Truth by Julia Karr

Truth by Julia Karr
"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."- summary from Amazon

I've been looking forward to this follow-up to XVI because I loved Karr's debut. This sequel is a bit more low-key than its predecessor, though the climax is a pageturner. I think the main reason for that is because now that the reader knows about the Resistance and how basically all of Nina's friends are involved in it, most every setting is set up to have no surveillance; it diminishes the watchfulness of the Governing Council.

It was cool to see more aspects of the world, like how the Media works and how the Resistance uses it to create interruptions. Bringing in new characters and giving old ones bigger parts was great too. I loved the idea of the Sisterhood, the girl group within the Resistance doing their own projects. Nina is still a wonderful, feisty main character and Karr did a good job weaving romance into the book without it dominating anything else, or taking away focus from the main plotlines.

Overall, an intriguing followup and still worth a read. Karr has carved out a very interesting, layered world and I cannot wait to read more from her, whether it's in this series or not. I'm not sure if there'll be a book 3 in this series, though I kinda hope there is. I want there to be a government upheaval and everything set right again!!

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.