History repeats itself, and so, we’ve heard, does literature. So says Bookish editor Natalie Zutter, who sees a return of cyberpunk to YA lit, this time with a healthy dose of virtual reality for the generation that’s grown up on VR. “Dystopian YA is built on the paranoia of fringe movements disrupting and warping society, sending us back to pre-tech times. But let’s be honest: Paranoia about the artificial intelligences, that already run our lives, outthinking us and then stripping us of our agency is a lot more realistic,” Zutter writes.
Case in point: James Dashner’s “The Eye of Minds,” about a male gamer who explores a dangerous online world called VirtNet.
