Slated: Book 1 (Slated, #1)

by Teri Terry

The first book in the bestselling and multi award-winning SLATED trilogy.

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?

Book 1 in the acclaimed SLATED trilogy.

• ISBN10: 1408319470
• ISBN13: 9781408319475
• Publish Date: 3 May 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Orchard Books
• Edition: Digital original
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

This was SUCH a good read! And one I read for pleasure rather than review purposes, which is so refreshing. The whole idea of being slated, mind, is terrifying - having to learn everything from scratch? To go home with strangers? To have a Levo on your wrist, that monitors your reactions? UGH NO.

But I loved how Kyla was different to the other slateds, how she had bits and pieces from her previous life (although not enough for us to know WHY she was slated) and I can't wait to see where it goes in Fractured and Shattered!

A great dystopian thriller, I really, really enjoyed it. Teri Terry is a fantastic writer.

[layawaydragon]

The Good:
+Interesting dystopian set-up
+hooked me (for no discernible reason)
+Liked Kyla’s relationship with her Mum, and how her Mum changed/evolved

The Bad & The Other:
- Pathetic romance
- Weak characters
- Long and boring
- Predicable
- Kyla makes some dumbass decisions, several which are chickshit just to keep the “mystery” and prolong the story.
- Setting is lackluster, no sense of place or atmosphere

All in all, I’d call Slated a trendy, bland YA and can’t recommend it.

For some reason I was hooked into this with all the issues. I didn’t struggle to finish, but I didn’t enjoy really either. I kept waiting and felt like the book stood me up.

I'm torn between giving the next book a shot and saying life is too short. UPDATE: After reading reviews for Fractured, life is indeed too short.

The idea is interesting, but the execution not so much. There was so much promise but it was all a letdown.



Dystopian London, Great Britain wasn’t felt, explored or described. It might have well been Blandstown, USA, including their speech besides “Mum”.

I thought it was unique to have the Slated adopted out and begin our story there. But that remains the highlight, unfortunately. The plot & world-building = transparent.

I mean they only slate those 16 and younger...How is that NOT a giant red flag that it's all about brainwashing and control?

As far as who and what Kyla used to be? Clearly no one “normal”, but specifically I don’t know and don’t care.

"Kyla is different."

Boy, am I tired of hearing this! Everyone knows it, Kyla sucks at hiding it but she's oblivious. She drags ass, misses giant glues, and straight up ignores opportunities to learn more. Just to prolong the "mysterious" journey.

Of course your Levo doesn't work right with you, don't you pay attention?!?



After all the whining you chicken out of seeing the answers?! It was on a silver fucking platter for you, FFS.


and you ain't cute enough to pull that off.

Romance:



**heavy sigh***
Another romantic relationship I can't get behind.

I can see Kyla’s attraction to Ben. But her loving devotion? Not so much. It’s desperate. There’s no other options and I can’t see them working out as a couple unless it’s a “last people on Earth” type scenario. Which it kinda is for them at the moment, but that’s not a relationship I will champion.

And Ben’s side….He does not come off well in the beginning, especially with Tori. Besides that? He kind of creeps me out. I understand it’s part of the Slating but…**shivers** no.

He makes a stupid, desperate decision and it’ll fuel Kyla for the next books. I can’t help but wonder why? It feels like this and several other events occur only to prolong the story instead of being a natural flow. Is it because we don’t actually know these characters? Because it’s so obvious? I don’t know.

Tori:


She’s just a bitchy plot device, not only to cause needless ~drama~ with Ben/Kyla but as a sharp contrast for her. Tori is the ultimate don't be like her example. Tori clearly is different too, i.e. speaks her mind, isn’t mindlessly cheery, and gets punished for it. But it didn’t ramp up the tension or add anything new. It just…was.

Why can't two people just fucking like each other and get together? There's far more important things, which is the whole reason I'm reading a dystopian and we'd get farther into the story without it. Why a love triangle? Why make this a trilogy? Does it actually need to be? I dunno.

Routine. SSDD

School. Doctor. Group. Running. Home.

2-3 visits to Rebel Dude.

1 trip to Ben’s home.

Gossip. Drama.

1 bombing. 3 kidnappings.

The last makes it sound exciting. It’s not. When you build up the attacks for weeks, that alone makes it OBVIOUS. Then she found stuff out that was seen coming from a mile away and fucking hid from the rest.

