title: XVI
author:  Julia Karr 
description: In 2150 Chicago, girls are walking billboards. Upon turning 16, they receive government-issued tattoos on their wrists that read XVI. Theyre supposed to keep the girls safe, but in reality, the tattoos broadcast their brand-new sexual availability. As their sixteenth birthdays approach, Nina is increasingly disturbed by her best friends obsession with becoming the ideal sex-teen and entering the Female Liaison Specialist (FeLs) service, the only option for women from the lower tiers to move up the social ladder. Meanwhile, Nina works hard to uncover the mystery her dead mother left behind, a secret that could end the entire FeLs program. In her unsettling debut, Karr depicts a sex-obsessed future where women are the perpetual victims of predatory marketing, and other societal ills seen in our presentfamilies trapped in the welfare system, pharmaceutical companies in bed with health-care providers and the mediahave been taken to terrifying ends. At times the message goes overboard, but theres no doubt this well-written, accessible sci-fi thriller will provoke discussion. Grades 9-12. --Courtney Jones
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  
  ##### www.blackmask.com
  
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  # Table Of Contents
  
  
  >
  
  
  Ivan S. Turgenev  
  INTRODUCTION  
  I  
  II  
  III  
  IV  
  V  
  VI  
  VII  
  VIII  
  IX  
  X  
  XI  
  XII  
  XIII  
  XIV  
  XV  
  XVI  
  [XVII](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos218328)  
  [XVIII](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos231183)  
  [XIX](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos241593)  
  [XX](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos269992)  
  [XXI](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos285082)  
  [XXII](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos301620)  
  [XXIII](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos317702)  
  [XXIV](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos338989)  
  [XXV](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos349026)  
  [XXVI](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos367293)  
  [XXVII](Virgin%20Soil_split_001.html#filepos385182)  
  [XXVIII](Virgin%20Soil_split_002.html#filepos399285)  
  [XXIX](Virgin%20Soil_split_002.html#filepos412908)  
  [XXX](Virgin%20Soil_split_002.html#filepos431021)  
  [XXXI](Virgin%20Soil_split_002.html#filepos450614)  
  