Book 1 in The Program series
AUTHOR: Suzanne Young
PUBLISHED: April 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Dystopianish
PREMISE: Teen suicide has become an epidemic and the only hope for teens is The Program, where teens get sent to and come back completely different...
MY REVIEW: Like most dystopians lately, The Program was a good idea on paper. In actual execution...it was sort of a mess. This is the first Young book I've read, because honestly I had no real interest in reading her stuff beforehand. This was the first one of hers that sounded like something I could get into. But it just didn't click with me.
This is one of those dystopians you need to read with your brain off. Because if you read it while analyzing it, you'll be bothered constantly by the whys and the hows and the what the hell is this things that are never properly explained. Sometimes dystopians like this can work. In Delirium for instance, we know logically that love being declared a disease will never happen in a million years. But Oliver took that what if and made it a reality by thinking the world through and making it a scary reality. In this one, Young never really bothers to explain things like how on earth teen suicide becomes an "epidemic" (never mind how problematic that whole idea is, considering teen suicide is a real legit issue). If Young had took the time to go into details and give me background, etc. I maybe could have gotten into this more. But no, apparently I'm supposed to care about Sloane and her love troubles instead.
Except the problem is, Sloane? Kind of boring. Her love interest? Also dull. Her second love interest? A douche. I've gone over how tired I am of love triangles so I'll spare you that. I'll also spare you how annoying I find it when instead of focusing on the dystopian things in a dystopian book, authors focus on romantic drama instead because you've heard it all from me before.
But here's the thing: this is me. As a actual story...I guess it works. In a way. I imagine that the same way people managed to get into the Chemical Garden Trilogy people can get into this. Unfortunately for the author if I can't get past your dystopian scenario, then I'm likely not to enjoy your dystopian, no matter how romantic you make it. So I rec this for romance fans who don't read many dystopians. Dystopian fans....I'd go elsewhere.
WHO SHOULD READ: Chemical Garden Trilogy Fans, Eve Trilogy fans, dystopian fans more forgiving of sloppy world building, romance fans who read the occasional dystopian
MY RATING: Three out of Five pills
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