Review: The Program

Title: The Program
Author: Suzanne Young
Series: The Program [1]
Rating: 3/5

Summary:

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

Review:

Okay, I have A LOT to say about this book.  First, it's taken me about two months to actually read it because I just couldn't get into it.  Even when I finally got to working through it I almost put it down or chucked across the room several times.

The concept of a suicide epidemic, a ban on anti-depressants, and forcible commitment to essentially an asylum where they wipe you clean, terrifies me!  Mostly because I have been in the psychiatric system most of my life (not committed at any point, no).  But it scared me with the medication thing.  Nonetheless I continued to read.

The book is split into three sections that are basically: before the program, during the program, and after the program.  All from Sloane's POV.

On characters:

Sloane - Strong, mind of her own, won't take it all laying down, love it.  After the program... I don't like her as much.

James - Total mixed feelings.  I like the bad boy/sweet guy image that seems to mesh, but again after the program, don't like him.  Actually kind of hate him after that.

Realm - Hated him when we found out the secret, but then didn't hate him, then hated him again, and by the epilogue I was so confused I have no idea how I feel about him...

Miller - Liked him

Lacey - Liked her too

Sloane's parents:  HATE HER MOTHER, but at the same time understand.  I like her father though, and I have a feeling we won't see much of them after this first book, which kinda sucks.

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So like I said at the start, I liked and hated this book all at the same time, so that makes me give it a middle of the road rating.  I'll probably keep reading the series when the next one comes out, but I don't know, it pissed me off (especially the epilogue)!  Speaking of which, how the heck do you put an epilogue onto the first book of a series?  It felt more like a sneak peak.

No idea who to recommend this too...

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 10 + Author Profile: Nicholas Sparks

Day 10!

How do you choose what book to read next?

Mmm, unless there's one that I want to read desperately, it's whatever has to be returned to the library next.  I do tend to go in streaks of what I like to read though, so I'll read like three or four books of the same genre and then switch genres for another three or four books.

There's really no science to it for me.  I just read what I want (and what is due next because I get almost all my reading from the library).


Since this answer was really short, I shall add an author profile:

Nicholas Sparks

I know a lot of people say that his books don't have substance, but I LOVE him.  And met him when he came to my area last year!

Biography:

Sparks lives in North Carolina with his family. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually. Along with his wife, he founded The Epiphany School in New Bern, North Carolina. As a former full scholarship athlete (he still holds a track and field record at the University of Notre Dame) he also spent four years coaching track and field athletes at the local public high school. In 2009, the team he coached at New Bern High School set a World Junior Indoor Record in the 4 x400 meter, in New York. The record still stands. (excerpt from nicholassparks.com).

Favorite Book:

The Rescue 

Summary:

When confronted by raging fires or deadly accidents, volunteer fireman Taylor McAden feels compelled to take terrifying risks to save lives. But there is one leap of faith Taylor can't bring himself to make: he can't fall in love. For all his adult years, Taylor has sought out women who need to be rescued, women he leaves as soon as their crisis is over and the relationship starts to become truly intimate. 

When a raging storm hits his small Southern town, single mother Denise Holton’s car skids off the road. The young mom is with her four-year-old son Kyle, a boy with severe learning disabilities and for whom she has sacrificed everything. Taylor McAden finds her unconscious and bleeding, but does not find Kyle. When Denise wakes, the chilling truth becomes clear to both of them: Kyle is gone. During the search for Kyle, the connection between Taylor and Denise takes root. Taylor doesn't know that this rescue will be different from all the others, demanding far more than raw physical courage. It will lead him to the possibility of his own rescue from a life lived without love and will require him to open doors to his past that were slammed shut by pain. 

This rescue will dare him to live life to the fullest by daring to love.

I hope this book is NEVER made into a movie (I think it would ruin it for me).

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 9

Day 9!

Hey look, I'm back! Haha.

Why do you blog about books?

At first I did it to get my opinion out there and measured how much people cared about my opinion in page views.  Now I do it more for myself.  I still am interested in whether people agree with what I say, and I like the thought that I could influence someone to read a book I liked.  However, I like just expressing something about my love for books.

I'm pretty much the only person in my family who reads (and a lot of my friends don't either), so I don't really have anyone to talk to about books and what I liked about them.  Since I can't have that I turned to the internet to express my thoughts on the stories I read.

It also gives me a chance to write something other than legal opinions (as I am a law student).  It gives me a slightly creative outlet as I barely write fiction anymore (which I used to do a lot).

So there, I do it for me, not you guys.  But I think that's a good thing because it makes me care more about what I'm putting out into cyberspace and the page views are just a very ego-boosting extra.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 8

Day 8!

Sorry I missed a few days!  I've been so busy and only did so many blog posts ahead of time (they ran out with the last one).  So here's day 8, even though it hasn't been done in an actual 15 day time span.

Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!

1. Not too cluttered.  Like have things going on, but not so much that I don't know where to look first.
2. Colorfulness!  I love colors when used wisely (i.e. I like dark blogs that have splashes of color where it matters, and bright happy things).
3. Actual substance to posts.
4. If it's an opinion blog, then an actual well-thought-out opinion (not just a rant).
5. Posts that aren't over 1,000 or more words long.
6. A title that makes sense to the post (actually tells you what you're blogging about).
7. A catchy/insightful name/tagline.
8. Ummm... I'm running out of things (I'm really not that picky).  How about something I actually like! I won't read the blog if it's about something I don't know about (obviously).
9. Easy navigation.
10. Something about the author is always nice (like a side bar, or little page, just something to let us know who you are and make things more interesting).
11. Useful tags (if they're not useful, don't bother putting them in there I think).
12. More than one kind of media (not all words, have some pictures or media in there to break it up).
13. Update at least semi-regularly (I'm not exactly a poster child for that).
14. No ranting.
15. Have a heart to it!  If you don't like what you're blogging about and don't put in any effort then what's the point?

Tune in hopefully tomorrow to read for day 9!