Review: The Remedy (The Program #0.5) by Suzanne Young

Book Title: The Remedy

Author: Suzanne Young

Published Date: April 21st, 2015

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Genre: YA/Dystopian

Series: Prequel from The Program duology

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book from Simon Pulse via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review:

Oh my goodness, how much do I love this series?

I read The Program and The Treatment awhile back and reviewed them here & here. When I heard Suzanne Young was writing prequels to this duology I was majorly excited. I had loved The Program and The Treatment and couldn't wait to get back into the world.

Then I read the synopsis of this book ans was even more intrigued. The idea behind being a closer like Quinn was, was heartbreaking and soul crushing. Grieving families would hire her to be the person who died and she would help them get closure. I suspected there would be lots of feels in this book. In fact, I had kleenex beside me so I'd be prepared.

But for some reason I didn't feel the feels. I didn't cry or even get emotional at all. It took me awhile to even get into the book. I considered DNFing it because I just wasn't feeling invested in it or the characters. But because it was Suzanne Young and I loved this series, I kept reading and kept hoping that I would fall in love with this book.

A little past the halfway mark, it began to pick up and as it began to pick up, I got more invested in Quinn, Declan, Aaron and the other characters. I'm still not exactly sure what caused the shift. Maybe it was my mood prior to Friday night, I'm not sure. All I know is that in a span of 135 pages, my final rating of this book went up significantly.

Like The Program and The Treatment, this book was very character heavy and I generally love character heavy books. I like knowing what makes them who they are, how they got to where they are and what makes them tick. We got a decent chunk of those questions answered, but I was left with more questions. Usually I'd consider that a negative, but in this case, I was okay with it.

Yes there was a twist at the end of the book and it was a twist that absolutely shocked me. For a minute or two I thought it had broken my brain (nope, not kidding about that) It was a twist I never saw coming so I was excited. I love being shocked by a twist. It makes me happy. I am giving it 4 stars because the ending was awesome and it made me really excited for the next book, The Epidemic.