Posted by Patrick Brown on March 21, 2012

Dystopian fiction is more popular than it has been in more than 50 years. Whether it's the result of political turmoil, global financial crises, or other anxieties, readers are craving books about ruthless governments and terrifying worlds. The new breed of dystopian novels combines classic dystopian themes of cruel governments and violent, restrictive worlds with a few new twists—badass heroines and romance. To mark the movie release of the most popular of this new wave of books, The Hunger Games , we examined the history of the dystopian genre to see how it has evolved and why it's so popular today.