The Program

Title: The Program (The Program #1)

Author: Suzanne Young

Genre: YA/Romance/Dystopia

Release Date: April 30, 2013

My Rating:
♥♥♥♥♥

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.

~ Goodreads

Holy cow!  The Program completely blew my socks off into another galaxy!  I had very high expectations for The Program partly because I loved Young's first book, A Need So Beautiful.  Oh my gosh, guys, The Program is eons ahead of A Need So Beautiful.  So.  Much.  Better.  If that's even possible...

Sloane lives in a controlled world, a world where The Program monitors all teenagers from 14 to 17 to check for any signs of them having caught the worldwide epidemic - suicide.  The only person she can confide in without worrying about being turned in is her boyfriend, James.  Death seems to surround James and Sloane, slowly unraveling their grips until they can't take it anymore.  Turmoil and dread become stronger and stronger in their mind's.  And The Program knows.

The Program is emotionally riveting, while also keeping up a steady love story of two teenagers battling the world to keep their lives intact.  I definitely fell hard for James; he's smooth, sweet, gentle, and gorgeous.  Blue eyes are all it takes to turn him into a total hottie.  Oh, and a nice body ;)
Sloane was a fascinating - and slightly aggravating - main character.  At times, I liked her, and other times, I couldn't stand her (SPOILER?) *cough Realm cough*  I sort of wanted to slap him... like, not really hard, but enough to knock some sense into his impossibly stubborn brain.

The Program.  Oh my gosh, I felt a compelling need to knock over glasses every time I read a scene with it involved.  It's so incredibly controlling and I totally felt for Sloane and James when they were forced to go through The Program.  The pills.  The therapy.  The Wellness Center.  It was all so convoluted and wrong and sick.  I understand that they were trying to help teenagers thinking about committing suicide, but that is not how you deal with it.  Haha, I love how I'm getting so worked up over a fictional program.  But the fact that The Program elicited all of these intense emotions from me just shows how good of a book it is!  Seriously, throughout the entire book I was alternating between maddeningly incensed and blissfulness.
So this basically sums up the unstable emotions I experienced while reading The Program...

The romance in The Program is so sweet!  I've noticed that Young has written all of her books so that they start out with an already established relationship.  Personally, I'm not a fan of it and I prefer for the romance to develop as I get farther into the book.  Although, the established relationship worked in The Program, whereas it was bland in A Need So Beautiful.  James and Sloane are the perfect couple, and when The Program threatened their relationship, they did everything in their to keep seeing each other, which was admirable!  I loved the fact that they were so incredibly devoted to each other that they wouldn't let anyone - or anything - keep them apart.

Just a Blathering Note: I feel like the whole 'suicide epidemic' is pretty relevant to society today, so I think it's important for teenagers to read this book.  I mean, really, our government is already very far gone over the edge, and it wouldn't surprise me if they thought up something similar to the Program.

Teenagers: Read The Program!  It's accurate to society today, plus it's a wonderfully awesome book!

Overall, I'm giving The Program a 5/5 because it was one intense ride!