Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos

I would likely have considered this YA novel just a smidge above average, if not for that thoughtful, bittersweet ending. I thought it was entertaining overall, but at times it felt a little too self-consciously political. The Hunger Games trilogy trod that line (mostly) successfully when dealing with its anti-war and anti-propaganda narratives in books 2 and 3, but Material Girls navigates it less gracefully in discussing labor rights, possibly because fear of war and death are far easier to elicit sympathy for than fear of being an unemployed teenage has-been. Perhaps contrarily, I kinda wish Ms Dimopoulos had spent more time exploring the politics and economics of the world she’d built: more time incorporating them into the story might have made it feel less awkward for me. Otherwise, a not-altogether-unconvincing view of a dystopian future, with clever underpinnings to its seemingly frivolous exterior.