Then she does some really stupid stuff that I wanted to smack her for. Blabbing other people’s secrets over a ~good feeling~ she has and bringing them along to their illegal setup. The Fuck?!?

She knows this could get everyone killed but doesn’t feel bad about it at all. How and why are you trusting your “gut instincts” right now? Are you stupid? I’m so tired of protagonists dragging their feet and moving based on random, senseless ~feelings~. Fucking think and do shit! You’re the MC, FFS! If you can’t do it, no one can.



The One Thing:

I did like Kyla's relationship with her new Mum. Mum grew and changed along the way, which was nicely done. The relationship with her father and his role in the story was, omfg again, obvious.

The fake-nice was plain in the beginning and it felt so forced to make him the bad guy. The mother’s transition wasn’t that smooth but much better. She’s one of the few I liked and appreciated. Her story might be better than Kyla’s if she was allowed to do stuff. Oh well.

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune

I bought this book in 2013 because the summary sounded really interesting, and because the cover looked amazing. And then, just like with The Iron King, I put it on my shelf and didn't read it until now. And now I want to SMACK myself for waiting so long, because wow. Wow wow wow, I LOVED this book! First of all because it takes place in London; or well a town close to London. And nine out of ten times Dystopia books like these happen in America; but this one was in London and that just made me even happier!

Kyla is a sixteen year old girl who's been Slated. Her entire existence has been erased, everything she ever was before - gone. She doesn't remember who she was or why she got Slated in the first place. She is being placed into a new family that already has another adoptive daughter who's been Slated, Amy. I liked her right from the start, mainly because she'd been through the same that Kyla had been through. I wasn't so sure about the parents, and I kept being like that throughout the book. Then there was Dr. Lysander who I kind of liked, Jazz who I liked right from the start, and Ben. Oh Ben. I knew right away, from the moment he appeared in the book, that he was going to be important (and also Kyla's love interest).

But that was the thing, the whole love story was pushed back a bit, and that is what I loved about this book so much. Because most of the time, in a book, when a girl meets a boy she likes, the whole story starts to revolve around that boy. And though this book also kind of revolved around Ben, it also didn't. At least, not as much as usual. I really did not mind the romance in this book, because the story around it was just so amazing I didn't really pay attention to it.

The way Teri Terry told this story just made me want to read on and on and on, and I did. I started it on the fourth and finished it after only two days of reading - one of which I had to work as well. So this book was just so thrilling that I HAD to finish it as soon as possible. I just really liked reading Kyla's story, and I loved reading about her trying to find out who she was before she became Kyla.

I have already ordered the second book of the series, Fractured, way before I even finished this book, because I knew that I had to read the second one as soon as possible. If you want to read an amazing dystopia story set in England, you should definitely check out Slated!

My opinion on this book in one gif:

[Stephanie]

I had high hopes for Slated, but it fell short of those expectations. While I did enjoy the actual idea of the story, I had a very hard time connecting with the story and the characters.

The one thing that really kept me from connecting with the story was the writing. There were a lot of short sentences and sentence fragments that would throw me off. Like:

"Surgery. Like being Slated.
The bell rings. End of class.
'Hand your sheet in on your way out!' he says. Everyone shuffles about, putting books away."
– page 247

or

"'Did you learn what you wanted to know.'
My stomach twists. She knows; somehow she knows. That I looked at her computer. I stay silent, gut twisting in fear. Imagine what the Lorders will make of that."
– page 263

It threw me off every time. I understand that Kyla probably thinks like that in her head since she was slated and all, but it was still hard for me at times. I also felt like there wasn't a lot happening. A lot of it was Kyla trying to figure out everyone and what she can and can't do. There was a lot of things mentioned, but I felt like there wasn't a lot happening to actually get some answers. The Lorders are taking people, and people are disappearing, and Kyla wants to know why, but if she shows any interest, she's risking her life. So Kyla thinks about how the government could possibly be evil, but nobody ever does anything about it.

Another thing is that I had a lot of these 'mysteries' figured out. A lot of them are very obvious and it kind of ruined the story for me. Like Kyla having these strange dreams. It's so obvious that they are her old memories from before she was slated, but since everyone thinks that it's impossible to remember anything after being slated, Kyla is convinced that they're just a figment of her imagination, which got annoying after a while.

