Shattered

Wow

It was tempting to leave this review at that one word. Here’s why this Slated Trilogy by Teri Terry justifies a wow:

• This is one of the few series where the middle book in the trilogy wasn’t weaker than the first or last book and that is truly rare. Even in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (yes it’s outside this genre), one of my faves, I did feel a little let down by The Two Towers compared to The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.

• Usually all the good characterization and stuff is reserved for the one or two, sometimes even three main characters. Not the case in Shattered. The supporting characters don’t just fill in the spaces around our main character Kyla/Rain/Lucy, but they are fully drawn themselves. They may get less words, but even in the limited lines I can completely imagine how they look, sound, and move. Moreover, I find them just as interesting and can see them taking a main role in another story, I find them as hard to say goodbye to as the main character herself. Plus, when I say supporting characters I am not talking about just one or two sidekick types. There’s Finley and Madison, Len, Stella, Florence, Gianelli, Dr. Lysander, Gregory, Sandra-Armstrong Davis, Cora, Mrs. Medway…..

• Pacing – I am sure it’s a tricky balance for authors in the dystopian/apocalyptic genre to balance characterization with action and Shattered walks that fine line nicely. In this story Kyla is trying to figure out her identity and I don’t just mean her history and genetics, she is trying to figure out the kind of person she really is. She has the training of an AGT assassin, she hasn’t fully committed to MIA and when a woman and child are snatched by Lorders in front of her she questions her own morals as she chose self-preservation over speaking out. She struggles to figure out her parental and romantic relationships and how they fit into her life. Yet all her inner monologue and searching are accompanies by lots of action and tension as she is trying to do all this while on the run or in hiding.

• Raising the bigger questions – I especially enjoy books of this genre that don’t just describe someone surviving in this type of society, but looks at the deeper questions of our humanity. I was struck how often Kayla repeated the refrain of if people collectively just stood up, they could put a stop to something bad, in this case the Lorders disappearing people. However, it did remind me much of studying the Holocaust and how people would look away when seeing neighbors and friends hauled off by the Nazis. It also reminds me of current times, the deep anger and disappoint with our government (both parties) and yet I read a recent article that basically said despite their low rating, incumbents continue to be voted back in across the board. If everyone voted out the current gov’t employees by finding a new candidate or third party candidate, what would happen next?

• The ‘love triangle’. I have a friend who even though she respects my recommendations hasn’t read any dystopian books lately as she says she is sick of the focus on romance, especially love triangles, in these dysfunctional worlds and how they are handled. Yes, I suppose you could say there is a slight love triangle, though Ben and Aiden came into Kyla’s life at different times without a lot of overlap. However, the romance(s) haven’t distracted Kyla from her goals as in many other books of this ilk. She isn’t some moony teen who is putting her personal life above what’s most important and she isn’t letting any relationship shape or subsume her.

Spoiler Alert: Don’t read this last bit if you have not finished the series!
How the relationship with Ben plays out is handled with a real maturity by Teri Terry in Shattered. To take the Romeo and Juliet situation and have Juliet not end up with Romeo was a risk. There isn’t any sense that the author did this for shock value, such as the death of Tris in Divergent. She simply shows an understanding and sensitivity to real relationships as well as her main character. Kyla is strong enough to survive the outfall of the Ben situation and she grows from it. I also liked how the author didn’t have her fall directly and immediately into Aiden’s arms either. Kyla’s situation mirrors that of the world she sacrificed to save, for just as society and government in the UK will take time to change and the citizens will need to absorb the pain of the past and adjust to the new way of life, so does our heroine. As in life, there aren’t any fairy tale endings, just people living their lives.

Fractured

You know those nested Russian matryoshka  dolls?  You open up one and inside is another, then another, and yet another.  That sums up the character of Kayla whom readers first met in Slated by Teri Terry, but it’s in the next book Fractured that we begin to see all the layers of this character.  Who is she really?  Is she Lucy, the happy child from the Lake District, Kayla the Slated who struggles with memory loss and nightmares, or Rain who has the skills of a terrorist?  That is the question Kayla is desperately trying to answer. 

To add to the mystery within a mystery are a number of plot twists introducing new characters which for Kayla complicates life even more.  She was already wary about whom to trust in Slated, wondering whether her sister Amy and her adoptive mom really care about her?  Why hadn’t Dr. Lysander reported the fact that she is starting to remember some of her past?  What ultimately happened to Ben?

In Fractured, in addition to the mysterious Nico, other people pop up from her past and recent history.  Tori who considered herself to be Ben’s girlfriend, and Katran, someone she knew from the time before she was slated.  Then there’s Cam, the friendly new next-door-neighbor who takes away her focus on Ben.

For every stop forward Kayla takes in trying to figure out her past, another secret confronts her.  Teri Terry does a great job of describing what it’s like to someone who’s mind is fractured and can almost grasp the truth of her past, but whenever she sees the pieces out of the corner of her eye, they disappear.   However, Kayla struggles equally as much with the ultimate question of who she is and what she believes in, not just her name and identity.  She has understandable rage toward the Lorders, who Slate teens like her and have created a totalitarian society where people who ask the wrong questions are bundled into black vans and taken away, but do their actions justify the methods of Free UK, the guerilla group who fight the Lorders?

The pacing of this book is intense.  In every chapter there is either violence, a piece of the puzzle revealed or a plot twist.  Some dystopian and apocalyptic novels fixate too much on physical action and danger, but this book has the right balance of action and heart as Kayla tries to figure out her place in this mixed up world she inhabits, and is surprised by which people really are on her side.

 

Slated

Do our experiences, and thus our memories, make us who we are?  Or are we born with innate personalities?    This is one of the questions raised in the thrilling book Slated by Teri Terry. 

In the not too distant future after a series of demonstrations that led to riots and some terrorist acts, England is now controlled by a dystopian government.  Any adults who commit a crime are imprisoned or killed, but children and teens are given a ‘second chance’ by ‘slating’ them, which is a process that completely wipes their memories clean.  It’s not just that they don’t remember their names, families and where they are from; they awaken from the process almost like coming out a coma and have to even learn how to walk and speak again.   Their rehabilitation process not only includes basic functions, but they are taught to think the way the government wants them to, before being sent off to live with their new moms and dads, who are strangers.   In order to make sure they are truly rehabilitated, the Slated wear Levos, which go much farther than a home monitoring device that tracks where they are.  The Levos monitor their emotions.  If a Slated gets too distressed, sad or angry, the number on their wristband drops.  If it drops to a certain low number, they face a severe headache or will blackout.  If they hit the most dangerous number, they will die.   And like any good rehab, the Slated, must attend group therapy sessions weekly where they share their emotions and experiences with other Slateds.

From the very beginning there is something different about Kyla.  At night she experiences severe nightmares that make her wonder if it’s a nightmare or memories of her former life and although her Levo numbers drop when she is sad or distressed, when she is angry they actually go up, a fact she realizes would put her in danger and so she hides it from her new mom, dad and sister, as well as her psychologist and even her new love interest, Ben, another Slated.  And there is much for her to be angry about, from mistreatment by other non-Slateds, to her realization that other kids are disappearing who have not committed criminal acts Kayla struggles to hide her reactions.  Her biggest fear however, is herself – just who is she?  Is she a terrorist who was responsible for killing other kids?  Or is the truth even worse than that?

This was a real page-turner.  My only criticism is that I have to wait for the next book in the series.