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 is one of the good ones, folks! I absolutely devoured this book.

 

I loved the premise. I loved that Kyla had no memories at the beginning. I love that she was entering a new world and rediscovering old schemas in her brain. I love that Terry included details such as her not knowing a knife was sharp because she had to learn. (I loved that Terry didn't drown the book with these details.)

 

The world in this book was wonderfully depicted as we were discovering it alongside Kyla. It was fascinating to see what other people were taking for granted and what she found to be slightly strange or creepy feeling inducing.

 

The politics in this book were also beautifully done and deathly possible. Set in a futuristic UK, this goes into enough depth to explain how the world came to be without being boring to those who don't enjoy politics.

 

The characters in this book were fantastically built. I loved Kyla's 'sister,' fellow Slated, Amy, who was a sweetheart but incredibly different to Kyla. I detested her 'dad.' I grew to grudgingly adore her mother. There were fascinating character at the hospital and at school and all over the place!

 

About halfway through this, I got up and went to check that my library had the second book available for kindle, because I had a feeling that if it didn't, I would be very angry. It did. Which is good, because I have a physical need to finish this series.

 

If you like dystopias, this is a must-read.

Note: While this is Book 6 in the series, it works just fine as a stand alone story.

Penny Brannigan is a transplanted Canadian that has adopted the North Wales town a Llanelen as her home. She and a good friend, Victoria, have started a beauty spa and their own line of beauty treatments. All is tranquil in this little town until a well-known figure, Glenda Roberts, is found dead in the local tourist slate mine.

While I would put this book in the cozy mystery section, I would also say it takes itself seriously. The characters are well formed and the plot holds steady throughout. While there are touches of light humor here and there, it is definitely not the main feature.

Penny is an amateur sleuth who has connections throughout the town, including a handsome police officer, Gareth. Their romance hasn’t taken off yet but they have mutual respect for each other and there’s a tag team of info gathering and problem solving between the two of them throughout the book. I really enjoyed their relationship. There’s some snappy dialogue between the two at times. We also get to spend a little time in Gareth’s head and we see how much he respects and yearns for Penny.

Glenda Roberts was a town event organizer. In fact, she was in the middle of organizing an orchestra event in the mine for St. David’s Day when she was discovered dead. As the police look into her life, they discover several people who didn’t particularly like her. Meanwhile, her sister runs a little market stall where various knock-offs are sold. This little family side business has also gained the sisters a few enemies. Even though Glenda is dead for nearly the entire book (excepting the little bit at the beginning before she is murdered), her character continues to gain aspects as the story moves forward and the police dig into her life. I really liked this as it kept Glenda around as an active and essential part of the story.

This book had several clever twists. At first, I thought this murder mystery would be pretty straight forward. I was engaged by the characters and by the setting but wasn’t expecting too much from the plot. But then we had one twist and then another and then a much bigger one. It was all well done and each little twist kept sucking me into the story further and further.

The last half of the book, I listened to all in one sitting. I simply didn’t want to put it away as I could feel the story heading towards a big reveal. I had a guess as to how the mystery would finally unravel, but I couldn’t quite piece it all together. It was a joy to see how the author wrapped the events of the past mining generation to the present generation.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher (via Audiobook Jukebox) in exchange for an honest review.

The Narration: Anne Flosnik was a good fit for Penny. She has a great talent for accents and in this book the Welsh words pop up everywhere. I especially liked her voice for Victoria and for the alcoholic orchestra leader. 

A likeable series, and this installment had a great plot, lots of twists and turns and moved along very well.  I had the who in whodunit figured out fairly early on, but that didn't dampen my enjoyment.  A few more details were filled in about Penny's past, and I have to say the romance (or lack thereof) with Gareth distresses me a bit.  I feel bad for Gareth, why do nice guys always get hung up on the wrong women? *sigh*

 

 

Source: Purchased Copy

 

Quite dark and disturbing in subject matter but highly addictive and beautifully written Slated is set in a world where if you are a criminal of a certain age your mind is wiped and you are sent to a new family to start again. Kyla is one such "Slated" girl but she is not like all the rest, some of her memory appears intact.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, part of my current obsession with YA Trilogies - so much so that I'm actually moving straight onto Book 2 rather than having a break in between as I have been with the other's I've chosen.

It is an intriguing idea - of course things are not as straight forward as they seem, Teri Terry uses the plot to explore themes of criminal behaviour, right and wrong and of course throws in some reality checks. If such a thing were possible it would not always be used for good of course, and even if you consider wiping the minds of true criminals to be a "good" thing there is a great moral argument to be had there.

All this is looked at as Kyla struggles to readjust after her Slating - and finds that she is having nightmares that may be based in fact. There is a romance here, of course, but that is not the main focus, the pace of the story is pretty perfect and it ends in a way that will absolutely have you grabbing book 2 immediately.

Very well done and I would not hesitate to recommend it.

Happy Reading Folks!

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: