Review: The Program by Suzanne Young

The Program

Author: Suzanne Young
Series: The Program, Book One
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre: YA Dystopian
Format: Hardcover, 408 pages
Release Date: April 30, 2012
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

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 Review:

This story was absolutely heartbreaking. I cried multiple times reading this imagining myself in the characters’ situations. Teen suicide has become an epidemic and the government has come up with a cure: The Program. If you get taken by The Program, you come back a different person, an empty shell of who you once were since they wipe all memories associated with the “disease”. This wasn’t very realistic to me especially with depression medications today. This is supposed to be a futuristic society and I just don’t feel as if erasing memories will make the depression go away. In many cases, depression is linked to a chemical imbalance in the brain, so simply deleting memories that may have caused the depression to worsen, or triggered the depression, in my opinion, isn’t going to help. In addition, so many teens are terrified of getting taken and losing their memories that they hide their feelings, bottling up their emotions, which really is just making the problem worse. Regardless, I still really enjoyed this book because it wasn’t really about depression. It was about love and hope.

Our main character Sloane has had a rough few years. Her brother committed suicide and instead of being able to grieve for him, she was forced to hide her feelings. Her boyfriend, James, is the rock in her life. He promises to protect her and keep them both safe from The Program. But when tragedy strikes again, they both begin to struggle to hide the grief that threatens to overtake them. I thought that the first part of this book was a little slow. We get a lot of background and just the usual, every day stuff such as going to school, hanging out by the river, etc. This goes on for about 120 pages and I found myself wondering when they were going to be taken, if ever. But as I read more into the book, I understood why the first section had to be so long and drawn out. It is vital to understand the dynamic of Sloane and James’s relationship.

Inevitably, The Program comes for them and takes them away. Sloane is struggling to hold onto her memories, petrified of losing James. The love story that Suzanne Young has told is beautiful and heart-wrenching. I kept picturing myself in their situation, being torn apart and forced to forget that you ever knew the person that you loved more than anything else. Suzanne Young poses the question for us: If the mind is forced to forget, will the heart remember? I wonder if that is true and I hope that it is.

James is kind of a dick. He’s very hot and cold with Sloane from the start, not just after they have had their memories wiped. Suzanne Young contributes this to the fact that he has abandonment issues, but it bothered me that Sloane just kept putting up with his bullshit. He’s angry and hostile at times and at one point even hits Sloane. After this happens, she never addresses it with him and he never apologizes. She just accepts it and moves on. I thought that this weakened Sloane’s character and painted James in a really dark light. I understand that he was going through a tragedy at the time that it happened, but to me there is never an excuse for that kind of behavior. Regardless, I found myself drawn to James. He is a strong character who has only one goal: protect the ones he loves. I think he expects too much out of himself though and that this will ultimately be his downfall.

I really enjoyed Realm’s character, a boy that Sloane meets in The Program. He was kind to her and seemed to genuinely want to help her throughout the process. However, there are parts of him that I dislike, something that just doesn’t quite sit well with me. I can’t seem to figure his character out. I feel as though I shouldn’t like him, but I do.

One thing I really liked about this book was that there are sex scenes between Sloane and James. Nothing in detail, but I feel it is rare for characters in YA books to actually have sex. Which is disappointing, because in reality, the fact of the matter is, teens are having sex. So why wouldn’t they in a book? I’ve never understood that.  

Really quickly, let’s talk about the cover which I loved. In the picture you see Sloane and my guess is Realm (if it’s James, it makes no sense since they were not in The Program together) in their Program-issued scrubs with their backs to us. But what I really love is when you take the jacket off, there is a picture of them facing us on the actual cover of the book. And on the back of the jacket, we see the eerie pills that they are forced to take.

Overall, I thought the concept of this book was interesting even though it wasn’t entirely realistic for me. The love story is what made me enjoy this book and I was very pleased with the way it ended. I do feel as if this book would have been wonderful as a standalone, as I feel like the subsequent books in the series are going to be fairly predictable, but it is a series and I liked it enough to want to pick up the next book and see how Sloane and James’s relationship evolves. If you’re a fan of Delirium by Lauren Oliver then you will love this book. The second one, The Treatment, is expected to be released April 29, 2014. Happy reading all!