gattaca?

Seconding the movie Gattaca and the book 1984. You might even look at Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, since it has the genetics/social classes there. Been a while since I read it, though, so I don't remember if there was a romance or not.

JustSarah said:

Though different in not being about the trend specifically. Rather, can a dystopia exist beyond inconveniencing lovers?

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a) Yes, it can
b) Yes, it does, even in current YA

I'm thirding the movie Gattaca too! And definitely Brave New World. I think they'll help you answer the question you have

I'd love to see more YA dystopian that isn't just a YA romance with a dystopian backdrop. In fact, I'd like to see more YA speculative fiction in general that isn't just a dressed up YA romance.

I'm fine with romance, but if the thing I'm reading is called fantasy or science fiction, I expect fantasy or science fiction to be the driving elements.

I read Feed by M.T. Anderson a few years ago for school and that was my introduction into YA dystopian. There's romance in it, but it's quite different in my opinion from what's going around these days.

That book has been on my must read list for awhile... I have to get it.

The real question here is: Why is there so much romance in YA? The answer is: Because it sells. Without the romance, the Hunger Games wouldn't have been interesting to a lot of readers, probably especially the female part of the readership. The reverse is true for the action: A lot of YA books include an action plot, because it attracts a large section of the readership. A books with love and action can attract the largest number of readers, and that is why most (of the successful) YA books feature both love and action.

This also explains that of course you can write a YA book without either love or action. After all, YA is not defined by action, but by having teen protagonists dealing with typical teen stuff, told from a teen perspective. And teens have so much more going on in their lives than love and action.

So, yes, you can write YA dystopia without a romance plot, but your sales figures will probably suffer.

SBibb said:

Seconding the movie Gattaca and the book 1984. You might even look at Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, since it has the genetics/social classes there. Been a while since I read it, though, so I don't remember if there was a romance or not.

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Lenina was the MC's LI iirc.

I haven't read Brave New World, but 1984 has a romance.

The relationship that formed the backdrop to the Hunger Games was Katniss and her little sister, not Katniss and her love triangle. THG was in no way about the romance; that's just how the media likes to spin it to cash in.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I think people overstate the presence of romance in YA SF/F. It's probably more salable if you have romance in it but it doesn't remotely have to be the main focus.

Then again, I haven't read any of the other big dystopians, so maybe they are all totally about the romance.

What about The Giver and the other books in the series by Lois Lowry, like Gathering Blue? It's been a few years since I read them, but don't think there's much romance.

The Uglies/Pretties series by Scott Westerfield deals with the whole ugly vs. pretty, surgically altered dystopian future idea. But that one does have a bit of romance.

There's Matched, but I guess the whole point of that one is "matching" with a life partner, so I guess that falls into dystopian with romance.

There's also Stolen Voices by Ellen Dee Davidson that is a YA dystopian without romance. Or...I think. I read that one awhile ago too.

lenore_x said:

Then again, I haven't read any of the other big dystopians, so maybe they are all totally about the romance.

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Divergent has romance but it's not really impeded by the dystopia aspects. However if you're looking at like Delirium, Matched, The Selection, etc., I can see where you would get that idea...

MaryLennox said:

What about The Giver and the other books in the series by Lois Lowry, like Gathering Blue? It's been a few years since I read them, but don't think there's much romance.

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I was thinking the same recommendation. I read this series recently and no, there is no focus on romance, more on dysfunctional societies and their underlying evil.

The Giver series is something I'll recommend for this. In fact, the first book in that series was required reading back in HS....for some reason our school didn't require us to read 1984 but instead required us to read the Giver...go figure. No matter, I don't remember romance being a big "thing" in that series, and personally I think there are other dystopians out there without the romance. I find that dystopian tends to be a fairly highly saturated genra for YA, so chances are if your looking for something, you'll find it somewhere.

Also...you can have dystopia, with romance, where romance is not actually the focus of the plot. See the hunger games again, it is there, but it's not the center of the plot. There is a lot more going on in that seires then romance blocked by a dystopian government, and I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find a dystopian title with no romance period...

Romance does kind of seem to sneak its way into everything YA doesn't it. Then again, think of the audience. Romance seemed like the biggest, most important part of life to me as a teenaged girl. I don't think that's probably changed much. Romance as a subplot in YA is a good thing. It hooks the readers in for your main plot.