In the early months of Donald Trump’s turbulent second presidency, I did what only a sane person would do: immerse myself in our era’s most influential Young Adult dystopian literature, novels that convey the chaos of capricious, cruel dictatorships.

I quickly devoured 5,195 pages of the best-selling YA series, The Hunger Games, Red Queen, and Divergent—tales of vengeful edicts and oppression of the powerless. In post-apocalyptic American geographies, I encountered poisonous presidents, silver-blooded monarchies, and divisive factions. And those who fought them.

Because what we need most right now: Stoic and stubborn 16-year-old girls with a lot of grit and hidden warrior skills.

With the fifth Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins released this Spring, Sunrise on the Reaping, what better time to explore cognitive chaos in the safe space of literature? What I found, outside of terrifying moments of recognition, are survival tips. Warning flags (some obvious, some subtle. All sinister). Flashes of understanding about the ways societies devolve into persecutions, history wipes, and 100-year wars—worlds we can still possibly avoid.

While seminal dystopian novels have been re-visited under Trump (top-of-the-list is George Orwell’s 1984), modern YA lit offers a uniquely post-millennium perspective. In the heart of their stories, I discovered a mixture of youthful innocence and cynicism from those tasked with cleaning up previous generations’ horrific messes.

Scrappy fictional heroines like Katniss, Mare, and Tris teach us more than we’d expect about fighting back: How to foster and lead resistance. Techniques to triumph over 21st-century nouveau-fascism in the U.S. and abroad. Guides to keep an embattled democracy alive.

Here, my personal top 10 take-aways: recurring themes, flashes of insights, and calls-to-action—as authoritarianism spirals outward in the real world from a rather small white house.

1. Understand that fear fuels abuse of power. The more people who stand up to fight, especially those unbeholden to the status quo, the better the chance to resist the storm.
2. Break down factions—Dauntless or Amity, Right or Left. (Looking at you, the Internet). Hate, bigotry, distrust, ignorance, elitism, greed, and moral panics all destroy.
3. Start a training regimen. Our heroines on the verge of adulthood—Katniss who rebels against cruelty; Mare (a bit older at 17) who battles apartheid; and Tris who exposes discrimination and lies—get beat up (a lot) in these books. And, like the warriors they are, we should wear our proverbial bruises and scars with pride.
4. Be wary of charismatic sociopaths who don’t care how many lives they destroy. There’s no appeasing a bully. They just keep at it until stopped.
5. Embrace teenage-style drama. Sneering, smirking, and snickering can offer the sardonic distance we need to stay strong. (Our heroes’ and villains’ dramatic story lines resemble the love intrigues, impetuous squabbles, and tragedies of Greek gods.)
6. Understand that things don’t stay ‘normal’ forever. Pay attention, remember, and seek out and preserve truth: What might humans no longer know about our lives—1,000 years from now? Will growing isolationism devolve into medieval fiefdoms, with maps bearing oddly familiar names like Delphie, or spits of land called “The Floridian Islands?”
7. Realize that one individual can do more damage, more quickly, than someone can accomplish to heal and fix. We need a lot of individuals to do good, not evil.
8. Never again take the rule of law for granted. Executive orders, ahem, proclamations, are the actions villainous kings and dictators love most. Will our highest courts and Congress have the constitutional cojones to stand up and protect the U.S. Constitution and democracy? Keep urging them to do so.
9. Look closely after our loved ones, just as these heroines fought to protect little sisters, mothers, fathers, brothers, and friends. Keep people safe from harm, financial ruin, or assault, especially due to race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other “other.”
10. Stay ready.

With the eventual (spoiler alert?) YA series’ victories—some nuanced, some tragic, with justice not fully realized as broken societies rebuild—I take heart. Our world is not yet that horrendous. Children aren’t fighting to the death on livestream. People aren’t physically confined to factions committing them to groupthink for life. Major American cities aren’t embroiled in Total War. Yet.

Even dystopian novels can work best with semi-happy endings, otherwise why are we going through all this? There has to be hope.

Now, it’s up to us to control the trajectory of our stories.

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic): The Hunger Games (2008); Catching Fire (2009); Mockingjay (2010); (Prequels: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020); Sunrise on the Reaping (2025))
Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard (HarperTeen/HarperCollins): Red Queen (2015); Glass Sword (2016); King’s Cage (2017); War Storm (2018); Broken Throne (2019)
Divergent series by Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins): Divergent (2011); Insurgent (2012); Allegiant (2013)