REVIEW: The Treatment by Suzanne Young

Can Sloane and James survive the lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end? Find out in this sequel to The Program, which Publishers Weekly called “chilling and suspenseful.”

How do you stop an epidemic?

Sloane and James are on the run after barely surviving the suicide epidemic and The Program. But they’re not out of danger. Huge pieces of their memories are still missing, and although Sloane and James have found their way back to each other, The Program isn’t ready to let them go.

Escaping with a group of troubled rebels, Sloane and James will have to figure out who they can trust, and how to take down The Program. But for as far as they’ve come, there’s still a lot Sloane and James can’t remember. The key to unlocking their past lies with the Treatment—a pill that can bring back forgotten memories, but at a high cost. And there’s only one dose.

Ultimately when the stakes are at their highest, can Sloane and James survive the many lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end?

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NOTE: This is the second book in a series and will have spoilers for book one. Look here for my review of book one.

MY THOUGHTS
I didn't think this book was as strong as The Program, but it was still a great continuation to the series (and a great conclusion to this portion of the series).

Sloane and James have run away from their families and The Program, but there has been an Amber Alert made for them. If they're caught they will be returned to The Program and their minds won't survive another mind wipe. With the help of Realm, they join a group of rebels who are small in number but desperate to keep their memories. Sloane and James are still struggling with their own memories, trying to get back into a relationship that neither can remember. Except Sloane keeps getting flashing of memory back and there's a small pill given to her by Realm that will bring back all of her memories. But is it really worth the risk to remember everything?

It took me a little bit to get into this book. This book has a slow pace in the beginning and this book starts out in the typical rebellion plot of dystopian books. This made me a bit disinterested as one of my favorite things about The Program was how it took the typical genre of dystopian and stayed away from the usual tropes. It discussed tough topics in a realistic manner, asked important questions, and had a mental battle rather than physical. This book started with a rebellion which at this point I find cliche for dystopian books. Now, as the book progressed, it did stray from the rebellion aspect and become more of the story of inner reliance that I expected. While Sloane is away from The Program, she does not remember everything about her life and she is trying to decide whether she would rather live without her memories or try to bring them back. The risks also grow throughout the book. The Program in the first book was terrifying, but now characters are at risk of losing their entire selves. We also learned more about how The Program started and while the characters fight to take down The Program, it was more of a battle of using the media and the law to expose the truths of The Program to society, rather than an outright war.

The relationship between Sloane and James becomes strained in this book. This makes sense as they are still struggling with their memories and really, not everything is going to be rainbows and unicorns. What frustrated me was that this book tried to have a love triangle (which I don't like in the first place). I say tried because it's clear that Sloane only really has feelings for James but she has this confusing relationship with Realm and James thinks Sloane has strong feelings for Realm. It was just unnecessary drama. Part of it just didn't make sense because it is never really clear why Realm has this attraction for Sloane. Realm could be an interesting character and we learn a lot more about him in this book, but why out of all the girls he wants to pursue Sloane (a girl who already has a boyfriend). Nothing wrong with Sloane, it's just that from the end of The Program it is clear that Realm has helped other girls while working for The Program. It just made Realm out to be obsessive. 

IN CONCLUSION

Overall, it was a slow start but the ideas in this book are still very fascinating and unique to the genre. I was surprised to see everything tied up at the end of this book because there are still four more books, but I guess the other books focus on other characters, so this is the last of Sloane and James. I do look forward to reading the next books.

I hereby give this book

4 Stars!

Meaning: I really liked this book!