I didn’t hate the book, in fact wanted to like it, but it just fell flat. Mention of moon and mars settlement, but no matching tech on earth. There are no substantial tech improvements. People have phone numbers (also on the way out already). They still have magazines! Video playing machines that play films on chips (like a DVD player). There is no mention of a net or internet - nary a computer. This is 150 years from now and music and films are stored on “chips!” There won’t even be physical media in 15-20 years. XVI Julia Karr, Penguin/Speak, 8.99 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-14-241771-3 Gender politics and sexual awareness play prominent roles in Karr's thought-provoking dystopian debut, set in. The villain tattles his villainy while playing hide and seek with the heroine - so very Scooby Doo.Īnd the Science Fiction is pretty darn mediocre. They live in Chicago, yet everyone seems to know everyone.

People keep popping up out of nowhere. Dramatic events - like the narrator’s mom dying - blink by. The plot just felt weak, and the characters reactions to it rushed and forced.

A good one sells the premise in an engrossing and personal manner. Plot, we are told is how the characters in a story deal with or overcome the premise. The protagonist is okay, and there isn’t anything wrong with the prose, but fundamentally this book stands out as an example of premise over plot. The premise is fine, set in a dystopian 2150 where teens are branded at 16 as”legal for sex.” Nina is almost 16, and is dealing with not only the stress of this oncoming rite of passage, but boys, the death of her mother, and a bigger conspiracy.īut where to begin with the problems. I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

Xvi by julia karr