Fracture (Slated, #2) par Teri Terry

fracturé par Teri Terry

J’ai juste besoin de sortir ça – Prévu m’a donné de très grands espoirs pour la suite de l’histoire en fracturé, et en aucun cas cela n’a déçu. À travers chaque point du livre, j’ai trouvé l’histoire assez captivante et j’étais sous le choc à la fin de fracturé.

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First up, I definitely need to talk about the aftermath of the ending of Slated and all things Ben. My goodness. Okay, I definitely knew something suspicious would be up with that situation in this book

Fractured by Teri Terry

I just need to get this out there – Slated gave me very high hopes for the continuation of the story in Fractured, and by no means did it disappoint. Through every point of the book, I found the story quite gripping and was in shock by the end of Fractured.

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First up, I definitely need to talk about the aftermath of the ending of Slated and all things Ben. My goodness. Okay, I definitely knew something suspicious would be up with that situation in this book. I wasn’t sure if he had survived or not but given the weird silence I kind of figured « Hey, maybe he’s alive somewhere! ». Kyla was obviously desperate for Ben, but I did get the feeling she might just be a teenage girl who wants a love interest, and many of them at that (more on this later though). So, I was really rooting for Ben when his mum came to speak to Kyla’s mum – but why? Does she have more involvement with the Lorders than she lets on? Does she know anything at all?? We’ll probably never know for definite what the full extent of that late night conversation was, however, it was too controversial for the Lorders to handle. Someone’s asking questions about her possibly dead son? Well… you know what? Let’s go and TORCH THEIR HOUSE AND BURN THEM ALIVE?! Yeah that totally seems like the logical thing to do. I knew the Lorders were harsh, but cold-blooded murder? (Technically hot blooded because of the fire though hehe… sorry not a time for jokes) I thought the illegal slating was bad enough. Not only do the Lorders murder Ben’s parents for simply wanting to know where there son is, or even merely whether or not he is alive, but of course they have to go and reslate Ben. That was probably expected; however this is no normal slating. My guess is that the Lorders are developing a new kind of slating, keeping all of the basic human skills such as reading, writing, speaking, walking and any other natural abilities and purely removing ‘dangerous’ memories (not to mention the fact that he has no Levo afterwards). Ben is still Ben – kind of. Either that or, and hear me out on this one, this is how all Lorders are created. Who in their right mind thinks, you know what I fancy doing everyday? Unfairly hauling away helpless children from their loving families, cruelly removing every precious memory in their head, and brutally murdering them and their family if they even mildly object to any of it. Isn’t that fun! Lorders are probably brainwashed at academies like the one Ben is found at, believe that they’re there voluntarily and the corrupt government continues. I don’t believe Kyla would just give up on Ben after a couple of sneaky visits, there must be more to this in Shattered…

Next up is a brief rant on Kyla’s many, many, many love interests. Is it just me or does it seem like she has a different almost boyfriend for every single one of her personalities? Okay, let’s take Kyla. Obviously Kyla’s love interest is Ben and it was definitely the best one. I really want to her to go back for him in Shattered because she can’t just leave him at that academy – I would actually be very upset if that’s just how their relationship is left. Very upset. So then at the end of Slated we found out about Lucy who is Kyla’s childhood identity. This one’s a bit of a stretch but hear me out – during Fractured it seems to me that Kyla has kind of been rejected by Lucy, Rain, Kyla herself – whatever you want to call her – and Lucy is more present in her personality along with rain. For this reason Cam is the love interest for Lucy, he just matches that personality so well; they’re both young, naïve, caring and a little timid. Or so it seems… (I’ll get back to you on Cam later). Ladies and gentlemen, as if two love interests weren’t enough, let me now introduce you to Rain! Mainly I see Katran as the love interest here but I also felt some weird vibes coming from Nico… anyone else? Nico just seemed overly invested in Lucy splitting into Rain to the point where it was pretty creepy and I got the feeling maybe he wanted something more than merely a coach-trainee relationship. Maybe that’s just me though. Katran on the other hand genuinely seemed to care about Rain and her feelings but did feel rejected due to the fact that Rain had absolutely no memory of him despite regaining most other experiences she had been taught to recall. Either this memory just hadn’t been triggered yet or when they were together she was acting as Lucy, letting him into the more personal side of her life. I almost wish she was never slated and that they got more time together… although what about Ben? Basically, what I’m concluding is that Cam is the worst love interest out of them all, sorry Cam! Not so brief rant over.

