Review: The V Girl

Stars: 1
Author: Mya Roberts
Genre: YA Dystopian
Publisher:


Review:
DNF 16% 

*NetGalley eARC

Sadly this book did not work for me AT ALL. And I don't think it is really a good one for kids to read. It's pretty explicitly focused on sex, but in a way that feels both completely unrealistic and very voyeuristic. I did not understand the premise of the dystopian world set forth by the author. I did not finish this book (not sure that matters in this case), but there was a quite a lot of info-dumping at the beginning that the author uses to try to world build, but that didn't explain in a way that makes sense how the world had ended up in this very, very messed up place.

From what I could understand there was a civil war happening in the America and has been for 21 years. And apparently soldiers on one or both sides had been given drugs to turn them into violent, sex-crazed super-soldiers, and thus are allowed to rape people because that seemed the best way to keep them in line?  But it was unclear who was still fighting and why. And also, why, when there women available (Lila makes mention of them) to have sex with the soldiers willingly did they need to turn to rape? I mean I guess that happens a lot in warfare, but to turn it into an established practice and legalize it seems bizarre. And also, why was sex and rage and being a virgin the central focus of everything and everyone? Surely there were more important conflicts in a society riddled by a war lasting more than two decades than who is and isn't having sex with who consensually or not!

Then there was the whole inciting incident where Lila doesn't want to get raped so she plans to have sex with her friend Rey before the troops come to town. It just didn't really make sense. She wants to have sex, but she doesn't. Rey won't have sex with her and she's upset and really wants to do it especially after she is rejected, so she goes and sits in the woods and watches two other people have sex. Also there is an incident where she is swimming naked in the river and comes upon the hero and somehow ends up sliding off a rock, naked, butt-first onto his head. See what I mean? There is really very little sense to the world-building.

I really couldn't follow. The writing also felt choppy and all over the place. Lila would have a thought and then two or three lines down have another that would directly contradict the first. The "hero" Aleksey had that sort of weird, old-school romance-hero thing going on: he was big like a lion and had long, flowing hair. Gag me please.

The way that all of the characters talk about sex all the time was also unnerving and not in the way that pushes the readers' boundaries or makes them think about things in new ways, in the way that makes you feel uncomfortable. For example Lila's sister, Azalea, is talking to Lila about Aleksey and wondering if Lila has considered him for her "emergency de-flowering" by saying, "He towers above soldiers so his truth must be...extraordinary. Too much for a tight girl." Really?! That's both awkward and weird. Lila's father talks the same way about sex to his kids, some of them young. I think the author was trying to convey the necessary frankness in this world and differences in boundaries between this world and ours, but it completely misses the mark for me.

I couldn't finish this book because there was really nothing I liked enough about it to keep me reading. I also think it is 100% an adult story because it doesn't have any ANYTHING that I consider important for young adults to read and feels very inappropriate.