Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! This weekly shared “meme” has a different theme each week and is shared by many blogs. We’re aiming to come up with ten things between us each week so they won’t be in any particular order!
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. For a list of past and future Top Ten Tuesday topics and to find out more about Top Ten Tuesday, click here!
Top Ten Worlds I’d Never Want To Live In.
1. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood World: Gilead Description of world: a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the United States of America. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples that have trouble conceiving. Women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming any friendships. No book club nights then ladies! – Natasha and Leila
2. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
World: The Chemical Gardens
Description of world (Goodreads): A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
According to DeStefano I’d already be dead. – Leila
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
World: Panem
Description of World: Panem” has risen from the ashes of a post-apocalyptic North America. Panem’s seat of power is a utopian city, called “The Capitol,” but outside of the Capitol, the nation is divided into twelve districts under an authoritarian and totalitarian dictatorship. Every year since the Dark Days, which occurred 75 years ago, the Capitol hosts an event called the Hunger Games. The Games consist of a gladiatorial combat fought amongst twenty-four children (tributes) aged 12–18, with one boy and one girl chosen by lottery from each district.
I remember being shocked at such an awful premise when I first read this book, and by the end of the series I was even more horrified. I really hope this never happens! – Angelya
4. 1984 by George Orwell
World: Airstrip One
Description of world (wikipedia): a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, and publicmind control, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or, in the government’s invented language, Newspeak, called Ingsoc) under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite that persecutes all individualism and independent thinking as “thoughtcrimes.”
Big Brother is ALWAYS watching.- Natasha
5. Angelfall by Susan Ee
World: Earth during End of Days
Description of world: Angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night.
Scary, scary Angels!- Philippa
6. Wool by Hugh Howey
World: Silo
Description of World (goodreads): In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.
There is no such thing as a healthy tan, but imagine spending your entire life underground! No thank you.- Natasha
7. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
World: Westeros
Description of world (A Wiki of Ice and Fire): Westeros is one of the four known continents in the known world, the others being Essos, Sothoryos, and Ulthos. Most of the area of Westeros is covered by a political entity known as the Seven Kingdoms, while the far north beyond the Wall includes the free folk. The closest foreign nations to Westeros are the Free Cities, a collection of independent city-states across the narrow sea in western Essos.
Even though the world of Westeros seems pretty cool, at the moment in the stories it’s a pretty messed up place. – Angelya
No. Nuh-uh. I wouldn’t be a royal, that’s something, but the poor folk have it even worse! – Hannah
8. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
World: Wonderland
Description of World (Goodreads): Journey with Alice down the rabbit hole into a world of wonder where oddities, logic and wordplay rule supreme. Encounter characters like the grinning Cheshire Cat who can vanish into thin air, the cryptic Mad Hatter who speaks in riddles and the harrowing Queen of Hearts obsessed with the phrase “Off with their heads!” This is a land where rules have no boundaries, eating mushrooms will make you grow or shrink, croquet is played with flamingos and hedgehogs, and exorbitant trials are held for the theft of tarts.
While on the surface Wonderland seems like.. well.. a world of wonder, there is so much darkness and fear within. There’s a good reason Alice desperately tried to leave. – Hannah
9. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
World: Dystopian USA
Description of World (Goodreads): The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child “unwound,” whereby all of the child’s organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn’t technically end.
There is something downright wrong about a world where parents can leave their babies on the doorstep of other houses and can choose if the child is being “difficult” to effectively donate the kid to be a live organ donor… how anyone survived the toddlers years is beyond me! – Philippa
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
World: Post-literate USA (anytime after 1960)
Description of World: A future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any that are found.
A world that outlaws books would be terrifying! – Philippa and Natasha
Related Posts
Natasha
Natasha lives in Brisbane, Australia with her husband and son. She is a self confessed bibliophile who enjoys literature and adult fiction. She also loves travelling and aims to visit 40 countries by the time she is 40 (current count 36).
Barefootmeds
Oh I love your choices! Definitely agree with Gilead, Panem and Unwind (the latter was also on my list). And I still want to read Wither, 1984 (gasp!) Fahrenheit 451.
Barefootmeds recently posted…Ten Books I Don’t Want To Live In
Natasha
There are so many horrific book worlds out there it was hard to choose 🙂 I loved 1984, let me know what you think when you get around to reading it.
Natasha
Hey, I also see you are from the Eastern Cape! I went to Rhodes University, so that part of the world has a very special place in my heart 🙂
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz
We have four of the same worlds! Interesting!
Here’s my list of Book-ish Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In.
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz recently posted…Oregon Cabin
Natasha
Great minds Deb 🙂
Ana @ Read Me Away
I would never even want to be a royal in Westeros. Too many people who would be willing to kill me to get my power. Nope!
Ana @ Read Me Away recently posted…Winter Wishes: Wrap-up Post!
Doris
I would say great picks but I can’t because I wouldn’t want to live in those worlds either.
Here’s our TTT
Doris @ OABR
Kim @ The Avid Reader
Unwind made my list too! What a horrifying world to live in. Handmaid’s Tale was a great choice too.
Kim @ The Avid Reader recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Wouldn’t Want to Step Into
Natasha
Any world where woman exist purely to breed completely freaks me out. I already hate people telling me what to do – I wouldn’t survive long in Gilead (or in a zombie apocalypse – but that is another story)
Jenn
Great list. I would not want to live in the world of Fahrenheit 451. Besides not having enough space to hide books, and the unwanted stress of keeping all that a secret, I would feel that not engaging my mind would ruin my quality of life.
Jenn recently posted…I’m back!!!