Our next topic of interest is Kyla’s dad. I was left with so many questions and theories over his secretive career after Slated and I’m very glad my doubts were cleared up in the continuation of the storyline. I did not for a second believe that he was merely some businessman who just travelled a lot for work – in fact, maybe I was onto something in my initial review of Slated? The suggestion that Lorders travel to an unknown area to work so that they are not recognised doesn’t seem too far out anymore as it is revealed that Kyla’s father truly does work for the Lorders. Poor Amy put her trust in him when she found Kyla’s hospital sketches and he was as heartless and destructive as Tori’s ‘mother’. He reported her to work and what ended up happening? His own daughter was kidnapped, beaten, questioned and absolutely no remorse was shown. Even his own wife could never look at him the same way and previously knew not to trust him with information whether you knew about his job or not. I just don’t understand how that man can get up and be happy with himself and his life in the mornings. Well… at least my prediction was right I guess. That also definitely explains the whole Phoebe drama.

Whilst we’re reviewing previous characters, shall we have a check in with Wayne? He still absolutely disgusts me and I didn’t think it was possible but I now hate him even more after reading about Emily. Emily was a slated girl sent to her death at an execution facility run by Lorders. Sentenced to death by lethal injection because she broke her contract. By becoming pregnant. I just can’t comprehend the cruelty – the poor girl accidentally became pregnant and this is basically her death warrant. The Lorders find out she’s pregnant? What a bad little slated, death for you! She chooses to hide the pregnancy and give birth? The levels on her Levo drop dangerously and she is given a deadly shock. What is the one solution for both her and the baby’s safety? Remove the Levo for childbirth – for god’s sake the contract should almost be up she’s 20! Any other 20 year-old girl in the country is allowed to start a family so why can’t she? Now this is why Wayne disgusts me even more; if Wayne successfully raped Kyla or another slated target they could become pregnant and that’s a death sentence. BUT if they fight back, like I previously said, they would once again be delivered a deadly shock for their violent behaviours and low levels. No matter what, the girls end up dying after the fiasco with Wayne. Maybe that was his cunning little plan, after all there’d be no witnesses. Ugh. Can’t say I’m too mad at Nico for having Wayne dealt with since he was going to expose Kyla/Rain.

Lastly, believe me when I tell you I was very emotionally invested in the end showdown and might even have shed a tear. Throughout the entire book I was held in suspense as the action build as Kyla regained old memories. It left me guessing, questioning, theorising and I LOVED this element of the book. Can you imagine what would have happened if Kyla hadn’t run back to save Dr Lysander? I thought Nico truly cared about Rain but all along he was raising her as a weapon? A suicide bomber? Just when I thought I was calming down that bomb sent my heart racing all over again. But hang on, let’s rewind. Cam was weirdly insistent about going to that dinner, I just thought he was being a clingy love interest but once again a great twist in the plot – Cam, the innocent boy next door worming his way into the family as yet another Lorder spy as if Kyla’s father wasn’t bad enough. I can’t decide if I’m annoyed at Cam for this or not. He caused the death of Katran, who actually cared deeply about Rain, just as she was starting to piece back together her relationship with him. This might have possibly been the point when I shed a tear. Poor Katran, he didn’t need to die. Another consequence of Cam was of course Tori. If he hadn’t led the ambush to the AGT site then Tori wouldn’t have been arrested, and she wouldn’t have threatened to gut Rain/Kyla with her knife. Not too fond of that idea funnily enough. Although, hopefully the Lorders will take care of her as after all she was plotting against the government and by now we all know what Lorders do to terrorists. Murder. Tori’s already had her second chance with slating and escaped from a death camp. Rain won’t have to worry about that threat then. The one good thing to have come from Cam’s betrayal is Lysander agreeing to remove Kyla’s Levo early once they were taken to safety, so there’s something positive. Once again, Lysander is giving Kyla special treatment and hid her in the system by changing her brain chip number. I NEED TO KNOW WHY! I also need to know why the government have decided to cover up the explosion and publicly announce Kyla is dead when they very much know she is not.

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