Windup Girl vs. Little Brother

 For all that Little Brother directly references 1984, I feel that The Windup Girl  actually feels more Orwellian than the Doctorow novels. Both presented dystopian versions of the world based on alarming trends in modern society, but Doctorow lacks some essential quality in what I believe is a true dystopian book. Little Brother shows horrible things (or well, theoretically, I guess it depends on how you feel about government surveillance), but it misses that gut-wrenching, terrifying sense of inevitability present in 1984 and  The Windup Girl, even though it sticks to the theme of government control present in Orwell's novel. It has hope and an overall message (at least in the first book) that things can change, that the events of the book can be avoided, and it even gives all of those helpful "how-tos." The Windup Girl doesn't. There is no hero, and no clear good or evil. Anderson needs the seeds, partially for commercial motives, but also because they're necessary to ensure continuing survival in what remains of the U.S. Everyone lives in fear of something or someone, and there's an omnipresent aura of danger. Life seems so horrible that several people mention that the dead cannot move on because they do not deserve to be reincarnated into what is basically a living hell. The two characters with the purest motives, Emiko and Jaidee, still grapple with internal problems as the former struggles against her training, and the latter against his own hot-headed nature. Just as in 1984, there is no easy solution. Rather, the author presents this terrifying vision of a world that could exist if we do not change our ways, yet does not answer what needs to be done, perhaps because no clear answer exists. To me, The Windup Girl was a much more satisfying dystopian novel, for all its unsettling nature. Any thoughts?