I also was not feeling the romance. Kyla and Ben are both slated, and they usually run together to keep their levos up (the levos are wristbands that every slated wears and is connected to their brain so it can monitor their emotions and if they get too upset or angry it will knock them out and potentially kill them if it gets too low). Kyla was attracted to Ben from the beginning, which I can understand since Kyla is different from all the other slated's and can actually think for herself, unlike Ben who is a normal slated and would smile through a crisis. I was not convinced with this relationship. It just didn't feel right since Ben couldn't really think for himself unless he was running. So I don't know, I was just not into the relationship.

The ending also turned me off a little bit. The last few pages we get a little bit of answers, so little that I was completely confused and had no idea where it came from or what was going on, and then it just ends. I definitely didn't see it coming, which I guess is a good thing, but it didn't seem like a good thing to me at the time.

The thing is, I was really interested in the idea of Slated, it was just the way it was executed that kept me from loving it. I am a big fan of dystopias like this with the evil government and everything, but this one didn't work out for me.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Slated is Teri Terry’s debut novel and it offers up a clever and rather terrifying dystopian world where those whom the government claims are terrorist are offered a second chance by having their memories erased. This process is called Slating. This chilling novel kept me captivated with its strong protagonist and suspenseful plot.

The tale takes place in the late twenty-first century and the government is now referred to as the Central Coalition. The society is controlled by a group of soldiers known as “Lorders” (law and order officers). We meet Kyla at the New London Hospital where she is being processed out to return to society and live with her parents and sister. She has been slated and will be forced to wear a Levo unit around her wrist. It cannot be removed and it monitors her happiness level. She will be monitored until she is twenty-one at which time her sentence will end and the device removed. Something is not quite right and Kyla suffers from nightmares. They are of strange events and she quickly discovers she is different from the other slated. The tale that unfolds is filled with mystery and suspense as Kyla begins the search for the truth.

Kayla was an interesting character, and we/she quickly realize she is different. This is all new to her and she fumbles a little on whom to trust, what is truth or propaganda and it added to the overall tale. We get to see her come into her own a little as she makes discoveries. Ben is another slated and the romantic interest. The romance was juvenile and sweet, but did not add to the overall plot and I was not really swept up in it. I found her parents to be fascinating and not knowing whose team they were on was scary. Amy is Kayla’s sister and has been slated. She offers us a look at a successful slating. Amy and her boyfriend Alex helped move the plot but sadly were not fleshed out. The doctors, counselors and teachers helped paint a picture of the current government and added to the overall mystery. I loved that we/she were never sure if we were being tested or helped by others.

The thing that really struck me about this dystopian world is that it could actual happen! Everything the government was engaging in could probably be done now with the technology we own. How the process of Slating was discovered freaked me out. I had recently read an article about this type of testing. This totally escalated the creep factor for me. There were issues; for example there were inconsistencies with Kyla’s knowledge after being slated. She did not know how to work a car door, but knew other things. The Slated retained their speech and fine motor skills and maybe I am wrong but having met stroke victims and such I imagine recovery would be similar and it didn't quite jive for me. Those issues aside this was a compelling tale. I love world building and this one did leave me with many unanswered questions. The author provides us with facts as Kayla learns them. I will say I enjoyed how this added to the suspense and mystery. The sensation of being off kilter because you did not know who to trust, what was real and none of the history until Kayla learned it was enthralling. I easily consumed this well paced tale in a few hours and look forward to Fractured the next book.
I want to thank Penguin for providing this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[Ashley]

As posted on booknook - YA book reviews

Slated has one of the coolest stories to it. Ever. It takes place in futuristic England where young teenage criminals are given a second chance. Rather than being put to death or imprisoned for life, they can be "rehabilitated" by being Slated. Their memories and personalities are erased and they are given a clean slate. They start over from scratch, relearn the basics, and most importantly, they are equipped with a "Levo" device. This device monitors their emotions and their happiness levels. If they get too sad or too angry, their Levo device knocks them out and can even kill them. This is to prevent the criminals from reverting back to their old, violent ways.

So this story is basically about Kyla being Slated and given a new adopted home. She goes to school and tries to fit in. But along the way she starts remembering things, presumably from her old life, even though that shouldn't be possible. She begins to question everything around her and doesn't know who to trust.

