Suzanne is the author of THE PROGRAM, THE TREATMENT, THE REMEDY, and HOTEL RUBY. She was also on an episode of House Hunters where she talked about her love of grass and trees (while living in the desert).
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In a world before The Program.
Quinlan McKee is a closer. Since the age of seven, Quinn has held the responsibility of providing closure to grieving families with a special skill she can become anyone.
Recommended by grief counselors, Quinn is hired by families to take on the short-term role of a deceased loved one between the ages of fifteen and twenty. She's not an exact copy, of course, but she wears their clothes and changes her hair, studies them through pictures and videos, and soon, Quinn can act like them, smell like them, and be them for all intents and purposes. But to do her job successfully, she can't get attached.
Now seventeen, Quinn is deft at recreating herself, sometimes confusing her own past with those of the people she's portrayed. When she's given her longest assignment, playing the role of Catalina Barnes, Quinn begins to bond with the deceased girl's boyfriend. But that's only the beginning of the complications, especially when Quinn finds out the truth about Catalina's death. And the epidemic it could start.
My rating
THE REMEDY is a prequel to Suzanne Young’s bestselling duology THE PROGRAM and THE TREATMENT. To me, THE REMEDY is more like a spin-off. It takes place in the same setting, but with different characters and a little bit of a twist to the story elements.
Story Elements
THE PROGRAM duology is a dystopian genre but in an urban setting. In the series, the government has discovered what they think is a solution to a teen suicide epidemic. This solution involves closely monitoring every teen’s behavior to see if they exhibit any signs they may be depressed. If they do, they are forced into The Program which is designed to prevent teen suicide.
THE REMEDY takes place in this same urban setting, but there is another system in place that can help people through their grief while they deal with the death of a loved one. Quinlan (protagonist) is what they call a closer. Closers are hired to act the role of a loved one that has died, and it’s the closer’s job to help the grieving family find closure.
Writing style
Suzanne Young is an extremely compelling writer. While reading her stories, I feel that her writing easily keeps me engaged in the story, and she continuously keeps the story progressing so you feel the desire to keep reading. She’s absolutely marvelous at character development; I wouldn’t be surprised if she has a degree in psychology. Suzanne is amazing at being able to connect me to each character’s first person POV, and she has me completely understanding their actions. She also does really well at building the side characters and helping me understand their actions and motivations.
Characters – Note: I wrote the majority of these character traits before I had finished THE REMEDY because I didn’t want the ending of the story to influence my opinion about a character and to avoid anything that might be spoilery.
Part of what makes this story so interesting is trying to learn Quinlan’s true character traits even while seeing from her “closer” point of view. She has played the role of other people so many times that she seems to keep losing herself in the roles she plays. My heart breaks for this character. It’s interesting how deeply she would mentally get into these roles. She even went as far as mentally putting herself in each deceased person’s role by presenting the deceased girl’s family and friends as “my sister, my brother, my mother, my father, my friend or my boyfriend.” While playing these roles, Quinlan experiences what it feels like to be loved by other people. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have anyone in her own personal life who shows they care and love for her, so she’s only getting that affection through these false roles.
Deacon is Quinlan’s ex that she is regularly on and off with. She finds him to be the one person she can be most comfortable with, but he tends to break her heart pretty frequently so they have decided to just be friends. Even though he seems a little like a DB, I actually really like the guy.
When Quinlan plays the role of Catalina, there are several new characters introduced into the story and it’s interesting to follow how these new characters react to this girl playing the role of Catalina.
Final thought
This book was flipping FANTASTIC! While reading, I was feeling extremely scared that I knew the direction this story was headed, and I didn’t like where I thought it was heading. Surprisingly, I was completely wrong! Nearing the end, something extremely insane happened, and it had me really freaked out! Then, shortly thereafter, there was a major curve ball thrown in and I was utterly shocked! I’m extremely thrilled that Suzanne Young introduced us to this freaky premise to her insane series. I loved it! This morning I checked online to see if the storyline developed from The Remedy was going to continue, but I couldn’t find anything . . . and I really hope that I get a chance to read more about what happens in that storyline!
This is a tour hosted giveaway!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
1 winner will receive a signed set of The Program, The Treatment, and The Remedy.
1 winner will receive a signed ARC of Hotel Ruby.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Week One:
4/13/2015- Once Upon a Twilight- Interview
4/14/2015- Books and Swoons- Review
4/15/2015- Fictitious Delicious- Guest Post
4/16/2015- My Reading Room- Review
4/17/2015- Fiktshun- Interview
Week Two:
4/20/2015- Me, My Shelf and I- Review
4/21/2015- Bad Bird Reads- Guest Post
4/22/2015- Novel Novice- Review
4/23/2015- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview
4/24/2015-Magical Urban Fantasy Reads-Review
4 comments:
Sounds like I found my next tbr series!!!
i love the sound of this series, have been hearing all kind of good things :D
I’ve heard so much about this series and I can’t WAIT to read it. Thanks for the great giveaway :D
Rabiah (name on Rafflecopter)
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