Fractured

August 15, 2013
Those intrigued by Terry's first book about Kyla (Slated, 2012) will find themselves swimming in a morass of her memories in this second. Kyla's past lives as Lucy and Rain are indistinct and muddled. While Kyla has escaped the worst effects of being Slated (the wiping of her previous life and memories), her personality has definitely been fractured, as the title indicates. Readers are left to puzzle out what actually happened and why. The family she is placed with has direct ties to a martyred prime minister, and her personal doctor is the one who invented the Slating process. Coincidence? Irritatingly vague events and dream sequences abound and seem to have import, but the threads fail to cohere. Readers familiar with the first book will find seeming inconsistencies (Kyla's visceral reaction to blood late in the book contrasts with a not-so-visceral one in an early scene) confusing, and they will wonder how and why the other characters seem to change personalities as quickly as Kyla does. In this shifting moral environment, there is so little to trust that the authorial manipulation of events becomes all too evident. Readers who decide to go with the flow will reach a violent and surprising payoff, but it will take dedication to get there. (Dystopian romance. 12 & up)

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September 1, 2013

Gr 7 Up-This middle book in the trilogy does not stand alone. The action picks up where Slated (Penguin, 2013) ended as Kayla learns more about the world she's been dropped into tabula rasa, and the role she is slated to play in the revolution. She wants to find out what happened to her boyfriend after he removed his nervous system-governing wristband-this is supposed to cause instant death but Kayla isn't so sure. There's also the appearance of a charismatic substitute teacher who holds information about her past and truths about her adoptive mother. This installment is consistent with the first book, using clear, direct prose, sustained action, and interesting twists. Kayla is not the most engaging of heroines (understandably, since the novel's main gimmick is that her entire memory and personality have been erased), but the dystopian government is a worthy villain (though its ideologies are not fleshed out). There are some interesting descriptions of dissociative identity disorder and the ways in which it can be used as a strategy, and the ending keeps readers on the hook for the final volume.-Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School, New York City

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