Slated by Teri Terry

Slated by Teri Terry
Series: Slated #1
Publisher: Orchard Books
Publication Date: May 3rd 2012
Source: Bought

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

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?

Slated is a dystopian I've had my eye on for a while. I've been told countless times that I had to get around to reading this book because it was amazing, and I had seen a lot of great reviews for it. I got this book quite a while ago and it's been sitting on my bookshelf unread for months even though I've been dying to read it. So I finally decided to add it to my TBR for this month, and now I regret not reading it sooner.

Slated had me hooked from the very first page. Who was Kyla running from? Why must she build a wall? I had so many questions before the first chapter so I knew this was going to be a great book.

Kyla has been slated which means she has no memories of her past or who she used to be. She's had to learn everything from scratch again. The government claim she was a terrorist and that they slated her to give her a second chance. Kyla must play by their rules or her life will be in danger. But Kyla keeps having strange dreams and starts to wonder if they're memories of her previous life. Kyla decides to do some digging and realises she's been lied to. But who can she trust to help her find out the truth?

Kyra wasn't a character that I instantly connected with. Because she'd been Slated, she basically had to re-learn everything and sometimes came across quite robotic and unfeeling to me to begin with. But, gradually as the book went along, I started to connect with Kyra. It wasn't an instant connection, but the connection developed throughout the whole book. Kyra was constantly learning and questioning things and her questioning led to a massive secret being revealed about her. She also started to notice that the Government were taking drastic steps and a lot of pupils from her school were disappearing, which led Kyra to wonder what was really going on. Kyra was an intriguing character. She was inquisitive, extremely intelligent, strange and perceptive. Kyra noticed everything around her and had an unbelievable memory. She could remember her way around the places she went - every twist and turn - and she could draw a map from her memory. I'm still extremely curious to find out about Kyra's previous life. 

There was a bit of romance in this book, but it never really stood out for me. There were times when I was invested in it, but most of the time I was indifferent towards it because I mostly wanted to find out what the hell was going on.
Ben wasn't a stand out character. He was nice enough and he did help Kyra a lot, but I never really saw a huge connection between the two of them. To be honest, I preferred them as friends. Ben was a great help to Kyra when she first moved to her new home and he helped her integrate, and then Ben started to help her grow as a character. But still, I felt their romance was un-needed in this book and I kind of wish their relationship could have taken slightly longer to progress to the next stage because then I might have had a chance to actually get to know both of these characters. Plus, by the end I thought Ben was kind of an idiot.

I will say that the world building in this book was slightly confusing to start with. At first I had absolutely no idea what was going on in this world. I was trying to understand the whole Slated process, what the hell the government were up to, who were the bad guys and the good guys and also try to figure out what the hell is up with Kyla and why she was so different from other Slated's. Also, her 'father' is up to something and I'm pretty sure I know what it is so I guess I'll just have to get the next book and see if I'm right. But everything came together for me eventually and I did really love the world that Teri Terry created. It's a slightly scary dystopian world that I could totally see happening. 

The ending of Slated left me with even more questions than I had at the start of the book so I'll have to grab a copy of Fractured some time soon!

Overall, Slated was a great dystopian novel. It was set in a creepy world with a screwed up government and you never know who you can trust and who you can't. It was full of unexpected twist and shocking reveals that kept me hooked. I definitely recommend Slated and I'll be grabbing a copy of Fractured ASAP!