Title: XVI
Author: Julia Karr
Released: January 6, 2011
Available At: Amazon * Borders * Penguin Group
If you liked: The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Nina Oberon's life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls she'll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world - even the most predatory of men - that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a "sex-teen" is Nina's worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina's mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past - one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother's killer.

Have you ever read a book and realized you'd need to reread it to know if you liked it or not? That's pretty much how I feel about XVI. I went into it ready to love it, found myself resenting most of it, and then the last thirty, forty pages made me reconsider my previous reactions.

The novel is in first person, which can be a turn-off for some people. I am not inherently against first person novels, but I am a lot less forgiving of mistakes, because the line between the character and the author is much more blurred. Reading the first chapter, I felt like world and character-building info was being dumped on me, and subsequent chapters were beating me with political views -- views which I share, but/and I don't need to be beaten with. With a third person novel, it's easier to go: "Not a great way to go about world-building" but still get invested in the character. But with Nina playing the role of museum tourguide, my resentment of the infodump rubbed onto her. (Full disclosure: I am not a very nice reader.)

I had a very hard time getting invested in the characters, especially Sal, who falls into a character trope I personally don't like. Instead of getting swept up into the story, I found myself nit-picking the world and asking questions that took me out of the story. It wasn't until the end of the story, where the drama was at its highest, that I started caring less about perceived plotholes and more about what was going to happen next.

That said, Karr's writing style is strong, and there were several times when I thought I've felt exactly that way before. Nina has complex issues with sex and identity that I think many people, especially women, can identify with. And many aspects of the book reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale, a classic of dystopian feminist literature. I can definitely recommend this book to readers less curmudgeonly than myself; if you're a curmudgeon like me, I still recommend it, but prepare to get out your cane and shake it furiously.

As for me, I plan on reading it again someday to see if I enjoy it more the second time through. Assuming my TBR pile doesn't eat me alive first.

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