The Program

Author: Suzanne Young
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: April 19th 2016
Format: Hardcover

Can one girl help others find closure by slipping into the identities of their loved ones? Find out in this riveting sequel to The Remedy and companion to the New York Times bestselling The Treatment and The Program. In a world before The Program…Quinlan McKee has spent her life acting as other people. She was a closer—a person hired to play the role of the recently deceased in order to give their families closure. Through this process, Quinn learned to read people and situations, even losing a bit of herself to do so. But she couldn’t have guessed how her last case would bring down her entire world. The only person Quinn trusts is Deacon, her best friend and the love of her life. Except Deacon’s been keeping secrets of his one, so Quinn must set out alone to find Arthur Pritchard, the doctor who’s been trying to control her life. The journey brings Quinn to Arthur’s daughter, Virginia, who tells Quinn the truth about Pritchard’s motives. The former closer will start to see that she is the first step in fighting an epidemic. But Quinlan doesn’t want to be a cure. And with all the lies surrounding her, she realizes she has no one left to rely on but herself—even if she doesn’t know who that is anymore.

The Program series has always been one of my favorites and I was pretty excited for the release of The Epidemic because there was so much information in this book that I was dying to get to learn and read about. Well, I am happy to say that The Epidemic was another fabulous read by Suzanne Young. It was great to be back in the dark dystopian world The Epidemic takes place in and it was nice to be able to pick it up and just get right back into the world and characters after being away from this series for so long. I got to know more about the world the series takes place in and just get answers to the questions I had upon finishing The Treatment. If you're looking for a unique, darker, dystopian read, definitely pick up The Program series because it's so addicting and a great read.

One thing I want to talk about with the whole Program series in general is how dark it is. It's definitely not a type of light-hearted, funny read. Haha, no. The society itself is plagued with suicide and depression, which gives a really well, depressed vibe to the book. Each time I finish these books, I always need to take a step back because woah, so many messed up things happens in these books and there are so many twists and turns as well. It's definitely the kind of series that you picture always having a grey sky, the sun never shines (for some reason).

The Epidemic was another great Program book featuring the dark feeling, twists and turns, all the sha-bang is in there. It picks up right after the ending of The Remedy and (surprise!) The Remedy had ended on some kind of a cliffhanger so it was so great to start up The Epidemic and see how Quinlan deals with her new situation. As the book progresses, we meet new characters, read about what happens to them, get surprised by more twists and turns, and learn more about how The Program was first developed.

One of the great things about Quinlan's story is that it is totally relavent to how The Program began and that has been one of my biggest curiosities ever since finishing The Program. It was so great to finish reading about Quinlan's story and finally know, how suicide became such a huge epidemic.

I think one of the reasons why I love Suzanne's books so much is because she has great ideas for plot twists or things that happen in the book that make you drop your jaw and want to keep reading. That's one of the things I love about reading her books, is just to see what kind of things will happen in the that will just completely take me by surprise. Also, the world her books take place in has always such a high risk of being dragged into The Program so characters very much go into extreme measures to avoid being taken to The Program.

But yeah, that was The Epidemic. Like I said, anyone who enjoys darker dystopians definitely should try out The Program as it is a very addicting series with such fabulous characters.
Reed committing suicide was so sad oh my lord. I totally did not expect it but I guess that was just how much Virginia's situation was affecting him? In the short time that I spent with Reed, I really liked his character so his death was actually kind of surprising. But, that just gave me more of an idea of truly how Virginia was such a big influence on the suicide epidemic. Obviously, the whole thing is a domino effect kind of thing (one person commits suicide, then another and another...) but Virgina definitely had a part to play in the whole epidemic.

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