SHATTERED

A girl with many names adds even more in this final book in the Slated trilogy, set in a dystopian future England controlled by the Law and Order Party.

Kyla, known as Lucy in her previous, pre-Slating life and Rain in her brief career with the Antigovernment Terrorists, is on the run from the “Lorders” with help from the rebel group Missing In Action and a new look courtesy of Image Enhancement Technology. Kyla returns to the place where she started out as Lucy, now using the name Riley. She is assigned to the Waterfall House for Girls, which is coincidentally run by her previous mother, Stella. Anyone unfamiliar with the first two books will be utterly at sea, and even those who have read them may want to dip into them as a refresher before tackling this conclusion. The AGT are now the bad guys along with the Lorders. Riley/Kyla/Rain/Lucy must develop strong friends and allies to survive, as well as to make sense of her slowly returning knowledge of the past. Somewhat convoluted and improbable events bring the series to a conclusion with a suitably optimistic tone. A sense of impending doom often fails to deliver, and the obligatory romantic triangle falls as flat as the premise.

Though this series started strong, it ends with a whimper.