Book Review: Slated

What if the government were able to erase your memory of who you are and attempt to make you into a peaceable, law-abiding citizen by placing a controlling device on your wrist which monitors your emotions and threatens death if you allow it to fall into the danger zone? What if, somehow, the erasure wasn't entirely successful  and the device fails to respond to dangerous emotions like anger? What if you discovered a past you didn't remember having and had to determine whether you should attempt to get back the past or run from it? These are the premises driving the Slated trilogy by author Teri Terry.

While these ideas were interesting to contemplate, I wasn't entirely sucked into the story. I'm not sure why, but it seemed off at arm's length throughout my entire reading. I didn't fall in love with any of the characters. The love interest angle didn't really grip me. The evil, while menacing, didn't make me shake in my boots. Perhaps I'm just not that into dystopian novels. It received plenty of positive reviews from others. Now I have to decide for myself whether I will continue to pursue these books (my library only has the second, but not the third, available). I'm just not sure. The first book did end with a cliff-hanger, making the reader want to know what happened to Kyla's love interest, Ben. Even still, I'm not sure I'm hooked enough to seek out the rest of the trilogy.