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myntop's review against another edition
5.0
I was not prepared for how much I would enjoy this book! I saw it on GoodReads in that list on the side of books you've read that show what others have read...decided to pick it up at the library, and boy am I glad I did. Now, I am eager for the next book in the series.
This is not just a dystopian book, this book has romance (of course,) drama, mystery, conspiracy, and even a bit of thriller in it. And it's so scary how easily this treatment of women could come to pass! I think girls need to read this book and realize we need to wake up and take some power back!
Seeing how much control the government has over media in this book is frightening. Again, I could see this easily happening in our very own world.
This is not just a dystopian book, this book has romance (of course,) drama, mystery, conspiracy, and even a bit of thriller in it. And it's so scary how easily this treatment of women could come to pass! I think girls need to read this book and realize we need to wake up and take some power back!
Seeing how much control the government has over media in this book is frightening. Again, I could see this easily happening in our very own world.
andrez's review against another edition
4.0
I've been trying to put my thoughts about this book into coherent sentences for the past week and I'm still not sure if I got to the point.
Nina was a likable character, though I wanted to hit her when she didn't think! I admired her for not believing in everything people and the media told her too. A different thing about this book is that Nina's mom had raised her (better yet, had willingly created all the right conditions for her to be a rebel). Yes, Nina herself had to rebel but I'm glad it was because of her mom that she was not like the other girls who only wanted to have sex when they were sixteen. Usually in dystopian novels, the heroine has to understand the world she lives in all by herself, this was not the case.
Sandy wasn't a very original character (the airhead bff, reminds you of something?) but I really liked her anyway, and I was especially happy when I found out she was a true friend, even if she was very silly.
I also liked the other characters though I'd like to know more about one of them (Mike).
The world portrayed in XVI is more believable than what one might think at first. Sex is already a business anyway and the media's influence in people's lives was kind of frightening because I can almost see it happen.
The ending was a cliffhanger so I'm pretty glad there is a sequel. I'm really curious about the nonCons and what will happen to Nina and her friends.
Nina was a likable character, though I wanted to hit her when she didn't think! I admired her for not believing in everything people and the media told her too. A different thing about this book is that Nina's mom had raised her (better yet, had willingly created all the right conditions for her to be a rebel). Yes, Nina herself had to rebel but I'm glad it was because of her mom that she was not like the other girls who only wanted to have sex when they were sixteen. Usually in dystopian novels, the heroine has to understand the world she lives in all by herself, this was not the case.
Sandy wasn't a very original character (the airhead bff, reminds you of something?) but I really liked her anyway, and I was especially happy when I found out she was a true friend, even if she was very silly.
I also liked the other characters though I'd like to know more about one of them (Mike).
The world portrayed in XVI is more believable than what one might think at first. Sex is already a business anyway and the media's influence in people's lives was kind of frightening because I can almost see it happen.
The ending was a cliffhanger so I'm pretty glad there is a sequel. I'm really curious about the nonCons and what will happen to Nina and her friends.
stellathereader's review against another edition
1.0
Weak. This could be something I can write up and man, I cannot write.
The obsession with dystopian novels at the moment is causing "authors" to come up with works that they will regret.
Some of my favourite dystopias are The GONE series by Michael Grant and The Chaos Walking Series by Patrick Ness.
The obsession with dystopian novels at the moment is causing "authors" to come up with works that they will regret.
Some of my favourite dystopias are The GONE series by Michael Grant and The Chaos Walking Series by Patrick Ness.
emma_mo's review against another edition
4.0
I've been reading a good amount of Dystopian lately, and this has been one of my absolute favorites. I am in awe.
To start - the world building for this novel was impeccable. Right from the get-go, the descriptions of the 'verts and all the noise and the frenetic pace of Chicago grabs you and takes you into a future that, while you don't want it to exist, seems frighteningly real. To be honest, it seems like this is sadly the way that our culture is headed.
I love Nora's relationships in this novel. She has a friend that she's known forever, you couldn't be more different. A friend that is truly like her, can be that incredible shoulder to lean on. And there's also a friend that ends up being more than a friend. The romance is done so well, though that you almost don't know it's happening until it's right in front of your eyes. I liked it. A lot. I thought that, while important, it didn't overtake to plot.
Which brings me to the plot - how wonderful is it to see a well-laid plot. One with mystery and happy endings. While it seems, at first, that everything is going so sadly for Nora and her sister - the whole plot of the novel has a surprisingly socially conscious tone - the end of the novel really lifts us up and gives hope to a seemingly hopeless situation. I was so pleasantly surprised by this novel, especially after how disappointing Matched was.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 - Refreshing and honest, this novel is a keeper!
To start - the world building for this novel was impeccable. Right from the get-go, the descriptions of the 'verts and all the noise and the frenetic pace of Chicago grabs you and takes you into a future that, while you don't want it to exist, seems frighteningly real. To be honest, it seems like this is sadly the way that our culture is headed.
I love Nora's relationships in this novel. She has a friend that she's known forever, you couldn't be more different. A friend that is truly like her, can be that incredible shoulder to lean on. And there's also a friend that ends up being more than a friend. The romance is done so well, though that you almost don't know it's happening until it's right in front of your eyes. I liked it. A lot. I thought that, while important, it didn't overtake to plot.
