Monday, January 23, 2012

Book Review: XVI - Julia Karr

XVI:
Published: January 6, 2011
Publisher: Speak
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 325 pages
Source: Amazon.com

Every girl gets one. An XVI tattoo on the wrist -- sixteen. 


Some girls can't wait to be sixteen, to be legal. Nina is not one of them. Even though she has no choice in the matter, she knows that so long as her life continues as normal, everything will be okay. 


Then, with one brutal strike, Nina's normal is shattered; and she discovers that nothing that she believed about her life is true. But there's one boy who can help -- and he just may hold the key to her past.


But with line between attraction and danger as thin as a whisper, one thing is for sure.


For Nina, turning sixteen promises to be anything but sweet.


When I first started out reading XVI, I was a little disappointed. I won't lie. It seemed a bit slow at first, and with all these crazy things going on in a new dystopian world like PAVs and the FeLS program, I was entirely lost. But soon after that, everything changed for the better.

For Nina, she lives in a dystopian world with her mother Ginnie and younger sister Dee. Nina's father died the night she was born, and few years later, Ginnie began to date a man named Ed who would beat her at night. He was a monster to her.

In this new world, getting and XVI tattoo on your wrist signals out to the world that you're legal -- and people can now take advantage of you. Nina doesn't want to be prey for the predators in her world, but her best friend Sandy does. While walking home, Nina discovers a boy who seems to be homeless, but isn't, named Sal.

Then, Ginnie is killed. The doctors at the hospital put Ginnie on a machine called Infinity -- a machine that allows a dead person to come back to life for ten minutes to talk to her family. Ginnie tells Nina to keep Ed away from Dee, and to guard Dee's baby book with her life. It might just change everything she's ever known. Soon, Nina and Dee live with their grandparents, and when stalker Ed comes back into the picture, everything is sure to spiral downward.

Like I said before, XVI was slow in the beginning. But then, the plot picked up and everything started to happen so fast, I couldn't set the book down!

First, the characters. I thought Nina was an outstanding character. She didn't want to blend in with the crowd and anticipate becoming sixteen. And, she's very protective of her younger sister and will do anything from keeping Ed away from Dee. A thing I felt about the character's name was that they seemed a little "old-fashioned". Not that there's anything wrong with that, look at the names: Nina, Dee, Ed, Ginnie, Sal, Sandy, Mike, Derek.

Secondly, the writing style. I'm in love with Julia Karr's writing style! She somehow gives it a spin on a major event when it's happening on a page, and it always keeps my interest. Believe me, towards the end, something happens that made me look around the room I was in just to make sure that nobody else was in it. Yeah. It affected me that much.

Finally, the novel itself. While XVI was fantastic, it was a great novel. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a highly paced dystopian novel! I can't wait to read the sequel!

My Rating:


1 comment:

  1. Great review! I was kind of wary of reading this book, but now I will definitely add this to my list now. =)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for stopping by! I read every comment and truly appreciate them. I would love to hear your thoughts! If you leave a comment, I'll be sure to leave a comment back on your blog ASAP! -Brad