Slated (1) by Teri Terry
And to another science fiction book: Slated by Teri Terry, part one of 3 (in German Gelöscht, in French Effacé). I read it in German where it contained 429 pages. Age: 15 (girls and boys). Originally published 2012.
Kyla is sixteen and has no memories of her past. None. Because the regime 'slated' her, their way of redeeming terrorists and giving them a new life. They loose their memories, get a new name, a new family and a device that incapacitates them when they get too emotional… only that the device doesn't work on Kyla. At least not when she's angry. Additionally she thinks for herself and doesn't adopt every thought everyone around her has – unlike the other Slated. She is an anomaly. Together with another slated boy, Ben, she tries to figure out who they were before, but the answers only tell her one thing: if someone realises that how different she is… no one must know how different she is. Because she only has this life left.
The ideas, the plot and the characters are well done, but the main character is really bitter and cold. She's not easy to like – I didn't manage it. Sure, it makes sense, when you look at her history, but I just… I just couldn't manage to identify with her, which is extremely important. Even though I get why cats calm her down.
Her sister's interesting, though. She's an absolutely lovely girl, and her past is… interesting. But I can't imagine how someone could consider thinking of himself as a terrorist rather than to remember an accident. I'd rather have these memories than to wake up everyday and wonder how many people I've killed… wondering whenever I hear of a terroristic act whether that could have been me.
The basic concept of the world is nicely done, the everyday life. But I don't understand why a regime would give murderers like that, the hard-core ones, another life. It's almost as if you said: Hey, it's okay you kill that many people. You get a new life through it! Yippeee!
Well. To the other characters. I like Kyla's new family and her boyfriend. The ending made me really sad, Ben was just about the only reason why I finished the book. He's sunshine and fun.
I really would like to say more to this book, but I honestly can't say any more. It's neither good nor bad enough to really say anything about it! Except for maybe this: It lacked humour and wasn't very tense.
In brief:
I give this book a star for original ideas. The characters were well done, but you can't relate to them, so no star for them, it wasn't tense, so no star for style either and the world doesn't make much sense… not the concept of the Slated, at least. The rest of the content was well done, which means that I can't give or delete a star, either.