I’ve been thinking a lot about The Giver and how functions better than a lot of adult dystopian because it genuinely seems like the Community is a utopia for the first half of the book, and otherwise moral people are conditioned to do horrible things without thinking twice

So many utopia-as-dystopia books get too winky at the audience too early on and telegraph that the society is really bad, actually, which I guess makes readers feel clever but takes away that moment of total disorientation where you’re like “oh this is how fascism happens”

Anyway, I was quite young when I read it (9? 11 at the outside?) and it’s a book that has haunted me ever since. As a very anxious child, I totally understood the comfort of a life where everyone fits in and nothing surprising happens. Until shit goes south, of course.