goodreads.com
Summary:
Nina is almost sixteen, and in her world (a futuristic Chicago amid a large nation run by the Governing Council), that means she is about to be branded and labeled legal… for sex. The XVI tattoo is mandatory for all girls and it’s only one of the many things the GC uses to control its citizens. When “Media” and “Government” are synonymous and the real fears of rape and abuse for teenage girls are socially accepted, Nina must struggle to find out who she is and what she wants in a world that’s been deceiving her. A coming-of-age story set in a very realistic dystopian landscape, XVI demonstrates what could happen to our society in a 1984 fashion. Nina tells us her story as she discovers that she might be the key to bringing her corrupt government to justice, but will she uncover the truth in time to save herself and her friends?
Comments:
I love dystopian lit, and YA fiction has been doing a good job of it (e.g. The Hunger Games.) XVI did not disappoint me. Although my copy had a lot (meaning more than a dozen) errors in it, which always irks me. I can’t solely blame the author, but I figure the editing and publishing system should have caught most of them, if not all. (The only book I’ve read recently that was worse was Vince Flynn’s American Assassin, which I talked about here.) One bonus of XVI is that it’s the first in a series, and the next installment, Truth, will be out in January of 2012. I’ve already pre-ordered it.
Do I recommend this book?
Yes. For the same reasons I’d recommend 1984 and similar stories. It’s fiction. It’s far-fetched. Or is it? These kind of novels aren’t just entertaining; they help shed light on the flaws in our culture.
Check out my reviews on a similarly themed series: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay.
This sounds really interesting. I’ve often thought that girls in this culture get absolutely contradictory messages and instructions about themselves all the time.
When I was growing up (which was a while ago), there was the general idea that there were “good girls” and “bad girls,” which was bad enough, but now it seems girls are supposed to be both at the same time. Just a day or two ago I read a headline about some pre-teen beauty pageant where the little girls were all dressed as hookers.
As you say, sometimes you can show something really clearly by extrapolating it just a step or two into the future.
(And, yes, in a professionally published books, I think it’s the publisher’s fault if there are a lot of typos.)
Subversion is beautiful, sometimes, I won’t argue that, and what’s more subversive than hookers? But really, subversion and innocence don’t mix, and pre-teen girls should still be playing at innocence. This begs the question, though… when does innocence expire? It seems that it starts to fade younger and younger with each generation. This is something that Karr explores in XVI: Sixteen seems like a fragile age to suddenly be marked as an adult. And another question, perhaps the most important one, why should girls play at anything at all (subversion and innocence included)? What do beauty pageants teach girls, regardless of theme? If our society wasn’t sexist, what use would we have for pageants? Especially hooker ones…
I’ve been wanting to read this and keep forgetting about it! Nice job with the review, I’ll definitely be ordering my copy in the next week
Let me know what you think of it!
You know I will! I just ordered it this afternoon, so now I’ll be obsessively checking the mail
You sound like me. I check all day when I expect books. And they never get here until late afternoon.
So I read it over the weekend, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed, but it wasn’t my favorite, favorite. The errors were a little distracting (as much as I tried to ignore them). Definitely not the author’s fault, it’s hard to see the words right after the millionth time of reading it. But all in all, it was a good story that I got through in an afternoon.
However, I think I may have liked it more had I not just finished “The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.” And OH MY BEJEBUS I loved it so much!!! I didn’t think it sounded like something I would normally read, but I’m super happy I picked it up. Have you read it yet?
I agree that it’s not “favorite” worthy, but I’m glad you weren’t disappointed.
I have not read that one. Admittedly, I’ve heard the title thrown around here and there, but I’m not even sure what it’s about. If you liked it that much, I’ll have to check it out! Thanks for the recommendation.
Do you like illustrated novels? I just finished Craig Thompson’s Habibi and it was AMAZING: http://blackbirdbookreviews.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/habibi-by-craig-thompson/