Recently, I finished reading The Program by Suzanne Young. This fiction book is 378 pages long.  Suzanne Young is the New York Times bestselling author of The Program. You can find her teaching when she’s not writing. The Program is the first book of the series.

In the novel, the nation creates a program  to prevent teens from committing suicide. The treatment involves changing the brain by removing painful memories. Sloane is the main character and her brother committed suicide. Sloane is very sad about the loss of  her brother and tries to hide it because she does not want to be flagged as someone who needs their memories erased. Unfortunately, her plan does not work. Her memory is wiped of her brother’s suicide and her entire relationship with her boyfriend James is erased as well. As they were erasing her memory Solane thought,  “THE AIR IN THE ROOM TASTES STERILE. THE LINGERING scent of bleach is mixing with the fresh white paint on the walls, and I wish my teacher would open the window to let in a breeze. But we’re on the third floor so the pane is sealed shut—just in case anyone gets the urge to jump. “ ( 234)   

 

I like the way the author included a memory moment of her brother death that took place after school near the lake they always go too. The main character Sloane is affected by that memory for all her life and also her parents. This memory moment impacts the story when her boyfriend (James) is his best friend. And throughout the book both main characters feel a lot of affection for the loss of Sloan’s brother. In the program this is one of the many memories that Sloane has.