The Program Review

TITLE The Program (Program #1)
AUTHOR Suzanne Young
PUBLICATION April 30th 2013 by Simon Pulse
READ April 03 to 06, 2013
SOURCE Simon & Schuster Canada for review

In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

This is the kind of review that I hate writing. I read THE PROGRAM and really really liked it. There are so many aspects of the story and happenings in the plot that I want to talk about but I just sat down to write this and saw that 90% of what I had wanted to talk about isn’t even mentioned in the blurb and would therefore be a spoiler. Going by the blurb I can only really talk in depth about the first 120 pages of the book, so here I go, watch me be vague.

In the story we have a very vivid dystopian setting painted for us. We meet Sloane who knows that even the smallest outburst of sad emotions could land her spending 6 weeks in The Program and lead to her having everyone she has ever known outside of her family being completely wiped away. She was a great MC, she was an incredibly smart girl who questioned everything around her. I also came to care about her core group of friends and her boyfriend James. James, oh James. He was everything that I look for in a book boyfriend. He was so supportive and fiercely protective of Sloane. These two knew each other inside & out and had been through hell and back together which really had me rooting for their relationship.

There is an immediate intensity to this story as we are thrown into this world and watch Sloane live day to day in hiding. The handlers are constantly around when she is at school and their lingering makes you realize that with a moments notice one of the characters could be taken away to have their memory wiped and be “cured” of their depression. While I won’t talk about this too deeply I have to point out that I really liked the explanation for what led to the suicide epidemic in this story, it is frightening in that it was something that could very well happen in our future, so kudos to Young for that. There are 3 parts to this story (which was cool, yet super weird because each part started back at page 1 & chapter 1, strange right?) All of the parts went together really well and felt as if they were stories that could have held their own apart from the novel.

What I took away from this story is a strong message about true love and how important all of the happenings (the good and the bad) in our lives are in shaping who we are. You can’t just forget all the bad crap in your life and move on because it is a part of you and you don’t really know who you are without it. A story that focusses heavily on relationships, THE PROGRAM is the kick off to a series that I am very excited for. I can’t wait to be in this world again with the characters that I came to really care about. The ending of the novel sets up for some definite excitement and the epilogue had me grinning because it was so well placed. Read this book people, this is going to be a series that you don’t want to miss.