This week on Genre’d: Off Book, we’re joined by Elyse's longtime friend Melissa, a self-proclaimed dystopian-fiction girlie who swears she “doesn’t really read fantasy” (we have notes). We talk about the books that broke open her love of bleak futures and authoritarian governments, why The Giver in fifth grade was maybe a bit much, and how dystopian stories are secretly… kind of hopeful?
Come for the dystopian deep dive; stay for the celebrity memoir recs, curriculum hot takes, and a bonus mini-interview with Melissa’s four-year-old son Alex, who explains why Captain Underpants is his bestie and teaches us all how to take deep breaths when we’re sad or mad.
In this Off Book episode, we chat about:
How The Giver, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Handmaid’s Tale turned Melissa into a dystopian-fiction lifer
Why The Hunger Games is her go-to “starter pack” rec (and how classics like 1984 and Brave New World hit differently as adults)
The biggest misconception about dystopian books—and why she thinks they’re actually love letters to human resilience
Her favorite tropes: the “truth drop” gut-punch and the moment the rebel finally wakes up
Why high fantasy and magic systems don’t work for her, plus tech-y, near-future recs like Silo, The Power, Vox, and more
Her “cheat genre”: celebrity memoirs (including Mindy Kaling, Jessica Simpson, Drew Barrymore, and Britney Spears)
A very special kid-lit segment with Alex featuring Captain Underpants, The Pigeon Has to Go to School, rainbow bear Coco, and the world’s cutest breathing exercise
Light spoilers for The Giver, 1984, The Hunger Games, and The Handmaid’s Tale (all decades-old, but still).