Slated
Sixteen-year-old Kyla has been “slated,” her personality and memory wiped clean by the government; all she knows is that she was a criminal given one last chance in society. Set in a near-future Britain where anyone under the age of 16 is slated rather than incarcerated, Terry’s debut is a suspenseful page-turner with a highly sympathetic and strong female protagonist. A perverse sense of claustrophobic dread grows throughout the novel, aided by the disconcerting presence of lorders, who are both protection and threat, and levos, devices embedded in slateds’ wrists that are the equivalent of internal bombs. Kyla forms a deep attachment to Ben, a slated boy, and together they become determined to discover if the people being slated are really criminals or if they were taken by the government for another reason. If so, why? A clear need to tie up all the dangling ends left by a rather abrupt ending will have readers waiting eagerly for a sequel. Grades 7-10. --Charli Osborne--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.