Review: The Treatment by Suzanne Young

What: The Treatment (The Program #2) by Suzanne Young

Who: Simon Pulse

When: April 29th 2014

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Simon & Schuster Australia for review.

Can Sloane and James survive the lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end? Find out in this sequel to The Program, which Publishers Weekly called “chilling and suspenseful.”

How do you stop an epidemic?

Sloane and James are on the run after barely surviving the suicide epidemic and The Program. But they’re not out of danger. Huge pieces of their memories are still missing, and although Sloane and James have found their way back to each other, The Program isn’t ready to let them go.

Escaping with a group of troubled rebels, Sloane and James will have to figure out who they can trust, and how to take down The Program. But for as far as they’ve come, there’s still a lot Sloane and James can’t remember. The key to unlocking their past lies with the Treatment—a pill that can bring back forgotten memories, but at a high cost. And there’s only one dose.

Ultimately when the stakes are at their highest, can Sloane and James survive the many lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end?

I have a few mixed feelings about The Treatment, but overall I liked it.

The biggest change from The Program is that Sloane and James are now out of The Program and on the run. They meet up with two rebels, Cas and Dallas. I immediately liked Cas and disliked Dallas, even though she was kinda awesome. But she was moving in on my man, I mean Sloane’s man James and I was hissing at her every time she made some comment about him.

Dallas was a really interesting character, and by the end I adored her. She’d gone through so much crap, and stayed strong through it all. She had her moments of weakness, but I think that made me like her even more, because it made her human.

Cas was hot. Not gonna lie. And all I could think of was Castiel from Supernatural, so that was a huge bonus. I kinda shipped Cas and Dallas, even though they said they were just best friends. But I am all for that, too. Not every boy-girl interaction needs romance for it to be amazing.

The love triangle between Sloane, James, and Realm became a true love triangle in The Treatment. And I didn’t mind. I think Young handled the fact that, whilst Sloane loves James more than life itself, she also has feelings for Realm. And it’s understandable. Realm was with her through The Program and he is, essentially, her safe place.

And even more realistic is the fact that when Sloane finds out (for the second time) that Realm was a planted patient in The Program, she insists she hates him even though she knows she doesn’t. We can’t stop loving someone even though they do us wrong. I loved that aspect of this book. The way Young handles the relationships and emotions that each character has for the other is impeccable and completely believable.

Even so, I’m sitting here wondering exactly why this is a three star and not a four star review, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I know I was disappointed in the ending, as I felt it was too rushed. We’re given a ‘six months later’ kind of ending and I was left wanting to know everything that happened in between. I wanted details and I wasn’t given any.

And I also kinda wanted Sloane to forgive Realm a little more. I mean she loves him but in the end she’s still not talking to him. I get it. I do. He hurt her terribly by lying to her. But he also saved her ass a thousand times. Can’t she at least be civil to him? I don’t know – I think I have a huge soft spot for our emotional manipulator Realm. What can I say?

All in all, I certainly liked The Treatment, and it kept me reading and reading from page one, and left me happy with the series overall.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.