Comment

Mar 16, 2011
Julia Karr's fast-paced, futuristic thriller XVI was not what I expected. Upon reading the first three sentences on the back cover ("Every girl gets one. An XVI tattoo on the wrist—sixteen. They say they're there for protection.") My first thought was: "Not another teenage dystopian novel!" Then I read the next sentence: "Some girls can't wait to be sixteen, to be legal." My next thought? "Uh-oh. This book has A Message." Clearly, XVI was about sex. And just as clearly, it was going to have a strong bias of some sort—which way, I wasn't sure, but I would have bet towards abstinence. But then I read it. Yes, XVI is a dystopian novel, and yes, sex as related to teenage girls does play a large role in it. The main character, Nina, lives in Chicago in 2150. The government is a Big-Brother-esque creation, and on every girls' sixteenth birthday she receives a tattoo on her wrist, signifying to the world that she's ready for sex—moreover, essentially making her a free-for-all: the girls are encouraged to be "Sex-teens", and the culture is heavily inundated with teenage sexuality. I admit, it was a storyline concept that I wasn't entirely comfortable with. But XVI is well written, fast-paced, incredibly engaging, and, while disturbing, not overly so. In fact, it manages a near perfect balance between the obligatory creepy government and the sort of teenage triumph that can be so satisfying in a young adult adventure novel. I won't give away too many plot details, because you don't really need to know them. There's a death or two, the typical shadowy resistance force that Nina gets involved with, some deadly government secrets, and a cute, prickly boy. This is not revolutionary stuff. But it is fun, original enough that you won't care that it maybe is just "another teenage dystopian novel", and never so twisted as to be off-putting. If you are up for a light read, I highly suggest XVI.