The Hunger Games Battle Royale Dichotomy

The trend of dystopic young adult fiction is quite nauseating. The Hunger Games is a shameless inoculator, its anti-subversive, pseudo-dystopic, politically biased, and simplified world-building has inseminated the genre, producing more works of the same platitude. It's strange to think that Suzanne Collins was actually attempting to write an important piece of social commentary, when the book was completely devoid anything thought-provoking. She failed to grasp the concept of a dystopia and instead created a gimmick for her condensed world, tossed in a mediocre love story and turned it into a fairytale.

Long before reading this, I read a nice little novel called Battle Royale. Before the actual tournament began in that particular world, the author decided to illustrate the characters and let the readers get to know them before anything actually happened. This really took effect on me as a reader. I enjoyed the characters, each one acted like a teenager and each one had problems that anyone could identify with. So, as one could imagine, the idea of all of these characters being placed in such a situation is quite terrifying. You hated the concept all ready, you thought about how sick it was and the very thought alone was all too disturbing.

Long after reading Battle Royale, I picked up The Hunger Games. Before the actual tournament began in Suzanne Collins' supposed dystopia, we were identified with the protagonist. She lives in a poor, blocked off society (more reminiscent of a third world military junta than a dystopia) with a family. Her family, due to tragic circumstances is fatherless, the mother is emotionally crippled and her little sister is in need of her help. Illegally, she hunts in the woods to provide for them and displays a finesse for archery.

Then we learn about The Hunger Games. An event very similar to Battle Royale; except instead of pitting students, who know one another very well together, they pit strangers chosen at random from