Suzanne Young
Page 405
I have two debate students who have been telling me to read this book for the past two years. One of them even decided to cut the book to perform for a prose competition. I originally chose to read this book for the category, A Romance Set in the Future, but plans changed. Haha. For a few months I have been searching for A Book and its Prequel that I would enjoy reading for this challenge, when FINALLY I found The Program and its prequel The Remedy. I was seriously halfway through The Program when I discovered this. So, I decided this would be “A Book,” its sequel, The Treatment will be A Romance Set in the Future, and The Remedy will be “The Prequel.” I know, it’s kind of confusing, but it all works itself out.
The Program tells the story of Slone and her boyfriend, James. They live in a world where 1 in 3 teenagers commits suicide. This “epidemic” is unexplained (although childhood vaccines have been suggested) and surprisingly the suicide rate in adults hasn’t increased. The answer to this epidemic is The Program. The Program (capital T, capital P) was designed to “cure” these teenagers of the depression that leads to their suicides. Sounds reasonable enough. However, Slone, James, and their friend, Miller know the truth. They realize that once you return you are a mere shell of what you used to be.
Kind of a spoiler alert, but even though they fight to stay out of it, Slone and James both find themselves as part of The Program. James goes first and completes his six weeks before Slone is even sent. While Slone is part of The Program, we finally get a glimpse into what goes on behind the walls of this super-secret program, and it isn’t pretty. Slone discovers that The Program slowly erases their memories through the use of pills (or injections) that target and latch onto the memories and then are removed later. She is also plagued by Roger, the handler who offers to trade sexual favors in exchange for memories. If it weren't for Realm, she wouldn't have survived her time in The Program.
As she fights to maintain her memories and get back to the life she doesn’t remember, Slone is forced to face the harsh reality that she has lost the person she was. Nothing will ever be the same as it was before The Program which leaves Slone feeling empty inside. The worst part (in my opinion) is that she is empty and has these helpless emotions, but with no memories to explain why she is experiencing these feelings.
While I don’t love that this is a love story (honestly, I’m growing a little tired of these dystopian novels being about love), I do like that this puts a new spin on things. It’s funny because I found myself ALMOST trying to justify what The Program does. I mean, I definitely don’t like the idea of having our memories erased and being returned as empty shells – but they are trying to save lives. I don’t like how they are doing it, but something has to be done. In my life, I have had two students and one friend commit suicide. It was tough every time. I currently have about 160 students and if one in three of them committed suicide, I don’t know how I would handle it. I'd probably demand that something be done. But what?
I have already started reading the sequel, The Treatment, so I will let you know how that goes.
3 Stars