Slated

Author: Teri Terry
Goodreads Rating: 4.09
Pages: 448
Format: ARC from YA Book Exchange

Kyla’s memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.

She’s been Slated.

The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

This book sounded wicked good when I first found out about it, and thanks to the lovely ladies over at the YA Book Exchange, I was able to get my pretty hands on a copy. What I really loved about this book was that it wasn’t post war America or the rest of the world, it was post war London which has a different dynamic from what it would be like elsewhere. I also thought that this whole concept of “Slating” people, erasing who they were to make them more compliant with the laws of the land.

Having Kayla be slated was a little tricky because of some points you wanted to shout at her for being so naïve about everything, but she just didn’t have the life experiences to understand that not everyone was to be trusted. In some ways she did have that sense, she tried to sensor herself, but other times, she placed her trust in people that I don’t think I would have trusted. Like her dad, who always seemed to ask these questions that were too curious on certain subjects, and although at first I liked him, I found myself suspicious of him as the book went on. The opposite held true for her mom (or should I call her mum because that’s how she’s referred to in the book?), who is still a character that I want to learn more about. She hinted at being a super complex character, but I just want to see more.

I’m not really sure about how I felt about the slated people, they all seemed to be robots, but then we had Kayla who was the oddball. I’m guessing that not every other slated was given the attention that she was, but it was still strange to say the least. Like her sister, Amy, I wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be real, like a teenager with rebellious thoughts or if she was supposed to be this super complaint robot that only thought about being a perfect person. She had her moments where she spoke out, but other times it was just strange.

We had a taste of instalove, but I can look past it because Ben was a sort of robot. While I appreciated his growth out of being a robot because of how Kayla made him question things, but then he just got weird and everything was strange. This book also had a strong running theme which I’ve noticed lately in books. Maybe this is why I have the strange urge to get a treadmill? Either way, I am dying for book two.

The Courts Decision: