Goodread Synopsis: An exciting dystopian thriller, and sequel to XVI
Nina Oberon’s life has changed enormously in the last few months. When her mother was killed, Nina discovered the truth about her father, the leader of the Resistance. And now she sports the same Governing Council–ordered tattoo of XVI on her wrist that all sixteen-year-old girls have. The one that announces to the world that she is easy prey to predators. But Nina won’t be anyone’s stereotype. And when she joins an organization of girls working within the Resistance, she knows that they can put an end to one of the most terrifying secret programs the GC has ever conceived. Because the truth always comes out . . . and the consequences can be deadly.
I read the first book in this trilogy (maybe? I don’t think the third book has come out yet) many many years ago, and I remembered liking it, but I was much younger than and I should probably reread it now.Truth is a weird book, full of terrible characters and plot cliches and a strange world. I honestly skimmed parts of this book because I was fed up with the characters.
So first off in this future version of our world, every girl when she turns 16 gets a government issued tattoo that shows people (mostly men) that she’s free to have sex with whoever wants to have sex with her. Basically legalized rape. So if that’s not a freaky place to start a book I don’t know what is.
Then we have the main character, who is the dumbest, least communicative character I’ve come across in YA in a long time. Nina, apparently lacks any skills in logical thinking or communication. Half the problems in the book arise from the fact that she can’t talk to her boyfriend, and gets jealous over nothing and then proceeds to never talk about it.
I’ve been in a relationship for 2 years and almost 2 months, and if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that you HAVE TO TALK. About everything. Period. And it’s weird, when you talk to your partner, and then LISTEN when they talk, EVERYTHING gets resolved so much easier.
The second problem I had was with the overall theme of the book, which was very sex negative. I mean first we have a world that has legalized the rape of young girls, and then we have the fact that so many of the adults in the book don’t think this is wrong…I mean there really aren’t that many fucked up people in the actual world, so I had a hard time believing something like this would actually happen. Also almost everyone in the world seems to be straight? Until there was a mention of a girl being rapped by another girl, which happens, don’t get me wrong. But I hated that this was one of the few mention of LGBTQ+ in the entire book, especially since it was so negative. Later it comes to light that there is a gay couple, but they are so quiet about it I almost didn’t even realize the two guys were together.
Then we have the problem of this book was supposedly more about the rebellion, but most of the book centers around Nina drama problems. Nina ends up joining a group of women who are rebelling, which was supposed to be empowering and cool. But the group hardly did anything, so that was boring. Then added to that it’s super easy to tell what’s going to happen next, so the story is really cliche.
In the end Truth was a 1 star read for me. I honestly can’t recommend this book to anyone.
Rambling Writer 