Which brings me to the plot - how wonderful is it to see a well-laid plot. One with mystery and happy endings. While it seems, at first, that everything is going so sadly for Nora and her sister - the whole plot of the novel has a surprisingly socially conscious tone - the end of the novel really lifts us up and gives hope to a seemingly hopeless situation. I was so pleasantly surprised by this novel, especially after how disappointing Matched was.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 - Refreshing and honest, this novel is a keeper!
zanzarr's review against another edition
2.0
This book had so much potential. I read the author's acknowledgments, which were truly inspiring, and I'd hate to give this book a bad review because Julia Karr seems to have put a genuine effort into writing this, but I feel as though her book fell victim to rapidly paced romance and characters that leave readers apathetic to their fates. Two of her characters died and I couldn't have cared less. I felt as though Nina (and I had to look her name up because she was so utterly forgettable), the narrator and main character couldn't have cared less either. She possessed no life and no realistic human emotion. No passion or light. It was painful reading this book because I'd had such high expectations for it. The idea was incredible and splendidly unique. But the writing and pacing itself fell flat. I've read far too many books like this lately and it's kind of depressing, the way every book I read makes me want to rip out whole chapters or hurl the entire volume across my room.
But, if I'm not mistaken because I really don't feel like looking this bit of info up, this is Julia Karr's first novel and hopeful there will be many following it. Julia has time to grow and improve as a writer and I'll be on the look out for upcoming books by her to see that she does just that.
But, if I'm not mistaken because I really don't feel like looking this bit of info up, this is Julia Karr's first novel and hopeful there will be many following it. Julia has time to grow and improve as a writer and I'll be on the look out for upcoming books by her to see that she does just that.
aqtbenz's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. An interesting idea, nice to find something semi-unique in the dystopian genre!
reader44ever's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars - It was good!
This story was pretty good and I enjoyed it. It made for a tense read due to the sexual threat against soon-to-be-16 Nina and her female friends. I think [a:Julia Karr|3100203|Julia Karr|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1261887129p2/3100203.jpg] did a great job of writing such a theme-based story for the YA market. Also, the teenage angst in the story was true to the characters. (I found it a bit much at times, but that's just me.) Sandy was annoying: I was rather impressed that Nina put up with her as well as she did. Nina seemed very mature for a 15-almost-16-year-old.
The future Nina lives in was quite interesting: space travel is common, mining goes on on Mars, Media and the Governing Council are very closely linked, and women have little choice and few rights when it comes to choosing sexual partners. I wouldn't want to live on an Earth like that. It would make for a miserable existence. :(
I was sad but unsurprised thatEd killed Sandy. I was glad he didn't go after Dee, though.
I was a little disappointed in the ending: Nina'sreunion with her father was hardly touched on at all. Considering that her search for him was a major plot point, I thought it odd that her finding him was more like an afterthought than anything else. Until this point, I had been prepared to have the story end on a cliffhanger that would leave the reunion to the second book. After the tension of most of the pages, the reunion (and over the phone, too!) was rather lacking.
All in all, this was a quick and entertaining read. I'd been putting off reading it for most of this year, but I'm glad I read it. It was my "X" title for an A to Z title challenge in one of my groups. I really didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be worth reading. I'm sorry I put it off for so long.
This story was pretty good and I enjoyed it. It made for a tense read due to the sexual threat against soon-to-be-16 Nina and her female friends. I think [a:Julia Karr|3100203|Julia Karr|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1261887129p2/3100203.jpg] did a great job of writing such a theme-based story for the YA market. Also, the teenage angst in the story was true to the characters. (I found it a bit much at times, but that's just me.) Sandy was annoying: I was rather impressed that Nina put up with her as well as she did. Nina seemed very mature for a 15-almost-16-year-old.
The future Nina lives in was quite interesting: space travel is common, mining goes on on Mars, Media and the Governing Council are very closely linked, and women have little choice and few rights when it comes to choosing sexual partners. I wouldn't want to live on an Earth like that. It would make for a miserable existence. :(
I was sad but unsurprised that
I was a little disappointed in the ending: Nina's
All in all, this was a quick and entertaining read. I'd been putting off reading it for most of this year, but I'm glad I read it. It was my "X" title for an A to Z title challenge in one of my groups. I really didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be worth reading. I'm sorry I put it off for so long.
thisgrrlreads's review against another edition
3.0
More dystopian fiction set in Chicago! Right by where I used to live in Lincoln Park. This was nice, but it did not save the book entirely. I would have loved some more world-building. It got better towards the end of the book as we learned more and more about the world. Character development was really what made this book for me. I'm interested in what happens to Nina in the sequel.
laurenlee's review against another edition
3.0
OK this is about the tenth dysotopian book i've read in the YA section and i'm already starting to get kind of sick of them. Though i liked this book, ive got to stop reading dysotopian books or theyre going to make my brain explode. the best friend (I can never remember names :p) i thought changed a lot from the beginning to the end. She seemed to have sme sense in the beginning of the book but ended up as an idiot. I honestly didnt like her to start with so when she **SPOILER**died in the end, it didnt affect me as much as it would if Nina had a more likable best friend. Maybe someone who wasnt as clueless and airy. Yes I know that that was the whole point of this book. that all of the girls were brainweashed into sexrobots but the author could have at least made the bestfriend more likable. She could still be brainwashed by the media but maybe if she had more qualities to her.
Besides that, i thought that the whole romantic aspect of the book could have been there a little more. Or maybe when she wasnt talking t him there could have been more conflict.
Besides that i thought the book was fairly good and will be sure to stick around for thenext one.
Besides that, i thought that the whole romantic aspect of the book could have been there a little more. Or maybe when she wasnt talking t him there could have been more conflict.
Besides that i thought the book was fairly good and will be sure to stick around for thenext one.
alittlebrittoffun's review against another edition
3.0
There's something to be said for finishing a book in a day so that's always good. I did like it but I don't feel like the concept was really explained. They talked about the "sexteens" and the tattoos for girls and all that but there was no explanation of what happened to get the world to that place. I think the plot was good and the characters and action were good and I'm intrigued by the concept of a second book but there definitely should have been more explanation of what was going on.