aslant | 17: Amnesia in the UK

17. Slated, Teri Terry

This was fun! YA dystopia with a touch of romance at its best. This is set in a future England where autism has been eliminated, an authoritarian government rules, and young people can have their memories erased ("slated") in order to get a second chance at a happy life with a new family; they must wear a Levo, which monitors their happiness levels, and causes them to black out or die if they experience extremes of negative emotion, aiming for a 5/10, nice and even. This book has a lot to say about structures of control, about trauma, about happiness, about adoption, about being "ready" for adult life, and is a nicely considered meditation on the distance between rebellion and terrorism. Not heavy-handed at all, and for all the protagonist's/setting's similaries to Katniss/Panem, Kyla has an authentic personhood going on, she was not a mindless revenge drone, nor do the adults around her fall neatly into good or evil sides. The second in the series has already been released in the UK, coming in September for the US. Highly recommended!