Book Review: THE PROGRAM #1

Title: The Program #1  

Author: Suzanne Young

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Pages: 416

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

Ever since a strange epidemic caught hold of teenagers, causing them to give in to suicidal depression, the governments of some states in the US have launched the Program. This faceless entity is always watching and aware of what young people are up to.

The mandatory six-week treatment aims to cure depressed teens by wiping them clean of all their memories, happy and sad alike.

When Sloane Barstow’s brother Brady falls sick and kills himself, she and her boyfriend James Murphy, who was also Brady’s best friend, slowly begin to give in to depression and sorrow. James promises to keep Sloane strong and safe, but the suicide of Miller, their other friend, tips him over and he seeks to kill himself. He is taken away by the Program. Now Sloane is on her own. it’s getting harder to keep a grip on herself. It’s only a matter of time before she gives in, and when that happens, the Program will come for her.

This Program, Book 1 in the series, is written in the first person present tense PoV of Sloane. The book is divided into Part I Uncomfortably Numb, Part II The Program and Part III Wish You Weren’t Here.

We don’t get a sense of what is causing this epidemic of depressive tendencies in young people. All we are told is that teenagers, but not adults, are getting sick. What is this world in which grownups are well adjusted and adult suicide is a thing of the past?

The author’s focus is not on the epidemic, or on what it means to lose one’s memories, and therefore one’s sense of identity. I would have liked the book more if it had had more about the suicides, the grief of those left behind, the grief, mourning and closure.

I didn’t like any of the characters. Sloane was uninteresting. Her only qualities are that she is pretty and good at Maths, or certainly better than James is. And the other characters don’t get much space.

Also, while I am no expert on mental illness, the past that the teens traverse while they contemplate suicide is not as singular as it is portrayed here. In this book, QuikDeath provides a quick fix. Depressive people draw endless loops of spirals in their books.

The Program follows a flawed reasoning, taking from young people their right to grieve openly.

The author’s focus is unfortunately on the romance between Sloane and James. That some things are destined to happen is the conclusion the author wants us to draw.

This book had the makings of a good dystopian novel. Had I known it was a romance, I would not have read it.

Book Review: THE IDENTICAL OPPOSITE

Title: The Identical Opposite
Author: Clay Savage
Publisher: Ocean Park Press
Pages: 274
Goodreads rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paula Hickman, chronically depressed, lives with her professor husband, Alan, in a large house. When Anthony Mills, her former boyfriend, who she hasn’t met in twenty-five years, moves into the house opposite with his wife Hannah, Paula is shocked to see that she looks exactly like her.
But no one else seems to think so. They see a vague resemblance, but nothing like what Paula believes and insists is true.
Then Hannah is found murdered on the very night that Paula is found to have attempted to slash her own wrists. Did Paula give in to jealousy and kill Hannah? The jealousy that might have led her to kill her roommate, Emily Jenkins, because she dared express an interest in Anthony. That case was deemed a suicide, but was it Paula’s doing?
The trouble is that Paula’s own memories of that night are fuzzy, and she has no idea what she might have done. She doesn’t think so, but she can’t remember anything. And it doesn’t help that her journal offers glimpses into her worst self.
How can she prove the truth when she has no idea what the truth is? And is Paula the only one to have invented a persona to hide her true self?

 

Written in the third person omniscient PoV of Paula, a most unreliable narrator. The narrative takes us on a flashback, where we meet Allyson Clements, her boyfriend, Anthony, his younger brother Darius, and Paula’s roommate, a girl called Emily Jenkins, who dies after falling off the terrace of a building.

The book introduces us to the ravages of mental illness. Paula knowingly creates personas of herself to keep herself sane. As she tells us, To be self-invented is to be human. 

It also talks about depression and the toll it takes on individuals without making it sound pitiable and pathetic.

The style of the writing is gripping and engaging. The characters are well etched. I liked Jacob Russo for his paternal solicitude towards Paula. At 81, the man lets neither age nor infirmity stand in the way of his support of Paula.

I also liked Paula, and understood the demons that tore at her heart after all that she had been through. The lawyer, Lincoln Childress, also made an impression, not only with his overall persona and dedication to the case, but also with the single anecdote relating to his personal life that makes him less of a caricature, more relatable to us.

I found myself on edge, racing through the pages in my haste to figure out what happens next. The action is plentiful and well described, and the pace just right. The conflict resolution was handled well, albeit a little too swiftly. Bonus points for the completely apt image on the cover.

There were a few mistakes though. In Chapter 31, a character, Valerie, says, Viola, when she needs to say Voila. In Chapter 1, Paula plays a game of Truth or Lie with Alan, twice in the space of a few paragraphs. Then in Chapter 13, Alan reflects that Truth or Lie was a game they played very often. It seems odd that a game that two main characters played that often is mentioned twice in the first chapter, and then forgotten. A serious continuity issue there.

Another time a character is said to have wretched, instead of retched.

The book was about the personas we create to suit our needs and how everybody does it. We learn in the book, Perceptions are often a poor reflection of reality. This is the message at the heart of this book, one that is reiterated constantly.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)