Divergent Text to Text Connections

Since I have started reading Divergent  by Veronica Roth, I have noticed some striking similarities between this and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, so I have decided to make some text to text connections.

 First off, Dystopia! Who would have thought that dystopian society would be such a popular subject for young adults? Perhaps it is the idea that 'things get better even in the worst of times' or 'Everyone can contribute to society' or maybe even 'Girls run the world',but i think we just enjoy the disaster and destruction of it all, an seeing they cope with issues clearly bigger than our own of,"Oh no, I forgot to do my Homework!"

This brings me to another area of similarity; Girls. Why girls? Generally in fiction, the male takes the hero role, while a girl may be a secondary friend of he hero, they are never THE hero. Just think of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, and you know this to be the truth. Despite this, as of late, the girls have been dominating he bookshelves everywhere as the heroes, or heroine as they call it(which is spelled very similarly to a certain fatal drug, I've noticed). Perhaps his is a feminist movement, after all both books were written by women, but then again, so was Harry Potter (JK Rowling). I'm not trying to sexist or anything here, but I justfind it interesting, and I can't help but wonder what has cause this...

 A final trend I have noticed within these young adult novels is that there must be a romance. Even despite the killing and destruction, there is always a guy that the girl doesn't think she deserves, for Katniss it's Peeta (and Gale) and for Tris, it's Four. This could be one of the reasons that young women in particular are setting aside Nicholas Sparks to read these books. They would be missing the romance if it weren't for these moments, and it is most likely the authors way of appealing to broader audience. The author may also be appealing to that same audience by having a female main character, showing that girls can do the same thing a male character can.

Below is a link to the Washington Post's comparison of the two novels, as well as the films.
Divergent Hunger Games Comparison