I picked up Slated by Teri Terry, thinking the idea of someone starting from scratch at the age of sixteen, was very interesting.
In the book, we follow Kyla (not her real name, but one given to her), who has been Slated – meaning her memories, her personality, her past and everything that contains, has been erased. The whole Tabula Rasa treatment.
It is a common thing done to children and teenagers under the age of sixteen after they were convicted of being a terrorist. Its the government’s idea of giving them a second chance, and it seems like a good idea at the beginning.
Kyla is being released from the hospital where she spent the last nine month relearning everything, such as walking and talking.
She is released to her family, who she doesn’t know at all. A man and woman, who she only knows as Mom and Dad, and a sister, who is Slated like her. They don’t know her and she doesn’t know them, but they are still her new family and they take her home.
The rest of the book circles around Kyla and the facts that she seems to be remembering things she shouldn’t. It’s a journey trying to figure out who she was and what she did. Kyla, loving to categorize and memorize things, struggles with wanting to know her past, and maybe just live the somewhat happy life she now has with her new family.
It’s a really good book and a fun read. Kyla often has to learn things so normal, we all forget we once had to learn them. That a knife is sharp, what a cat is, or what it means when a nurse calls “Next!” It’s fun and interesting read, much in the “fish-out-of-water”-kind of way.
As a YA novel, there several familiar things. Kyla being bullied and mistrusted by the “normal” kids at school because she is Slated. The things she remembers despite the facts that she shouldn’t be able to, making her different than the other Slated ones.
I’m not complaining about that – we need something for Kyla to break free of her world.
And there is the love interest.
If I should put a finger on anything, it would be the love plot. Not that there is anything wrong with it per say, but its just so obvious. She meets Ben and everyone can immediately see they will be together.
Everything else in the book is rather dark. Terrorism is everywhere and there are so many kids being Slated, not knowing why.
It has a bit of a Hunger Games vibe sometimes. When someone asks too many questions or breaks some unspoken rules, men in grey suits, called Lorders, take them away and they are never seen again.
Taking place in England around 2054, the book portrays a world which is familiar enough that the dystopian part of it sneaks up on you. That’s how I felt anyway.
I did, however, really laugh when the book stated that all the unrest began when England pulled out of the EU.
Despite the dystopian feeling I got, Slated is also a bit more of a thriller, or a mystery novel. It has a government in a war with a terrorist group, people disappearing and being slated for illegal activity. So many secrets and a government hovering over Kyla, questioning who she can trust.
I won’t spoil the end, but it’s setting up the sequel really well and I can’t wait to read it.
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