Fractured (Slated #2)

Secretive: Keeping things, even things that don't matter, from the people who care. Trying to make sure that they don't know anything but the bare minimum and changing from an open to closed book.

Change: Doing things that they never would have usually done before. Usually more associated with criminals acts, whether that be drugs, violence, or going against authority in ways that could get them in trouble.

Isolation: Drawn from everyone that you cared about. Made to distrust the people that you are supposed to rely on.

Attention: Constantly vying for the attention of someone that they shouldn't be speaking to, or interacting in the intimate ways in which they are doing. Feeling happy, elated even, when they get the slightest bit of praise from that person, and taking it over all other people.

Rain.

The second book in the Slated series picks up right where the other one left off. Some questions are slowly being answered, but others, still lack clarity or information. Kyla has been going through a lot. Trying to sort through everything she has learned and also gone through. This, of course, is extremely hard, and not something that she can just do because she wants to. These problems have to be slowly worked through, but as she learns more, she realises that maybe she doesn't have as much time to think and ponder on these thoughts as she previously thought she did.

Her struggles between her slated state and pre-stated state only grow as she tries to find what she can do to rectify everything that has happened so far. All the people who had been hurt for no reason. Hurt because they question, hurt because they are worried or just hurt because their opinions are different from what Lorders and government think.

Those struggles are only further amplified as she starts changing. Not believing certain people to be on her side anymore, but learning more about them, about what they did and starting to wonder if maybe they aren't the person she previously thought. It was hard watching her struggle with this, as a lot of the behaviour she was exhibiting was because of her life before Slating, or that is what we are meant to believe anyways.

This book features more description than the first one, which lets it give its own vibe off, and separates it from the first one. Although this doesn't make it feel like a different series, the author's style is definitely able to come through without any issues. I also think that this works in the context of the book because as she regains more of her memories, there is more to think about, more that is continually going through her mind and I really liked this small detail, whether the author meant it or not.

Although there is a lot of information packed into the start, we start to learn a lot of things about her life beforehand. Little snippets of before she was slated, before everything bad that happened, happened. This doesn't mean that we know everything, no. She regained a lot of her memories but some are still stuck, only brought to the forefront by things that she experiences.

As we get closer to the end, things start to get solved. One half of her life, one that has been plaguing her, and the root of a lot of her distress. Distress that has followed her through her life thus far and been causing the actions that she took.

Leaving everything finished and starting new problems in the next book wouldn't be the correct thing to do, which is also what this author thinks herself. While loads of questions are answered in this book, including some of the most glaring ones. Ones that have stayed with us through the first two books but have now been resolved for good. Others have been allowed to fester, grow and become even greater reveals in the third book, at least I hope that is what is going to happen.

Would definitely recommend it. It had a slow start, and Kyla was very frustrating to read about, but her decisions made sense based on the life she lived and the people she knew. When it picked up, the story really sucked me in and enthralled me for the rest of the duration of the book.

book: Fractured

author: Teri Terry