I just thought the ideas in this book were great. I loved the idea of teenage criminals who were supposedly so bad that they had to be wiped clean. I loved the conspiracy surrounding this, and the awesome technology it involved.

I also thought Kyla was a great character. Despite having her memory erased, Kyla is constantly thinking for herself. She learns very quickly, is incredibly perceptive, and doesn't blindly accept everything as fact. This made her a very likable character because I felt like I could quite easily be her. As a reader, I'm sitting there desperately trying to find answers. I wanted to know what was going on. What's the truth behind the Slateds? Where are these people disappearing to? Why was she Slated in the first place? And Kyla was right there with me asking all those questions. Although I loved that about her, that is kind of where my first issue with the book arises..

Kyla asks all the right questions — all the questions that I wanted answers to. But after 448 pages, I felt like almost none of those questions were actually answered. There was so much information I was desperately starving for, but by the time I got to the end of the book, it still wasn't there. It was honestly pretty frustrating because the book was a little slow at times but I kept telling myself, "Surely the ending will be epic!" ..but it wasn't really. We do get bits and pieces of information, but it wasn't the "z0mg all revealing" ending I was hoping for. On the bright side, I am inclined to think that this means the second book will be epic. There are so many unanswered questions and I'm desperately hoping that all will be revealed in book #2. If they are, then I'm sure book #2 will be incredible!

As for some other characters, I loved some and didn't like some. Most of them, I loved. I adored Kyla's mum and dad because my first impressions were totally off. At the beginning, Kyla's dad is portrayed as the nice guy who's on her side, and her mum is portrayed as the evil, overbearing, dragon mother. But as the story progresses, they almost completely switch roles. We become very suspicious of Kyla's dad because there are just so many questions.. and once again, there's mystery surrounding her mum, but it seems like she might be more on Kyla's side than we originally thought!

Many of the other characters were very similar to Kyla's mum and dad in the sense that I was constantly doubting their intentions. I literally had no idea who I could trust, who was a government pawn, and who actually sympathized with Kyla and saw her as a person rather than a criminal to experiment on.

The one character I really didn't like was Ben. I just felt like I didn't "get" him, and that's a shame because he's a really key character and a love interest develops between him and Kyla. He's Slated, just like she is. At the beginning I got the sense that he was kind of a clueless guy. Most of the Slateds are very unlike Kyla. Unlike her, they accept everything without question and they're often just smiley, bubbly, and thoughtless. That's what Ben seemed like. I just felt like he didn't really fit well with Kyla. She's one who questions everything, who's dying for answers, who wants the truth. But Ben is just happy in his little mind-wiped bubble. I didn't feel the spark or the chemistry between them.

But issues aside, Slated was a really intriguing story. Teri Terry has created a fascinating world, and man, she knows all the right buttons to push to have me clawing for answers. I'm literally dying to see the conspiracies unravel and the truths to fall into place. That's why I'm desperately hoping that the second book, Fractured, will put all the pieces into place and have that BIG BANG that I'm hoping for.

[Amber]

Slated is nothing like I was expecting! It was a fantastic read, that I breezed through. Considering this is a big book, I managed to read it pretty quickly. And it had nothing to do with me being a reading machine!

The dystopian world in which this book is set is wonderfully developed. I really enjoyed learning and reading about it, and I was so intrigued. The information about the origins of the dystopian world/government was spread thinly throughout the novel, giving just enough info at each time when it was needed. This is also something I could totally see happening with our current government, if we had the technology, which made it even creepier!

I loved Kyla, the main character, because she was pretty kick ass. Her relationship with her new mother was something that I really enjoyed reading about, as the two had a great dynamic. I was also very interested in the doctor who runs the unit at the hospital, and I hope to learn more about her in the next book/s in the series!

I don't have any sound feelings about the love interest and his relationship with Kyla. I feel very neutral about the whole thing, because I found him to be very bland. Perhaps if we had seen more of him and his development, I would have liked him more. However, that wasn't the case.

For some reason I am not usually a huge fan of books set in the UK. I think it may have something to do with the writing style. That said, I really liked this! Ms Terry has an easy, flowing style that I was able to connect with. It made a 500 page book just fly by, and her writing style is one of the factors that made me love this book so much.

Overall, this book is full of thrilling suspense, mystery and intrigue. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of dystopian fiction, and those who would enjoy a more realistic dystopian world in particular.