Suzanne Young’s book The Program touches all of the reader's emotions. When reading this book tears of sadness and joy will run down faces of the reader. Sloane is torn between her best friend's suicide and her boyfriend, James. If she cries she will be taken into the program, but if she doesn't help her boyfriend he will. Eventually, everything falls apart and her own Mother calls the handlers on her and takes Sloane into the program.
The Program is basically a hospital that takes people who are depressed and erases memories that are involved with the depression. The program is imperative because depression is growing in the United States. Sloane is in high school when she and her boyfriend get taken into the program shortly after her best friend commits suicide. In the program, she is watched constantly by handlers and takes pills every couple of hours. Good thing she has Realm to keep her company, right?
What is really riveting is that even though James and Sloane lost all of their memories of each other, they somehow find each other and fall in love again. Realm, on the other hand, is in love with Sloane but she doesn’t feel the same way. Little does she know that he is involved with the program. These are very poignant feelings that occur during the late night drives and conversations that occur very often. This love triangle always makes things interesting and keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
The audience knows many crucial parts that the protagonist doesn’t. For example, Sloane finds out that Realm is a part of the program. Eventually, the program erases that memory but the audience still remembers every part of the conversation. Along with that, plot twists are a huge portion of this novel. An example of this is when Sloane is having a conversation with Liam, apparently her old boyfriend, and he admits that he took QuikDeath shortly before. He died right in front of her.
This book is a great story for people who likes romance, adventure, suspense and other types of emotional aspects. Teens will create a connection with all of the characters, even if they will abhor some. This is recommended for more mature teens because of some of the language.