The Program Book Review

Title: The Program
Author: Suzanne Young
Series: The Program #1
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Bookshelves on Goodreads: books-i-own, dystopia, have-high-hopes-for, mental-illness, my-emotions-i-cannot, romance

  “I think that sometimes the only real thing is now.”

The Program was beautiful, heartbreaking, and scary. Really if you think about it, the whole concept of this book is scary as hell. What is suicide was contagious? What if you did have to hide your feelings? What if you could get sent to the mental ward just for crying or having a bad day? As a person who has had depression and anxiety her whole life, it is just a concept that seems to freighting and possible.

The concept of this book is that more and more teens are getting depressed and commiting suicide. The suicide rate is at an all time high and the Program has stepped in. If they find you depressed or even upset, they will send you to the Program. They drug you into not remembering your life and the people you love most. Then you get sent back into the real world and everything is blank.

This is Sloane's world. She lost her brother to suicide. The only reason she got through it was because of James, she brother's best friend and her boyfriend. Then their friend Miller dies and they both got depression and try to hide it so they don't go into the Program. But the Program is coming for them.

So I loved a lot about this book. I really liked how emotional it was and how real it seemed. I liked Sloane and felt for her situation. But while I liked James, I couldn't really love his character as much as I wanted to. But I didn't like the concept of the program or how close it hit to home. It was almost too emotional in the fact that reading it just made me upset. But overall I enjoyed it and can't wait to read The Treatment!