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A review by athomewithbooks
XVI by Julia Karr
3.0
I checked out XVI from the library after reading a review which compared it to Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I had just read Delirium, so I decided to read them back-to-back, and it was hard not to make comparisons.
Like Delirium, XVI deals with issues of love and sex in a dystopian society. I see these stories as opposite sides of the same coin though. Where Delirium was about seeing love as a disease, XVI is about society’s obsession with sex – where the physical act of sex has been marketed to the point of having no emotional associations with love.
What the two stories have in common are protagonists trying to avoid a process that could possibly cause them harm. In Delirium it’s the operation to cure them of deliria-causing “love,” while in XVI it’s the tattoo that girls get at age sixteen that brands girls as being available to anyone for sex.
XVI is certainly a more intense and dark story in that the girls face potential rape – they are considered fair game to anyone who wants them. Although there are some moments when guys try to cross the line, there aren’t any rape scenes in the book.
In addition to the stress of her impending tattooing, Nina’s life is also complicated by the death of her mother and her violent step-father who follows her every move. Upping her stress load even further – she has a couple of potential romantic interests whom she isn’t sure she wants to encourage, especially when she’ll be tattooed soon.
The only thing I could see annoying some people is the futuristic slang terminology. It can be distracting, but I was drawn into the story enough that it faded into the background of Nina’s world while I rooted for her to beat the odds and become a strong women in her society of passive femininity.
Like Delirium, XVI deals with issues of love and sex in a dystopian society. I see these stories as opposite sides of the same coin though. Where Delirium was about seeing love as a disease, XVI is about society’s obsession with sex – where the physical act of sex has been marketed to the point of having no emotional associations with love.
What the two stories have in common are protagonists trying to avoid a process that could possibly cause them harm. In Delirium it’s the operation to cure them of deliria-causing “love,” while in XVI it’s the tattoo that girls get at age sixteen that brands girls as being available to anyone for sex.
XVI is certainly a more intense and dark story in that the girls face potential rape – they are considered fair game to anyone who wants them. Although there are some moments when guys try to cross the line, there aren’t any rape scenes in the book.
In addition to the stress of her impending tattooing, Nina’s life is also complicated by the death of her mother and her violent step-father who follows her every move. Upping her stress load even further – she has a couple of potential romantic interests whom she isn’t sure she wants to encourage, especially when she’ll be tattooed soon.
The only thing I could see annoying some people is the futuristic slang terminology. It can be distracting, but I was drawn into the story enough that it faded into the background of Nina’s world while I rooted for her to beat the odds and become a strong women in her society of passive femininity.