The Program- Suzanne Young
Liam Grade 10
I will rate this book 5/5 as being one of my favourite books of all time. It is very realistic to the premises suggested and provides interesting ideas to stimulate thinking.
In the program, there is a new epidemic spreading, an epidemic of suicides in the ages of 13-18. An up-and-coming treatment to this “disease”, the program, seems to be the knight in shining armour for teenagers struggling with this infection. The program is popular with adults of all kinds because it erases the “contaminated” memories in their child’s head, leaving them unable to recollect a few memories while keeping the rest of their mind intact. It also uses people, called handlers, set in place to monitor suspected cases. This causes mass panic to all the affected people, making them fearful of anyone and everyone. Sloane Barstowe, a 17-year-old girl almost out of the reach of the program seems to be handling the epidemic well, especially because her brother succumbed to it not long before. She has friends, even a boyfriend, and is kept together nicely until a domino affect occurs. A friend back from the program, increased suicides, and handlers watching her create an unstoppable chain of events which may lead to the downfall of her past.
I enjoyed this book because it causes you to think about certain issues that you would not think of otherwise. Some of these are without memories, are you really you? Is there a difference between the suicide epidemic and the program? And is our society misunderstanding our youth to the extent of total isolation between age groups? I also really enjoyed this book because the writing makes it seem that you are one of the characters in the book, just looking in on your own story. I would really recommend to someone 13+ who is interested in dystopia-type books. A similar book to the program is Delirium by Lauren Oliver.