This research project examines the representation, interpretation, and reception of adolescent-adult mentoring relationships in dystopian and speculative young adult literature. It focuses on analyzing the power dynamics through concepts of authority, control, and knowledge dissemination, using models from youth mentoring research (such as Rhodes' model of youth mentoring and Spencer's relational model of youth mentoring) and the youth lens by Petrone, Lewis, and Sarigianides. Through literary analysis of English-language speculative YA texts, the project explores how such relationships contribute to social and cultural constructions of adolescence, development, and adult influence. The project combines theoretical analysis with empirical reader response research among older secondary school students.