XVI

Nina lives in a future society where girls are marked at sixteen and pressured to accept a sexual role the Media and government promote as normal. Unlike many of her peers, she fears the coming birthday and resists the culture around her, especially the expectations placed on girls.

When Nina’s mother is attacked and dies, she is left with a warning, a hidden truth, and a growing sense that everything she thought she knew about her family is false. She must protect her younger sister, sort out what her mother was hiding, and figure out whether the father she believed dead is actually alive.

As Nina follows clues, she gets pulled into a larger conflict involving government control, a resistance movement, and people who may be helping or threatening her. A boy who knows more than he seems becomes part of the search, and Nina is forced to decide who to trust while her sixteenth birthday approaches.