Monday, July 1, 2019

REVIEW: The Program by Suzanne Young



The Program (The Program, #1)
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.








MY THOUGHTS
I recently reread this book so that I could finish the series and this was just as good the first time I read it!

When suicide is announced as an epidemic, a disease, in teens, The Program is implemented in select schools. The Program has a 100% success rate of curing teens, but at a cost. Sloane is well aware of The Program as well as the suicide epidemic. She has known people who have committed suicide, her brother one of them, but she can never show signs of sadness lest she be "flagged" and taken to The Program. The Program does more than cure teens, they erase their memories for any sign of the contagion. Sloane tries to stay strong and her boyfriend James, who was her brother's best friend, helps her stay afloat, but when he succumbs to Depression, can she keep them both up?

I admit I was worried that I would not like this book the second go-round because this is a dystopian book and I'm a bit tired of dystopians now. While this book is technically dystopian, it does not fall into the tired tropes that made me sick of reading dystopian books. It takes place in the near future, very similar to our own, and it takes very real aspects of our world and worsens the scenario. Not only that, it shows the real human emotion behind it. This is what a dystopian book should show, not just trying to piggyback on the popularity of The Hunger Games. This book asks legitimate questions about memory, like how much of our memories make up our personality. And throughout this whole book, it questions whether suicide is really an epidemic or if The Program makes things worse. Many teens in this book commit suicide when they know they are about to be sent to The Program. The big thing too that makes this so different from the typical dystopian is that this is not a battle using weapons to gain freedom, but an inner battle to have the right to your own memories and actions. You also get a divide between the adults and the teens because the adults see the research and the success rate but they don't see the mental damage The Program causes. It's hard at times because to us, the reader, it is clear that this is wrong and why are these adults unable to have empathy for these teens? Why don't they step back and imagine what it would be like to lose their memories of childhood? Taking away bad memories is also erasing the good.

This book had such a realness to it. Despite the book having science fiction elements, this book has a lot of contemporary elements. It is in the very near future with The Program (and the science behind it) the only real difference between our world and theirs. A lot of the book is made up of Sloane thinking back to memories of James or her brother. The flow between the memories and the present worked wonderfully for the book, even if it carried sadness. It also made some scenes even more difficult to read because we remember moments that Sloane does not. One of the things that also bothers me about YA books at times is that when we call for strong female characters we always seem to forget that a strong female character does not just mean physical strength. Sloane has to be mentally strong in this book, as well as strong in spirit. She doesn't always succeed, but she is in such a difficult situation. Even before things progressed in the story, Sloane felt like she had so much weight on her shoulders. She can't even properly grieve for her brother because being sad can have her sent to The Program. She simply has to pretend and try to support others around her to make sure they don't break. That takes a lot of strength.

I also want to talk about the romance. It is really difficult for me to like romance in books. It is so easy to get wrong or for it to bog down the story. There is romance in this book but it felt realistic. There is still a sense of the couple wanting to be together forever, but it is shown more in a way that they want to support each other. I loved that it was depicted as a more realistic relationship rather than overdramatic and while Sloane is oftentimes thinking of James, it still does not bog down the story (and it also makes sense for the situation).

IN CONCLUSION
I'm also incredibly impressed with this book because, before reading this book, my only experience with Suzanne Young's books was the A Need So Beautiful series. While it had a unique idea, I was not the biggest fan of that book because it used romantic cliches. Now, it's clear that Suzanne Young has really grown as a writer and is tackling more difficult subject matter. Overall, this is a fantastic book and I'm glad that I'm diving into this series! I definitely plan on finishing the rest of the series this time!


I hereby give this book
5 Stars!
Meaning: A new favorite!

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