Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British-themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Lift a pint and join our link party!
Last week’s British Isle Friday collection included book reviews, photos, and two lists of favorite British TV shows. Don’t miss Satia’s first contribution, a list of films and books she is watching and reading in preparation for her trip to London.
My post today is a review of a YA series I read recently, something a bit lighter than some of my reading this year, but still British-themed.
Book: Slated, Fractured, and Shattered by Teri Terri
Genre: YA
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Publication date: 2012, 2013, 2014
Source: Library
Shattered is the third book in the trilogy that began with Slated.
Summary: I enjoyed reading this trilogy back-to-back as one story. The first two books have reasonable endings, but leave some big cliff-hangers as well. Slated introduces us to a world where teenager terrorists get a second chance at life after their memories are erased — for a clean slate. Kyla, though, seems different from other slated teens. She glimpses dreams that might be memories, retains quirks that might be residual elements of her former personality, and encounters people who might have dangerous associations with her past. Unraveling these mysteries will take her on a three-book adventure all around a futuristic England.
Thoughts: I loved that this last book of the trilogy, Shattered, was set in two places that I won’t see on my first trip to England: The Lake District and Oxford. They are on the top of the list for the next trip!
Here is a description of the Castlerigg Stone Circle:
Leaning up against the gate, I can finally see it. A wide field with the stone circle at its center; the mountains, standing guard, are an amphitheater all around. I open the gate and step through, then stand there, staring, something stirring and shifting inside. Not just a dream, I’m sure of it. I remember, and the joy of memory makes me laugh out loud. I’ve been here, many times before, in all weather: picnics on sunny summer days, walks in blustery autumn rains and snow-covered magic, searching for bright dots of spring wildflowers. p. 72
Appeal: This trilogy has a dystopian setting but not as different from our our world as some. There is enough of a sci-fi element to Slated, and the follow-up books, to appeal to sci-fi lovers, but not so much to render it unreadable by those who prefer their futuristic novels to be light on the science.
What YA books set in the British Isles do you recommend? I also enjoyed the Shades of London series by Maureen Johnson, Finishing School series by Gail Carriger, and the World War II books by Elizabeth Wein, including Code Name Verity.
