A review by nina1117
XVI by Julia Karr

3.0

A somewhat shallow YA dystopian novel. I was hooked by the premise awhile back, but it didn't deliver as much as I would have liked. I felt like she did a good job of showing the dangers of being a "sex-teen" and the ending was pretty sad. But it all felt weak to me. I felt like Karr's dystopia was vague; she tried to build another world but wasn't completely successful. Just creating a giant government machine, and changing a few words doesn't make it a dystopia. Maybe if went in deeper about FeLs and the tiers and how people get into them, it would have made the story stronger. And speaking of word choice, her editor should have nipped using the word "trannies" for transportation in the bud. It was a laughable try at sounding futuristic. Now, I'm guessing she is writing a sequel because though Nina's story is somewhat wrapped up, there is still a lot of things left unfinished, which irked me. Maybe I'm just annoyed because it seems the young adult books I have been reading lately have no real endings, but really I just think it could have been better.