Dystopian and Post-apocalyptic fiction: Tropes and Novels

I guess the YA Dystopian fiction genre has exploded over the past few years. So that's cool. The only problem is, when I look for more books to read within the genre, I end up seeing "rave reviews" for books that turn out to be very much not to my taste. You don't really get a list of tropes used by the individual books until you've already started reading them.

I think reviews should be more honest. People often talk about either how much they love a certain book or about how much they hate it, but they less often say, "I liked A, B, C about this book, but I hated D, E, F about it." So in this post I'm going to explore dystopian fiction tropes that I like and dislike, and how the books that I've read in this genre use these tropes.

I think my least favorite dystopia trope has already been covered--it's when the main character is basically a mindless, unquestioning part of the clearly illogical dystopian society and some sort of outside force (or supporting character) forces the main character to change his/her views. I'm not interested in a character who doesn't have any of their own thoughts. Wake me up when the book is written from the point of view of the secondary character who forces the main character to question their lives (even if the second character ends up dying, or turning evil).

Here is what I do like when it comes to post-apocalyptic or dystopian fiction:

A main character who makes good choices. Don't betray your friends and then expect me to forgive you easily. Also, if the main character is stuck between two awful choices, make them think of a third option (I'm talking to you, One More Day Spider-Man¹). Think, or force your way out of a bind through sheer determination. This is fiction; use your imagination!

A good cast of supporting characters. If the main character is the only good guy out there, what exactly am I rooting for?

A happy ending, or at least a not-completely-depressing ending. (Except for classical tragedies, where the main character is brought down by a fatal flaw.) That's my own personal thing, and I know different people have different tastes, I just don't get why anyone would want to read a book that, afterwards, makes them not want to get out of bed in the morning.

So here are all the dystopian novels I've read and what I thought about them: