Dystopian novels are pretty much formulaic. It’s set way in the future (or past) with a slight twist: the government regime has been changed. A definition of a dystopian novel is that the setting is a society that has an illusion of a perfect utopian world. Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained.

I find dystopian novels intriguing. It’s interesting to see how the author sees what the world will be like in that period of time and it’s interesting to see how that perception differs from author to author.

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?

The last dystopian novel I read was Broken Sky by L.A Weatherly, and after reading about such an incredible world, I’ve convinced myself that it’s going to be hard for any other dystopian book to top it.

Slated came close to being as good as Broken Sky but you know what stopped it? The ending. Broken Sky had this crazy cliffhanger that literally made me throw the book across the room and stare at a wall for half an hour. The ending of Slated was a slight disappointment. If I didn’t have all three books already and I had to wait a year for the second book to come out, I wouldn’t be that bothered by waiting.

Another thing that bothered me about this book is the character of Wayne Best. He was disgusting and certainly made an impression on me but I didn’t really see the point of him. He is a ‘Slater Hater’, but there is only him and one other character that properly voices their thoughts about hating Slated people and thinking they are outsiders. If Teri had incorporated a group of ‘Slater Haters’ into the book, then Wayne’s presence would have had more of a point. But because there was only one person who jeered at Kyla throughout the whole book, it seemed a bit silly that he even existed.

The premise of the book is incredible though. It’s set in the U.K, 2054. Whilst scientists were trying to find a cure for autism in the brain, they accidently erased memories. After they realised what they had done, they decided to bring in what is called ‘slating.’ I don’t want to give too much away about the idea of slating, because it is spoken about in depth during the book and is explored by Kyla.

I also loved the idea of the Levo’s, which is a device that is strapped to the Slateds wrists’ and monitors their brain activity from 0-10, 10 being pure happiness. If your number starts to drop below four, then the Levo starts to vibrate and you start to black out. The Levo also detects if you’re starting to get angry. If you start to get angry, the Levo knocks you out. I think it’s a brilliant idea for a dystopian device and something that I haven’t seen before in dystopian novels.

The characters were also brilliantly written. I loved the character development of ‘Mum’ and her relationship with Kyla and I also liked the introduction of characters such as Aiden and Mac and the effect of their beliefs on other characters.

Slated is a good book, it’s a good dystopian and Terry has created a world that is frightening. The ending wasn’t as good as it could have been but I will be marathoning this series.

Side note: Slated was published in 2012 and half way through the book there is a line that says “when the UK withdrew from the EU and closed borders, there was a period when things did go pretty crazy.” I’m sorry, but did Terry just predict Brexit?! When I read this, I told my Mom and she couldn’t believe it either.