+1 meep.

We know the artist

While I agree that genre books are derivative (LeGuin had a school for magic decades before Harry Potter), to crib nearly your entire plot off the shoulders of other writers is simply lazy craftsmanship.

You do understand that the books you are giving credit for ‘original’ ideas stole from other books, right? I mean, hell, you gave The Hunger Games credit for ‘a hyperbolic and decadent upper class’. Really?Literature has been borrowing from other things since it’s literal beginnings. Don’t like a book, fine, but to…

For the most part I really liked this trilogy. I in fact devoured each book within a day. It was a little too brutal for my general tastes (especially the end of the second). But I’m a sucker for rainbow colored caste systems (I still re-read Garth Nix’ Seventh Tower series every now and then lol).

I would call his books Sci-fi more than YA. I don’t know what makes things YA anymore - it doesn’t make any kind of sense. His books are good. And if YA is apparently so easy to write why don’t you do it?